Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-23
HIS FAME SPREADS
DESPITE EVIL REPORTS.

DESPITE REPORTS.
In spite of this episode, which would
have interfered with the career of any
one but Rasputin, the fame of the latter
grew with every day that passed. He
established himself at last in the town
of Tiumen in Siberia, where he hired a
whole large house for himself and some
of his most favored disciples, and he be-
gan to turn his activity into another and
more profitable channel He establish
ed reception hours every day, when all
his followers, admirers and friends could
come to speak with him about any BUSH
ness they liked. Hundreds of people
used to attend those receptions, among
them some very influential persons Gu
rious to see and speak with the modern
Peter the Hermit, who declared that he
had been called by God to save Holy
Russia. In some mysterious manner he
acquired the reputation Of having great
influence in high quarters, where (this
must be noticed) he was at the time yes
quite unknown. Governors fearing dis
missal, rapacious functionaries whose
exactions had become too fragrant, as
well as business men in quest of some
good 'geschaft," to use the German ex-
preston employed before the war among
financial circles in Russia, crowded
round him, waiting sometimes hours for
an opportunity to speak with him, and
fully believing in his capacities for OBJ
tanning what they required.
Rasputin soon became a kind of bust
ness agent and surrounded himself with
a number of secretaries of both sexes.
whose occupation consisted in attending
! to his correspondence-he could hardly
read or .write-and in receiving the
numerous offerings which were being
! brought to him daily. These secretaries,
among whom figured a sister of the bish-
op of Saratoff, Warnawa, made an i'm
mense amount of, money themselves be-
cause no one was ever admitted into the
! presence of Rasputin without having
| previously paid dearly for this favor.
Very soon they established a tax in re-
gard to the audiences granted by their
master.
Besides this sister of Bishop Warna-
wa, Rasputin had another female secre-
tary,. and they both accompanied him In
| all. his travels, calling themselves his
| spiritual sisters. They constituted, so
to say, his bodyguard, and wherever he
went, even in st. Petersburg, they never
/ left off attending him and seeing to all
| his wants. They were the channel
| through which everything had to go,
and without their consent no one was
ever admitted into the presence of the
| saint" as they already had begun 10
! call him.
IS RECEIVED WITH PoMP
IN HIS HOME TOWN.
! Gregory Rasputin very often used 20
| visit Tobolsk, where he was always re-
ceived with great ceremony and pomp,
| as if he had been really the important
parsonage he believed himself. The po-
! liceman in the streets saluted him as
he passed. the carriage in which he
drove was escorted or preceded by high
| police functionary, and the governor
asked him to dinner. The same kind OF
thing used to take place in other ST.
berian cities In one of them the state
rooms reserved at the railway. station
| for any high authority on visit to the
place were thrown open to him. In an
other triumphal arches were erected IN
his honor, while in a third he was met by
deputations in the midst of which could
| be seen civil functionaries and religious
dignitaries.
! How all this happened no one knew
| or could explain In what consisted the
| fame of Rasputin and what he had done
| to deserve all these honors nobody
f, could tell. But fame he had acquired,
| honors he had obtained, and where an
other person gifted with smaller
] amount of impudence than he was pos
sessed of would have been put into
| prison or sent to madhouse, Gricha.
as he was Familiarity called, had 1t all
| his own way, and defied governors and
judges with an equal indifference, sure
that none among them would be daring
| enough to try to put stop to his
| progress or to his avidity.
Most friendly. not to say intimate,
| relations were established between
Rasputin and Bishop Warnawa, espe-
cially after the latter's elevation to the
| episcopal see of Tobolsk. The first ser
mon which Warnawa preached in that
| town he dedicated to the wife Of Ras-
| putin. One need not say that the whole
| clergy of the town and of the diocese
trembled before Rasputin. who did not
| fail to exact from it large sums Of