The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-07
George Kennon in the Outlook.


 MI the Russian government in ra-
 ! cent years to thwart public initla- tive and prevent the expression of public feeling by arbitrary exercise of the police power; but none of them has been more indefensible, and none perhaps has had more evil consequences than the attempt to put gags into the mouths of the mill lions of Russians who wished to express publicly their grief at the death of Count Tostoy. The body of the great Russian author had hardly left the railway station at Astapova when the administration be- gan to take measures for the prevention of what it called demonstrations on the part of those who sorrowed over the counts death and wished to do honor to his memory. Thousands of citizens of St.
 Petersburg and Moscow desired to attend
 the funeral at Yasnaya Polyana; but, although the regular railway trains thith- CT from both capitals were so crowded that passengers stood all night In the aisles of the day coaches, the minister of ways and communications refused to put on extra trains of cars. This lack of railway transportation compelled the dee- gations from the duma and the Moscow
 university to go to Yasnaya Polyana In automobiles. Of course they arrived too late for the funeral and had to content
 themselves with a visit to the grave by torchlight in the evening.
 In many of the larger cities of the em-
 pire, including St. Petersburg, Moscow,
 Kiev Kharkof, Warsaw and Tomsk, the people tried to have memorial services of
 song and prayer in the churches; buy they were informed by the priests that l prayers for Tolstoy, or even prayers Tor /, the repose of the soul of man named Leo," had been strictly forbidden by the ecclesiastical authorities. They then or ganized funeral processions and attempt | ed to march through the streets sing ing the requiem of Everlasting Remem- brance," but they were soon attacked and dispersed by Cossacks or the police.
 | Public meetings in honor of Tolstoy ! were generally prohibited and the Peda-
 gogical society of St. Petersburg was even
 forbidden to assemble for the purpose of listening to addresses on "Toystoy's Views with Regard to the Education of Children" and 'Tolstoy as an Apostle of
 self-sacrifice and Love-" In Odessa
 the prefect, General Tolmachef would
 not allow the theatre to close for one
 evening as an expression of respect for
 the memory of the dead: and in Riga theatrical managers were officially in-
 formed that if they presented scenes from l Tolstoy's plays or allowed actors to recite
 extracts from his words they must in- l tersperse such scenes and recltations
 with vaudeville performances. The exhi-
 bition of moving pictures of Tolstoy's
 funeral was almost everywhere pro-
 hibited, and in a number of places thea
 trical orchestras were forbidden to play
 either Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" or
 Chopin's funeral march. Tn Kharkof the
 editor of the daily newspaper "Utra' was admfnistratively sentenced to three
 months imprisonment for requesting the actors in the city theatre not to play on the night after Tolstoy's death; and in dozen different places individual citizens
 were held to account for rising in thea
 tres and suggesting to audiences tnat
 they show their respect for Tolstoy py
 quietly dispersing. In Yalta booksellers
 were ordered to take portraits of Tolstoy
 out of their windows; in Tula stationers
 were forbidden to sell picture post cards
 representing the count on horseback; and in Nishni Novgorod the chief of police
 would not allow the recall of Invitations to dancing party that was to take place