Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-21
TO BURY TOLSTOY
WITHOUT RITES OF
ORTHODOX CHURCH
Police Modified to Prevent
Demonstrations at Funeral of
Exc0mmunicated Count.
PEASANTS PAY LAST
TRIBUTE TO FRIEND
Countess Spends Dreary Day,
Covering Face of Her Dead
Husband With Kisses.

AsTAPOvA, Russia, Nov 21.--The
funeral of Count Tolstoy will take
place tomorrow and the police have
been modified to prevent public
TelegraphIc instructions from the
church have been received by the
bishops, informing them that requiems
were not permissible. Burial according
to the rites of the Orthodox Church is
considered out of the question, the
metropolitans and chief procurator Of
the Holy Synod having decided to leave
things as they are with respect TO the
excommunication of Tolstoy.
A special train bearing the body of
Count Leo Tolstoy to Yasnaya Poliana.
the family estate In the government
of Tula. left here at s:o5 O'Clock this
afternoon.
The countess and the other members
of the family and intimates who were
here when the author died yesterday
accompanied the body and the news
paper correspondents were also accom-
modated on the train.
A halt for the night win be made at
the railway junction at Gorbatchevo,
and the train Is due at Zaseika, the
station near Yesnaya Polian, early
tomorrow forenoon. The distance from
the depot to the Tolstoy home is not
great. and the casket. according to
Russian custom, probably will be borne
to the house on the shoulders of the
mourners.
Death Mask Taken.
Since early morning the countess had
sat in the station masters hut, where
her husband died. with her head bowed
upon the casket and weeping. She ap-
peared not to notice the defile of peas
ants admitted to the death chamber
and quilted her position only when M.
Gunzberg, the sculptor, came to take
a death mask. Leonid o. Pasternak,
the portrait painter, sketched the
scene. This was as simple as Tolstoy
could have wished. The body reposed
in a plain oak coffin. at the foot of
which few wreaths of fir, emblematic
of Immortality, had been placed. The
platform of the. railway station was
covered with fir boughs spread by the
peasants of the neighborhood.
The station-master has consented to
the transfer of his humble home, in
which the count died, to aYsnaya Po-
ina, where, together with its furni-
ture, 1t will become a part of the pro-
posed Tolstoy Museum.
Peasants all day long passed through
the death chamber, hung with pine
boughs, where Tolstoy lies. Many OF
them knelt beside his bier. The silence
at times was broken by orthodox
chants for the repose of the soul of the
dead.
Countess Tolstoy sat beside the body
for hours, often kissing the face.
slight of the World Is Out"
''The light of the world is out" sne
said repeatedly She left the hut only
to attend mathis in the school chapel,
expecting that a requiem would be
sung. When informed that this was
not permitted she tainted.
Tolstoy left written wish that he
be buried without, pomp wreathes or
rites under Poverty Oak" on hillock
at Yasnaya Polyana, where he played
as a child and where the peasants were
accustomed to congregate.
The crowd that gathered around the
hut where Tolstoy lay dying in the
early SuUudy
breathlessly the verdict of DR.. Thtchu-
rovsky and DIR. Usoff, two of the lead
ing heart specialists of Moscow, who
had been hurriedly called into consulta-
ton. The former had carried Tolstoy
safely through similar crisis in 1901
in Chimea, and the hopes of the people
rested on him.
The examination was brief, lasting
less than half an hour Tolstoy failed
to recognize either physician, but
asked:
who are these strangers? 2"
When informed, he said; What
fine men,"
His heart succumbed at o'clock,
shortly after he had issued from under
the influence of an injected stimulant.
He died without regaining conscious
ness.
In the interval between the last two
attacks of cardiac failure the patient
seemed to be comfortable and his face
was clear of pain.