Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1914-08-21
TOLSTOYS VISION OF
EUROPE IN FLAME

In the fall Of 1910 Leo Tolstoy
was requested by the czar, through
Countess Nastasia Tolstoy, to COM
pose g message for himself, the
king of England and the kaiser Of
Germany, the last mentioned having
suggested it. They wanted some
thing from the old man that had
never been published and was not
intended by him for publication.
To the countess he responded by
debating the following words:
This is a revelation of events
of a universal character which must
shortly come to pass. Their spirit
ual outlines are before my eyes.
l see floating upon the surface of
the sea of human fate the huge
silhouette of a nude woman. She
is-with her beauty, her poise, her
smile, her jeWels-a super-Venus.
Nations rush madlv after her, each
of them eager to attract her espec-
tally. But she, like an eternal
courtesan, flirts with all. In her
hair-ornanent Of diamonds and
rubies is engraved her name
"Ccmmericalism." AS allusing
and bewitching as she seems, much
destruction and agony follow in
her wake. Her breath, reeking of
sosdid transactions, her voice of
metallic character like gold, and
her looks of greed are So much
poison to the natiUns who fall vic
Tins 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 couriesan
carries from city to city and coun-
try to country. Patriotism ms
wers with flashes of honest flame,
but the end the roar Of guns and
musketry,
"The second torch bears the
flame of bigotry and hypocrisy. It
lights the lamps only in temples
and on the alters of sacred institu-
tions. 1t carries the seed Of falsity
and fanaticism. 1t kindles the
minds that are still in cradles and
follows them to their graves.
"The great conflagration will
start about 1912, set by the torch
of the first arm in tho countries
of southeastern Europe. 1t will
develop into a destructive calamity
in 1918. In that year I see all
Europe in flames and bleeding. l
hear the lamentations of huge bat
tle6elds. But about the year 1915
a strange figure from the north
a new Napnleon-enters the stage
Of the bloody drama. He is u mar
of little m%ilitsristic 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 political
era for the old world. There will
hs left no empires and kingdom,
but the world will form a fedora
ton of the United States Of Ma
tions. There will remain Only four
great giants-the Anglo.Saxons,
the Latins, the Slays and the Mon
COLLINS.
After thS y+ar 1926 | see a
change in the religious sentiments.
TIE second torch Of the courtesan
has brought about the fall Of the
church. The ethical idea has ui-
most vanished. Humanity is with
out the moral feeling. But then a
great reformer arises. He viii
clear the world Of the relics Of
m%onotheism and lay the corner
stones of the temple Of pantheism.
God, soul, spirit and immortality
will be molten in O new furnace.
and ] see the peaceful beginning Of
an ethical ere. The man deter.
mined to this mission is g Mongol.
isn.Slev. He is sircady walking
upon the earth--a man Of active
affairs. Ho himself does not now
realize the mission assigned to him
by a superior power.
And behold the flame of the
torch. which has already begun to