The Washington times., 1919-11-23
Today
What Is Lenine?
A Book Reviewed.
Friends Best Historians.
A Powerful Man.

~ VWVs b0I W 0tfs
Il ~ Arthur BRISBANE
Y fcs1yrsght. 1850
The most mysterious, important
character of the world today is
Vladimir nyich Ulianov, known Is
Lenine, although that is not his
name. 1t Is one of many names
signed by him to books and PAM
phlets in days when any one
might have cost his life.
Now HE decides in Russia who
shall lose his life and who shall
I. keep it.
No matter what else he may be,
Lenine is leader of the greatest,
strangest and at this moment most
consecutively successful revolution
! that the world has seen. He may
be murdered before this sees print
He may live as other revolution
lists have done to see revolution
become government He repre-
sents a definite policy, is head of
the first revolution of consequences
that ever started with workmen.
He and his followers declare.
and believe, that they seek to give
the wealth Of the world to those
that really produce it
In America we y that they
represent the feet trying to take
the place Of the head, and must
fail, no matter how many they Kill
in the interval.
Whatever Lenine may be, how
ever he may end, the intelligent
man wants to know about him, as
he would want to know about q
Messiah, 6 he arrived, Or about
the Black Death, if it came creep
ing from Asia.
To get information about a man
ask shis friends. IL interested in
mice. you would not question a
dear old lady that grabs her skirts
and jumps on chair when a baby
mouse appears. She is not a good
mouse Judge.
You could have learned more
truth about Marat by talking to his
friends than you can learn by read
ing Carlyle's French Revolution. :"
Full of hate that lasted long, Car
lyle wrote that Marat was a horse
lecch' to the Prince d'Artois. "a
moon struck. much enduring indi-
vidual. OF Neuchatel in Switzerland.
named Jean Paxl Marat.S
From his friends you would have
learned some truth-that Marat
Was q skillfui surgeon, one of the
first to perform the operation for
cataract. and that but for Charlotte
Corday's knife he might have put
through the revolution without the
NapeIepnjc intsrpsszo.
To learn about Lenine, read a
book by his frtenAs, though you
may read too much praise. This
y review of "Lsnine. the Han and
His Work.. writes by AlbefG Khys
Williams. pah3lshea By Scoet q
: SeitSer, conkstainx hosidee 1ef.
Williams own story. conversa-
tons and Impressions brought fru16
skentne by Raymond Robins, V<o
represented this Government 50
the Red Cross In Russia, ana an
excellent, IL too enthusiastic. short
treatise by Arthur Ransome-
A rough, short beard, careless
dress. eoncentruAsd eye, eyebrows
.stanting upward, outward, in
Mephistopheles fashion, . fore
head Awh, face pointed, head top
heavy, son Of a peasant raised to
se-ealled mobility" by appoint
m@t TO office, calm, determined,
absolutely fearless, free from per-
sonAl ambition, caring nothing
what happens to him, absolute
master Of Russia, with nearly two
hundred million inhabitants and
territory greater than that of the
United States-such is Lenine, the
new world power, as eye-witnesses
describe him.
He has been a revolutionist from
the beginning, the greatest and
most powerful among Russians for
many years, undoubtedly.
He was seventeen when his older
fbrother, Alexander, was hanged
after confessing his own acts
against the Czar, and taking on
himself the political offenses of
others-saving the others.
Ii did not soften Lenine, or make
him love the Gar to hear from his
older sister messages sent by his
brother from the death cell and
how bravely the brother had died,
when he miQht have lived comfort
ably with Others, on the backs of
the poor.
At school Lsnine was taught by
the father Of Kerensky, first chief
e this Russian revolution. How
little could that teacher have mag
fned his own son replacing the
Car, and replaced In turn by the
thin, fierce looking young Vladimir
there reciting his lessons.
You follow Lenine, In a winding
climb to his present autocratic