The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-31
PEASANT RULER OF
RUSSIA WAS ONLY
CLEVER HYPN0T|ST
Nine. Olga Novikoff Says
He Was a Man OF Great
Evil.

do not like to talk of Rasputin,
says Nine. Olga Novikoff in the Lon
don Dispatch.
Indeed, / would not consent to talk
of him were it not to contradict some
Of the calumnies which have been
circulated as to the extent of his in
fuence at the Russian Court.
He was an evil man who has met a
well-deserved fate. The only wonder
is that he did not meet that fate long
ago, for he was surrounded by ene-
mics who did not believe in his claim
that he could destroy any one who
tried to injure him or even malign
him, and therefore had no fear Of
him.
Picture to yourself the most ignor-
ant of Russian peasants, a man not
physically attractive OF mentally In
teresting, yet to whom had been given
a strange hypnotic power; for Ras-
putin was simply gifted hypnotist
who, when he discovered what bene-
fits it could bring him, developed his
ability and built around himself a
wall of superstition which protected
him.
He was not priest or a preacher,
he was a peasant who went on pill
grimage, as many of our peasants do,
and it was in the course Of that PHI
grimage that he discovered he could
bend certain people to his will and
make them believe that they were
cured of various ills and that he was
their benefactor.
Particularly did he concentrate his
that they fell more easily under the
spell of his hypnotic glance; more
over, they talk more freely of such
experiences than men do. and he was
cunning enough to want his fame to
spread.
And the women did talk Of him,
first only peasant women. then women
Of higher stations. He began to call
himself healer and wore the robes
Of a pilgrim instead of a peasants
garb.
1t was just at this time that our
Empress was SO unhappy about the
little Grand Duke, who was very
fragile and whom the doctors could
not seem to help, The Empress was
in a state Of nervous anxiety all the
time; she was worn and thin, and
could not interest herself in any one
or anything but her son, whom she
adores.
One Of her ladies-in- waiting sug-
gested to her that she should see the
peasant Rasputin, who was perform
ing cures throughout the country, and
the Empress commanded his presence.
He came and saw the little Grand
Duke. but he never lived in the pal.
ace.
By a strange coincidence it was
soon after Rasputin's arrival that the
Grand Duke got better and stronger.
It is often SO with growing children
they will be very delicate and then
suddenly will come a turn for the
better.
But Rasputin became unbearably
arrogant, and had not the diplomacy
or the intelligence. to make friends.
Whenever his hypnotic power failed
him with any one he was helpless,
Just a boorish peasant filled with con-
ceit Of himself
Over and over again he would tell
the Empress that he wished to leave
the court, and that he would go away
except that his going would mean
that the Grand Duke would suffer
and perhaps die.
AnNther strange coincidence which
strengthened Rasputin's position was
the death of Piehve, the Minister Of
the Interior. Piehve was openly an
tagonistic to Rasputin and treated
him with contempt, aginst which Ras.
putin had no weapon so he would