Evening star., 1924-02-23
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOyER

Tho tragedy Of q finally wrecked
! marriage after years Of happiness,
, because Of changing personalities, is
, we'll illustrated In the "Autobiog-
raphy of Countess Tolstoy (Sophie
Andreevna Tolstoy)." man and a
| woman love each other and for many
years continue to love each other,
create q we'll ordered home. bring up
| happy children and are themselves
happy. Then love begins to sicken
| and decay" because husband and wife
havo become two entirely different
/ persons from the ones who married
each other some years before. Both
| have changed, but each thinks the
| change is entirely in the other. So
1t was with Countess Tolstoy and hei
| great husband, Leo Nikolaevich, as
she calls him throughout the Auto
| biography"
| The first chapters of the Auto.
| biography" tell a story of prosperous
| happy domestic life, full of the care
| of children and hard literary work
| in which the countess bore her share
| for she was her husbands copyist
and critic almost as long as he con-
| tinued to write. In addition she was
the business manager of the family
directed the education of all the
! children and managed to find time
| for music, painting and authorship on
her own account. Several of the
thirteen children died and after the
| death in 1895 of the youngest SON
Vanichka. the countess writes:
| After Vanichka's death our family
| life was no longer happy. Gradually
/ t,n ~ w-,.
| house became empty" Already the
| change IN Tolstoys views had begun
which was finally TO wreck their
| married life. He had come TO be-
] lieve in 4 doctrine Of renunciation Of
| all private property and luxury and
| a return to the simple life of the
peasants. He withdrew himself more
and more from family interests and
| looked upon his family as an obstacle
| to his carrying out his dream of a
| free, new life. of an act of renuncia-
| tion." Several times he threatened
to go away and start new life with
| the peasants. OF this change the
countess writes patheticalIy:
Leo Nikolaeyich or put his mind at
| rest. spirit which rejected the
existing religions, the progress OF
science, art family, everything which
/ mankind had evolved in centuries,
had ira,Iss been ?, gro growing ing stronger and
was becoming gloomier and gloom
| ier | did not know how to
live with such views; ! was alarmed,
| frightened, grieved. But with nine
| children l could not. like weather
cock, turn in the ever r-changing direc-
tion of my husbands spiritual go
! ing away. With him it was a pas
sionate, sincere seeking; with me it
would have been silly Imitation,
positively harmful to the family"
he fn trn Doy "a
with Tolstoy's fight from his home
in 1910 and his death soon after.
His side of the sad story appears
| in a letter to his daughter and in
extracts from his diary. Writing to
| his daughter he said:
THE chief thing is that they ttwo
F. of his other children) should realize
and try to suggest to her (the
| countess) that this perpetual spying
| eavesdropping, incessant complaining
! ordering me about, as her family
takes her, constant managing, pre-
| tended hatred of the man who is
! nearest and most necessary to me
! with her open hatred of me and
,pretence of loye-that a life like
| this Is not only unpleasant, but i'm
| possible; and If one of US is to drown
| himself, let it not be her on any
! account, but myself: that there is bu,
one thing l want-freedonl from her
! from that falsehood, pretence ano
| spite with which her whole being is
permeated."
The Clinton twins. Joan and Nancy
| created and guided from childhood tc
! womanhood by Archibald Marshall, in
his four series-novels, "The Squire's
| Daughter" THE Eldest Son." THE
Honour of the Clintons'' and "T11e Old
Order Changeth," have been revived by
Mr.. Marshall in his latest book. col.
| lection Of short stories, emitted 1.-The
Clinton Twins and Other StorieS." AT
| the end OF THE Old Order Changeth
Joan and Nancy had both come safe'S
through all their childhood misde-
fairs of their girlhood and were hap
PLY married to devoted husbands.
Now, in THE Clinton Twins they are
brought back to the age of twelve and
Never were there children with such in
ventive minds children SO clever in re-
partee, children 50 mischievous without
being malicious, 80 in1pertinent without
being offensive, as these two. and yet
/ they seem thoroughly real and not mere
/
are added to their record tell Of their
attempt to remodel an ancient attic
wing at kencote the Clinton country
| house, into a home, including a chapel
| for their old nurse Nanny; of their
| training of their new maid Hannah to
! her great discontinue: of their unique
| attempts to earn money for home for
! crippled children, and of fortnight'S
1 visit from two other little girls, which
! provides occasion for a succession OF
\ Quarrels.
| That leisure is a necessity of life
| not a luxury. is the view of Samuel
| McChord Crothers in his essay, Lei
| sure While You Wait" in the volume
| "The Cheerful Giver." According to
| Mr.. Crothers, leisure is an attitude OF
| mind. "The mind is it's own place.
! he says, land in itself can create a
| driven feeling in the Vale of Already
| To illustrate the fact that leisure is
| compatible with great deal of work
| IL only the work is not allowed tc
drive the worker, he tells a story OF
an odd custom in the home of his
! aunt, the busy mother of twelve chill
| dren, who was yet never In q hurry
When anything was lost the aunt
! would say: You'll probably find ii
on the as-you." The as-you was a
|
basement kitchen and the living room
on which members of the family were
in the habit of dropping articles in
| transit. to be picked up on some fu-
| ture trip. "The remark that you
would find household article as you
go up or as you go down. had been
last, contracted into a place-name.' y
| Mr.. Crothers concludes: 81 think tina,
every well ordered mind ought to
have an as-yoH. There are uuties
| which you lay down temporarily be-
| cause you have your hands too full
You have a feeling that you have car.
ried them as far as you are able to-
day. AS you come that way tomor-