Evening star., 1937-05-02

OlStOy MOVING F1cture3
About First In Russia.
1t was last week, the evening be-
fore her lecture at the washington
Club, which she gave for the benefit
OF the Washington branch of the
Russian Children's Welfare Society,
that the countess received the visitor
In a rather dimly lighted room With
her hand shading her eyes from the
iampllght she appeared strikingly like
the picture of her father as a young
man, which was shown on the screen
during the lecture. BY the way. those
silent moving pictures shown that
night were among the first taken IN
Russia.
She said her father disliked very
much being photographed and often
the camera men when they came to
Yasnaya Polyana, his country estate,
would hide behind the lilac bushes or
other shrubbery and take him un-
awares. Or, If he were walking in
the forest, they would hide behind a
tree. In Moscow, at the railway sta
ton, or at his town house, it was much
more difficult to photograph him
unless his family or friends were with
him. He would then consent reluc
family, but amiably.
The Countess Turns From Chickens
To Lecturing and Writing.
The countess has a frank. cordial
way OF meeting one even though she
Knows there is an ulterior motive be-
hnd the visit. She was a bit tired
that evening for she had driven her
Ford up from Florida, and she smiled
rs she remarked that she was not
raising chickens now, or doing stren-
uous farming-you know she had a
chicken farm when she first came to
TINS country. But she still describes
herself as farmer, speaker and writer.
AS with Count Tolstoy, the lure of
the land Is strong within her. The
tlmbre of the lower tones of her voice
rs she talked seemed to be in uniso,
with the times Of which she was
speaking. Beloved Yasnaya Polyana,
her fathers great country estate.
Vnere she was reared: The pitiable
plight OF the peasants and his plans
and dreams for them, and then the
long evenings when the family assem-
bled IN the great library and some one
read from one of his books. In her
lecture at the club she told of one
evening when she was reading aloud,
War and Peace" and looked up to
see her father in the doorway; he said.
That sounds well. What is it?" His
mind was veritable beehive of activ-
ity. changing from one task to an
other.
One OF Her Fathers
Literary Executors.
AS one Of the literary executors of
her fathers will, Countess Alexan-
dra-her father called her Sasha
edited his posthumous works. She
also fulfilled his request that 1900
acres OF his estate be bought with the
money secured and the land distrib-
uted among the Yasnaya Polyana
peasants. For many years she was his
amanuensis, his typist and laughingly
told how many times she had written
longhand some of his most volum-
HnouS manuscrlpts-in fact. as much
aS six or seven times, only to have
him correct and interline and cross out
so that the copy was almost illegible.
In 1918, eight years after Count
Tolstoy's death, Alexandra organized
society in Moscow to study and
work on a complete edition of his
Works-some 81 volumes. When she
was asked if she felt that her fathers
work and labor for the brotherhood
OF man were in vain and his ideals
founded on the good, the true and
the beautiful were more or less ephem-
eral, she answered that she believed
that all that is good in the philosophy
OF living is eternal. Both in her lee
ture and in her private conversation
she made only a slight allusion to
Tolstoy's home-leaving and his tragic
death. In her book, however called
The Tragedy Of Tolstoy," she speaks
more at length.
YAsnaya Polyana Mecca
Tor World Visitors.
Count Tolstoy's home was a mecca