The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-08-22

In the fall of 1910 Leo Tolstoy
was requested by the car, through
Countess Nastasia Tolstoy, to COM
pose a message intended for himself,
the king of England and the kaiser
of Germany, the last two mentioned
having suggested it. They wanted
something from the old man that had
never been published and was not
intended by him for publication. Tc
the countess he responded by dictat-
ing the following woros:
This is a revelation of events of
a universal character which must
shortly come to pass. Their spirit
ual outlines are before my eyes. I
see floating upon the surface Of the
sea of human fate the huge silhou-
cite of a nude woman. She is-with
her beauty, her poise, her smile, her
jewels-a super-Venus. Nations
rush madly after her, each of them
eager to attract her especially. But
she, like an eternal courtesan, flirts
with all. In her hair-ornament of
diamonds and rubies is engraved her
name-"Commercialism." AS allur-
ing and bewitching as she seems,
much destruction and agony follow
In her wake. Her breath, reeking of
sordid transactions, her voice of
metallic character like gold, and her
look of greed are so much poison to
the nations who fall victims to her
charms.
"And behold! she has three gil
gantic arms with three torches of
universal corruption in her hand.
The first torch represents the flame
of war that the beautiful courtesan
carries from city to city and coun-
try to country. Patriotism answers
with flashes of honest flame, but the
end is the roar of guns and mus
kerry.
"The second torch bears the flame
of bigotry and hypocrisy. 1t lights
the lamps only in temples and on the
affairs of sacred institutions. 1t a r
ries the seed of falsity and fanatic
ism. 1t kindles the minds that are
still in cradles and follows them tc
their graves.
"The great conf1agration will start
about 1912, set by the torch of the
first arm in the countries of south
eastern Europe. 1t will develop into
a destructive calamity in 1918. In
that year 1 see all Europe in flames
and bleeding. I hear the lamenta-
tions of huge battlefields. But about
the year 1915 a strange figure from
the north = a new Napoleon - en-
tiers the stage of the bloody drama.
He is a man of little militaristic
training, a writer or a Journalist,
but in his grip most of Europe will
remain until 1925. The end of the
great calamity will mark a new po-
litical era for the old world. There
will be left no empires and king
doms, but the world will form a fed
Grafton of the United States of Ma
tons. There will remain only four
great giants-the Anglo-Saxons, the
Latins, the Slavs and the Mongoli-
ans.
after the year 1925 I see a
change in the religious sentiments.
The second torch of the c~ourtesan
has brought about the fall of the
church. The ethical idea has al
most vanished. Humanity is without
the moral feeling. But then a great
reformer arises. He will clear the
world of the relics of monotheism
and lay the cornerstone of the tenn
pie of pantheism. God, soul, spirit
and immortality will be molten in a
new furnace, and I see the peaceful
beginning of an ethical era. The
man determined tn thic mission 10 a