Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-11-21
PEASANTS AT
THE BIER OF
81 LEO TOLSTOI

st. Petersburg. Nov. 21.-Count Toll
stoi, who is dead at A~stapova, passed
away from heart disease following an
attack OF bronchitis caused by expo
sure ten days after he had left his
home at Jasnaya Poliana in a search
Of solitude and pence of soul The
physicians allowed his wife and family
to enter the death chamber, but the
count was unconscious.
"There are millions Of poor In the
world, and many of them are suffer
ing. Why then are you all around the
bed of one sick MANI"
These are said to. have been his last
coherent words, although he lived sew
eral hours after uttering them. They
were addressed to the six heart spe-
~cialists who had been called from Mos
COW.
Shortly after death the body was
clothed in the black shirt and other
moujik garments which Tolstoi habit
ually wore. The villagers-decorated
the death room with pine boughs, and
afterward the residents of the neigh
borhood of all classes and age and
man from a distance Walked past the
bier. A majority of these mourners
were peasants and school children.
II the present arrangements are car
rried out the body will be removed to
Jasnaya Poliana today and will be
buried on the Tolstoi estate without
ceremonies, wreaths or display.
Nc Masses to Be Allowed.
The holy synod has announced that
no requiem. masses or other ~ecclesi-
astical rites will be allowed to be per-
formed over the body of Count Tolstoi.
Some of the members of the douma
and other friends of Tolstoi compro-
missed the matter by attending a
church where the priests consented to
prayers being offered "for a nobleman
named Leo" emitting the name of Toll
stoi.
Tolstoi was born Aug. %, 1918, at
Jasnaya, Poliana, a village about $50
miles south of Moscow. The mother of
Tolstoi died when he was three years
old and his father five years later.
In 1851 Telstoi went to visit his
brother in the Caucasus, and he was
profoundly Influenced by the rugged
Witness of that country. Entering the
horse guards, he remained in military
service eight years. In January, 1854,
two months after the Crimean war
began, he was made a commanding
officer and served with distinction as
commander of a mounted battery.
He Was a Hero Then.
During an interval before that he
had written many short stories. The
war furnished him with experience
which wasas Invaluable in his later
work. When the war ended Tolstoi
went to st. Petersburg, where as a /
noblenan, a Returning hero and a lit
te1atelr he was much Iienized. Il
His surroundings in the capital and .
own manner Of life there disguised /
Tolstoi. Going back to Jasnaya, Po-
Llama, he made his home there for each \
year during the rest of his life.
Tofstoi was married in September, ~
1862, to the daughter of a professor in
the University of Moscow. Though
they had nine children, the cares of O.
motherhood did not preventive count
ess from serving as her husbands !"
amanuensis all through his labors as :,
an author. y
His Serbs Set Free. q
In advance of the decree of Alexan- n
der H., Tolstoi's first act after he had y
retired to his country estate was TO :,
free his serfs. Then he busied him .,
self with plans for the education and +,
betterment of the peasantry. n
Becoming wrought up over what c
seemed to him the purposelessness of +
life, he contemplated suicide. but after
consideration gave 1t up and delved r
into all sorts of philosophic investiga- {.
ton. Tolstoi at length reached the i.
conclusion that o literal following Of =
the gospels resulted in a truly useful =
and happy life, so he donned the garb
of a peasant, settled down to till the
soil and to follow. extreme simplicity |
in diet and in conduct.
Predicted Return of Nihilism.
This was in 1880, and In the twenty
years following his principal literary
works were printed. Tolstoi in these {
books set forth his ideas of true liv-
Ing. The government went no further
than to suppress some of the books.
mutilate others and to exile some of
the authors friends, Then Tolstoi adj
dressed a letter to the car, in which
he predicted that if the emperor did
not manifest a change Of heart there
would be a recurrence of all of the ,
terrors of nihilism and the horrors OF
the prevention of II by massacre.
For many years Tolstoi refused TO
accept any payments for his writings.
and this and the fact that he was con- !
tinually giving away his property and
associating with the poorest p~easantry
were not altogether pleasing to his
wife.
sHis literary work during the latter
part OF his life was an exhaustive an.
photography. Tolstoisasserted that he
was opposed to both anarchy and SO
nIa4fApa ~. .