New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-18
Bv ERNESTINE EVANS

/ first met Professor Paul Miliukon
in the third month OF the war at
dinner party in Petrograd. He had been
a vivid tradition at the University OF
Chicago. where he had delivered
course Of lectures on Russian history,
in 1901, and had been quite as much
quoted on his repertory Of cookery
recipes. strange tricks for Zakuska and
for his penetrating appreciation OF
American institutions as on his course
He had been spoken of extravaganza
Iy by the members of the Czechish
Press Association and by Professor
Samuel Harper the former regarding
him somehow as an instrument in their
dream Of the separate Bohemian king
dom. knew that he was the real
editor of "Ryetch." the most liberal
newspaper in Petrograd, though not
the edntor in name. Certainly not the
editor in name, for that gentleman IN
Russia is chiefly selected for his adapt
ability to Jail sentences whenever the
censors DEGREES come down on some
trace of radical criticism. He had been
heralded so deliberately that | had de-
cided to keep my letters of introduction
to myself. and then | found him next
to me at dinner.
He was a stocky man, rather Swedish
in feature. with his blond gray hair
brushed back stiifly from his face and
military precision in his mustache.
The vigorous carriage of the shoulders
suggested more the man of action than
the man of. philosophic and literary
achievement. He had come in late. and
had instantly become the centre OF
group of young Poles who were alter
mating their excited explanations OF
the DAYS news with requests that Pro
fessor Miliukof draw for them on the
map that hung on the dining room wall
the boundaries Of the new Poland,
whose claims the Kadett party had al
ready begun to stand for.
Joked About Siberia
Nv hostess had known him both in
Moscow. where he had held the char
in Russian history some years, and IN
Siberia, where both she and her nus
band, as we'll as Professor Miliukoi,
had seen serving political sentences.
He had moved into the apartment
above them the week before, and there
was great deal Of joking about their
Siberian pasts and about the ridicu-
lousiv cheaD little game birds that the
Siberian Berlin refrigerator car service
had dumped in the Petrograd market.
admitted presently that ! had three
letters of introduction TO him at my
hotel. and he seized my hand with q
cordially very much more Russian
than Swedish. and he began TO ask
for his old friends in Chicago, with
detailed memory for each one that
was astonishing. / came 10 know after
ward what an astonishing talent he has
for keeping life in the connections he
has everywhere with liberal thought in
Europe, in Copenhagen, IN Prague, IN
Sofia.
Athens alone seemed to continue to
detest him for what they imagined
were his Bulgarian sympathies
during his service on the Carnegie
Commission that reported on atrocities
during the second Balkan war. In
Sofia. the first summer Of the war,
some of his former popularity had
begun 10 fade, not that part Of it
which was a personal affection and an
appreciation Of his interest IN Bull
garian development. but because Of his
known imperial hopes that this time
there should be no peace without Con-
stantinople in Russian hands.
"After the War" Refrain
That evening he talked at great
length Of the early days of the war
when liberal and conservative St.
Petersburg wasn't Petrograd then
were equally uncertain and secretly
terrified as to what Great Russia
meant to do.
and then" he said, "from the fur
thest corners of Kazan, from the least
freduented steppes Of Siberia, some
thing that was like a murmur rose, and
it had in It nothing of complaint. As
il swept over the country it came as a
refrain. After the war better times will
come and the peasants came gladly TO
do the work Of war as not even the
most sanguine in PetrOgrad had dared
TO hope"
"And If better times do not come.
what them" 4 shadow crossed his
face. They are bound to come" he
said; they must be made 90 come
The next day was to call at his
apartment. ! went at one. The little
maid was futtered as she showed me
into a big, unsettled drawing room, with
a grand piano and piles upon piles of
folio music scattered about, where the
movers had placed them.
"The professor was up and was at
breakfast" | remember raising my
eyebrows, ! was still so new to the
land where men rise at noon and are
busy until dawn. But even that Is
changed now, and DR.. Harper, of Chi
cago, says that before the first year of
the war was over Petrograd had learned
to go to bed eearly and German-save
on daylight.
Expected Good from War
He was enormously optimistic. The
welding naturalization of the emo
tional effect Of the war, the stirring
DBL CIo