Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-08-14

! other than that which manifests itself
on the intellectual or spiritual side OF
the personality. 1t may be exerted,
physically, in the form Of animal mag
netism in the laying on Of hands" to
allay nervous torture, and even in such
healing processes as osteopathy or
bone setting. The most competent OBJ
jective psychologists who have studied
Rasputin declare that he possesses this
degree, and that as a dynamic human
organism he is a phenomenon.
Much in Russian tradition favors the
periodic appearance Of some such wiz
ard and soothsayer. These may be
charlatans for the most part, but now
and again they prove to be something
more. To say that the world has out
grown them is quite erroneous as re-
CARDS Russia.
| Among the scattered pastoral VIII
lagos around Tomsk, where Rasputin
first began to exercise his strange
power nearly twenty years ago, the
conditions of daily life and the vocabu-
larry in which the people exchange their
thoughts are not essentially different
from what they were two or three CEN
turies ago, nor so very different from
the early ages when a Peter the Her
nit could inspire a crusade.
None of Rasputin's followers thus
far, whether dupe or devotee, has come
forward in his hour of greatness to de-
nounce him as an impostor. Such a
one would assuredly run no risk If he
did, for Rasputin is most cordially
hated both by the police and the press
censorship. To people familiar with the
habits of Russian life it would have
sounded incredible year ago had they
been told that the government bureau
| cracy and the radical intelligence
would ever agree on anything. Yet to-
day they are as one in their antagon-
ism to Rasputn.
In a recent Duma debate a much-re-
spected leader of the Liberals, Mr..
Ephremoff, declared that the highest
affairs are settled in the highest
spheres by an obscene charlatan." The
press censorship allowed this to be
published broadcast, and the crown
prosecutor has taken no action. The
campaign against Rasputin is allowed
| to proceed publicly on lines which
among decent Russians are far more
subversive of reverence for the throne
| than anything that is secretly circu-
lated from the revolutionary printing
presses.
The political hatred directed against
| Rasputin is based on the fact that he
is the incarnation of irresponsible, one
man power the result being the abso-
tionalism, but of the actual admins
| tration and bureaucratic system or in
deed Of any system at all. He has
| checked, nonplussed and baftled the
clever men in the governmental ma
chine and the willy men in the Holy
| Synod In the duma, some weeks ago,
Mr.. Hilinkoff read letter Of the pres
ent procurator Of the Holy Synod, Mr..
Tabler, in which the latter thanked
| Rasputin for allowing him to retain his
high office Tabler denounced this as
malicious tattle, but he did not deny
the specific allegation.
The only minister Of the czar who
showed open enmity to Rasputin was
Kokovtzoff, and Kokovtzoff had to 60.
| Wandering about the corridors OF
Tsarkoe- -Selo palace in felt slippers,
like the most intimate member of the
household. Rasputin waited for Prime
Minister Kokovtzoff to come out from
an audience in the cars cabinet, and
said to him quietly:
We'll, how much hast thou stolen
today?"
| Kokovtzeff flushed angrily and NOV
ed off, but he could neither say nor do
anything.
| A few weeks ago a governess of the
cars youngest daughters was stand
ing at their chamber door at bedtime.
Their father had gone into bid them
good night. Rasputin was about to
follow when the governess barred his
way, saying that the young grand
duchesses were retiring for the night
Rasputin made no reply, but forbore to
enter. The czar, when he came out
| thanked the gOverneSS for her watch
| fulness over his daughters, but in less
| than a week she was given notice that
her services were no longer required
Each step of Rasputin's progress has
been taken with the help Of women
devotees. He has a quiet, well-modu-
lated, warm" voice, and uses at all
times the archaic thee" thou
phraseology of the Bible-which sa-
cred book, except for few simple de-
votonal works of the old orthodox
church. is the only literature he has
| ever read. First in western Siberia,
and later along the Volga, he used to
| Sojourn as Scripture reader in the
houses of the provincial merchants
and others of the peasant class who
had prospered in a worldly way. These
men would often have money enough
| to be able to indulge their wives in any
luxury, but the simple elementary
| life in those remote districts provided
no means of relaxation. The women
would frequently drop into the state of
nervous depression which is the COM
mon malady of idle rich womankind
the world over.
Then from household to household
spread the rumor that Gregori Raspu-
| tin the Scripture reader had the mar
velous secret of dispelling this restless,
nervous feeling. Eastward from Mos
cow he attained some fame as heal
err among bourgeois religious circles.
1t was part of Rasputin's practice TO
use absolute patriarchial directness in
his talk with his women followers, no
matter what the subject discussed
might be. The simple words he used
in relation to the elementary facts in
human life would sound coarse to cul-
| tured ears. He believed, moreover, in
| the laying on Of hands," and practic-
ed it literally. This reputation proved
| nothing in his diSfavor and he ad-