The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-27
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

ny e. ms htSIdIy Helrs Hno IS re- gently from Russia. is to speak at the First Baptist church tonight on 'Russias Revolution" aided by motion pictures showing his distinguished father in some life scenes.
 
 It's pretty big thing he wants me to do. for Leo Tolstoi was one of the outstanding world figures in both the nineteenth and the twentieth centu- ries, and I can only hope to give the barest kind of an outline of the great Russian who imposed his personality on the thinking men and women of his day by his acts. his writings and his theories of life.
 It Is hard to classify him. for he is lvariously put down as novelist, social reformer and religious mystic, but these labels do not vo my mind cata- logue him properly, for they give only | three angles on his complex character, and by no means cover the range of his various activities; for example, much could be told of his agricultural | labors. a most interesting article could be written about his educational re- forms. etc.
 1 It's the custom to give the date and place of ones birth. and so Tolstoi was born in the government of Tula- Russia, August 2s, 1928 co. s-), and died in 1910. He saw the light of day at Yasnava Polvana- the home of his father. a large country house (not the present one). built in a severely formal style. with Doric pillars and l Isrchitraves, standing solidarity in a ! typical Russian landscape. So much | for the natural environment. which cradled the babe which was to grow into such a colossus as to overshadow even the czars of his native land, for he will live when many of them are long forgotten.
 l I believe when it is possible one should go back at least to the grand parents and farther still if the rec ords are clear, in getting possi lily, to whom Yasnaya Polvana had belonged for several generations, was originally of German extraction, as- ] cording to one authority, and had settled in Russia in the days of Peter ] the Great, but I can't take the time to trace his ancestry. but must simply say that his father. Nicholas, who led the life of a Russian boyar, by his marriage with the princess Maria Vol konsky, in great measure rebuilt the family fortunes which had fallen into decay during the two previous decades.
 Count Leo Tolstoi was the youngest of five children of this marriage. and lost his mother when he was barely three yea<s old, and six years later at the age of 41, his father passed laway. He and his brothers were then placed under the guardianship of his aunt, the Countess osten -Sacken, and Fin the care of Madame ErgolskSys, a
 distant relative. and upon the death oi
 the countess he went to live with an.
 other kinswoman. Madame Jushkov, al
 Kazan. He was only II years of age
 when he became subject to her influ,
 ence. She kept an open house, was
 fond of gaiety and dress, and was
 so, one chronicler states. liberal ir
 the extreme in her ideas on mora
 questions.
 find it recorded that as child
 Leo, though observant and thought ! E,,J
 was plain and very sensitive on tn,
 point suffering keenly from the wan of notice and affection; and that thi.
 sensitiveness led him as he grew old
 CT to hide himself away from his
 playmates and spend hours in lonel,
 how one day it dawned upon him sud
 denly that death was ever lying il
 wait, and that to be happy one mus
 enjoy the present. unconcerned witl
 the future A Russian writer says thu for Is years of hIs later life tn,
 thought of suicide was not out of hi
 mind for day. and that he had tt
 hide his gun lest he shoot himself and his towel lest he hang himself. l But it is pleasing to note that ther, } arc streaks of dawn to light up hi
 somber night thoughts even as
 motheriess child, for his childhood wa
 not without it's share of wholesom
 pleasure. Hunting and shooting, tn delight of the Russian noble, occu pied much of his fathers leisure. an,
 from his earliest years Leo was wont t
 go along with him. At times he wa
 quite happy sitting beside his father ,coachman on expeditions to neighbor , i ing towns. or with his brothers, run
 ming in and out of the stables an
 the coach houses. In spite of tn tedium of the schoolroom and the re buffs of his tutor. he was able t. , write in thinking over the days 0 his childhood. lever to be treasured
 and fondled again and again, servini l as a well-spring from which to drav r my choicest treasures"
 In 1s43, at the age of 15. he entere, the University of Kazan, and gaine, ' with his college cap and uniform wha he most prized, his independence. Tn lax rule of the university, which wp 1 of no high scholastic reputation, giv ing ready admittance to the sons O [ | the rich and the noble, enabling hin | at the same time to enter the worl of society. It was a real paradise 0 excitement. in a social way, and it wa . i in such a mileu that the boy devel 2 oped into man. I'll not attempt t give an account of his university lift
 for it was not at all brilliant or eve q rewarded with diploma. He had, how U ever. learned to be his own guide. hut 4