New Britain herald., 1914-08-15
The New Napoleon.
( Providence Journal.)

| There is peculiar interest at this 1 time in the prophetic pamphlet known as ''Tolstoy's Nision," as just noted in the news columns in d note from Bos- ton In a prophecy made. as late as 1911 there is possibly nothing extraor- dinary in the warning from a Euro pean observer of keen perception that great conflagration" would start about 1912. developing into a de structive calamity" in 1913. The ul- timate cataclysm has been foresha d. owed for some years by more than a few discerning minds. and Tolstoy was far from being the only prophet to see all Europe in flames and bleeding and to hear "the lamenta- tions of huge battlefieldS.''
 But the second part of the prophecy has strange. and at present a seem ingly incomprehensible. significance: About the year 1915 a strange figure from the north--a new Napoleon--en- ters the stage of the bloody drama. He is q man of little mlitaristic train ing, q writer or a journalist, but in his grip most of Europe will remain till 1925"
 This seems a prepoSterouS vision, but verify. truth is stranger than hction,' and we shall see what we shall see. For that matter, what could be stranger and more prepos- terous than the career of the great Napoleon? If we are to have a new and greater Napoleon on the stage of the nations, it may now seem in- credible that he should be writer or a journalist, but what character of man is the final dictator and settler of these vast international problems to be- After the war is Waged to it's desperate finish, there will still re- main the tremendous questions of re- adjustment and new commercial and industrial beginnings. By that time ''-- --''''~'--. forces may be exhausted, and in any event the new problems will be of a nature scarcely open to solution by militarstic science.
 It will be constructive skill. rather than destructive experience, that will he in demand. What more probable. then. than that the new Napoleon" should prove to be a writer or a jour nalist or college professor? It is even conceivable that such n genius, with little militaristic tarinng" but with stupendous vision, might be- come the leading figure in the final military proceedings and in truth prove a new Napoleon in the mili- tant sense.
 But what of the identity of this strange figure from the north" this writer or journalist" who Is due to amaze the world in another year or SO? Perhaps as Tolstoy was year or so ahead of the actual event Tn his guess as to the beginning of the great confagration he may have fixed too early q date for the appearance of the strange figure. We may have to wait until 1916 before he stands revealed, but in the meantime there will be lot of guesS-work and strange conjecture.
 "From the north is vague. If 1t means England, the most likely fig ures at present are G. Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells. Or possibly the new Man of Destiny is G. k. Chester ton. There would be fascinating figure in tfe role of modern Napo- leon If Tolstny1e orientation was in- accurate and s1north'' should prove to be r"west'' a sense of dread suggests the name of William Randolph Hearst as probable entrant in the field. Then again we have to remember that Colonel Roosevelt has been a prolific writer and that he has also been contributing editor. And at last we seem to see the should r that destiny is getting ready to tap. When this possibility is coupled with the mystic figures, 1916. the' signs seem ominous.