El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-06-03
Bernard Shaw Picks Flaws In Leo Tolstoy
Great Dramast

did not foresee ii, and this must mean
that he was so continually preoccupied
with his ideas and his Imagination that
he seldom gave his mind to more i'm
mediate practical considerations-in-
GLIDING the consideration of other peo-
pies feelings and convenience-untl
his neglect produced its inevitable con-
sequences.
Countess Near End of Patience.
No wonder the countess was often
near the end of her patience. Indeed
there is one occasion recorded when
Tolstoy's preoccupation with his own
conscience carried him into inhuman
ca1lousness. His trick of suddenly
leaving the house and declaring he
could no longer endure to live in such
a fashion has been brought into prom
inence by his dear on one of these oc-
casions He was . man who was
boundlessly sympathetic on paper with
imaginary beings, but outrageously in
considerate to real people in his own
home.
When we go on to ask why people.
stood all this from him, the reply must
be partly that the countess did not
stand it. but took in her own hands
the affairs he neglected, besides giving
him pieces of her mind on occasion.
She must be a woman of remarkable
strength of character to have borne her
burden without breaking down COM
pletely. II it be true that the effects
of the strain on her had their share in
the circumstances of that final flight
from Yasnaya which ended in Tolstoy's
death, no one can blame her.
Refuses Social Burden.
So much for that part of the social
burden which Tolstoy fatty refused to
shoulder After all, we cannot quar-
rel very deeply with him for his re-
fusal: if a man does more than his
share of extraordinary work for the
world, we can hardly complain because
he refuses to do the ordinary tasks
which society offers him, and which
are calculated for quite another sort
of man. But it must be said that his
own peculiar work would have been
much better done in some respects If
he had managed his estates and admin
istered and exploited his copyrights In
stead of leaving all this drudgery to
his wife.
It ended in his wife knowing a great
deal more in some respects, than he
did of men and affairs and in his using
his powers and Influence to set men on
impracticable and mischievous enter
prises. No doubt these had their value,
but one does not know whether Toistog
remained in a condition Of inyincible
ignorance (for he went on giving the
bad advice just as II it had worked
PERFECTLY or whether he simply wouie
not take the trouble to change his
mind He was most unfortunately in
capable of laughing at himself, though
he had a keen sense of the irony Of
wasted philanthropy-for example.
whilst he was organizing famine relief,
he ridiculed the whole business steadily
all through, as CHASTITY futility. Yet,
when a Tolstoyan colony was making
itself a spectacle for gods and men, not
by organizing relief for starving people
but by reducing we'll fed ones to desti-
tuition, his irony was never aroused-he
persuaded himself. and sometimes even
persuaded the colonists, that all that
was wrong was that they had not been
quite foolish enough.
- Never Did Real Work.
s On the whole. we must conclude that
il was a grave and incurable defect in
Tolstoy's training that he had never
been Obliged to do a real job of real
work, and do it for his living. His spell
Of soldering was of no use to him in
that way-a man learns nothing Of af-
fairs from being eooped up in bat
terry and fed like an artillery horse
whilst he fires cannons at the French
and English and IS fired at by them.
Everything else that he did he played
at and soon got tired Of it, except lit
erature.
In that he was a giant; in business
and practical politics he was so in
ferior that in his recent biography,
Aylmer Maude had to say in effect
This man was so great-so impressive
that he made me- accept him as my
leader in matters in which he was. com
pared to me, a baby. And I still accept
that position, though l am bound to
show you how mischieviously imprac-
teal he was"