A "Religious Guide"

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 January 1917, Page 3

A "Religious Guide"

* THE MURDERED RUSSIAN MONK A cablegram iii Tlnvrsday's issue ol" The Chronicle gave particulars of •.yho murder in Peitrograd, a few clays ago, of the man known as "Tlio •Mwk Rasputin." . Rasputin lias been "iu the 'public eye" several times during the tost few years. An exchange supplies the following particulars of 'Rasputin's career :— Grigory Rasputin ("Gregory tlie Rake") first appeared at Petrogrnd in 101' i, when he was about 35 years* of age. Up to that time he had: ' been one of the "religious guides" found in large numbers in almost every; Russian village. Some of these men are simple hermits, who aro permitted -by the church to expound elementary doctrines to thevillagers; .others, of whom Rasputin, was one, are mere charlatans. Rasputin, who came of humble peasant stock, made his way, thanks to a. charming manner which has heen described as ox-hypnotic. Certain ly lio sprang almost' instantaneously into favor in aristocratic circles in Pe--trogjrad, and his intrigues against certan high dignitaries in the church drew upon him many attacks in the 'Duma and the press. But Rasputin always prevailed by his influence; and, while his friends wore promoted in various capacities, his enemies— amongst them so important a pciv.cnag© as the Archbishop Antony of" \ olhynia—wore either disgraced or superseded. Jn -Tn Iy, 191!, a. woman who said she wished to avenge one of the "monk's" girl victims, stabbedhim when he was visiting his native village of Pokrovski. in Tobolsk, but the wound did not prove as deadly as some had hoped.