Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-07-31
An Extraordinary Servant.

men among the crowds at the railwa.
station in Petrograd who seemed Il
have no trouble with their passports o
with any of the affairs incident tC
their departure. These men, says
contributor to Lectures pour Tous
were NJ. Thesloff and his interpreter
The government of Finland had sen
M.Thesloff on a mission to the sovlets
and when his work was completed III
had no trouble in obtaining permission
to return to his own country by way o
Murmansk and Norway. His pass
ports permitted him to take with hin
his servants and an interpreter, and ht
was thus able to rescue one of hi:
wealthy compatriots who was threat
ened with arrest and who accompanied
him in the guise of an interpreter
Fortunately, no one recognized the
fnancier, and the two men -eet-safely
out of Petrograd.
The train was maddenjngly slow
and made almost interminable stops al
every station. During one of these
delays soldier entered the compart,
ment of the journalist. His clothing
was extremely ragged and torn, and he
wore the merest apology for boots
According to the Russian custom, he
gave his name: Michel lvanovitch
Iakoliev. Then in a very deferential
way he asked the Firms to allow him to
accompany them to MurmanSk, me
end of the railway line on the ArctiS
Ocean.
Gladly" said M. Thesloff, "if your
passport is correct"
The soldier replied in low voice
that he had no passport, and begged to
be allowed to 90 with M. Thcslof as
his servant. The journalist believed
the soldier to be political fugitive in
disguise; he disliked to abandon
him to the vengeance Of the revolu-
tionaires, and Therefore he consented.
Immediately the soldier : fatc bright
ened, but he became very pale and
seemed about to faint. Like so many
other people in Russia at the time, he
was suffering with hunger, and M.
Thesloff supplied him with food.
When Michel Ivanovitch noticed that
his master spoke the Russian language
with difficulty, he offered to make use
of German, French or English as the
journalist preferred; and on one ac-
casion, when the Firms were speaking
of a certain great lady, Michel lvano-
witch announced that when he was in
Rome the previous year he had met
her. Certainly he was not the COM
mon soldier he appeared to be!
When the travellers reached Muir
mansk they found to their consterna-
ton that no boats were running from
that port to. Norway. 1t vas impos-
sible to risk detection by remaining in
Russia, and they Succeeded in bargain
ing with some Laplanders to take them
in reindeer Sledges across the two hun
dred and seventy kilometerS that
stretch between Murmansk and Nor
way.
1t was a hard journey, over r7ugh
roads, with the temperature thirty de-
grees below zero. One night was
spent at a monastery in the midst OF
the wilderness. The food served there
was most frugal, but Michel lvano-
witch asked to be introduced to the
superior, to whom he said he was
known. Immediately thereafter the
black bread and clotted milk were re-
placed by much better food.
Ii was certainly strange! This
pseudo servant spoke many languages,
was acquainted in high society, and
now, upon his arrival at a monastery
in which he had never before set foot,
he was received as a man of mark!
When the three men reached Nor
way, the anxious air Of Niche! lvano-
witch changed to one of joyous content,
and he thanked those who had saved
him.
"Now," he said, 81 can tell you that
nv real name is Terestchenko."
"Perhaps," hazarded the journalist
"you are relative of the former
Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rus
sia."
eyes" replied the servant, 81 am
that minister himself"
After the overthrow of Kercrsky,
the Bolsheviki had arrested Tere-
stchenko and imprisoned him in the
Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, and
condemned hm to death in three days
time. lust before the time set for his
execution, however, two Of his col
leagues were murdered by the Red
Guards, a circumstance that evoke1
sympathy even from the Bolsheviki
In the face of this change Of opinion
Lenine lost his nerve and ordered that
Terestchenko be set free, for he be-
lieved that it would be easy to capture
him.
d.. rnrnstnhenkn Immediately lcfI