TOLSTOI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 212, 1 September 1908, Page 4

TOLSTOI.

HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY. -THE ONLY' FREE .MAX IX RUSSIA." SOME INTERESTING PERSONAL NOTES. '•lie has known all the glories. He has had military glory; lie has had literary glory; and now he knows a little of the glory of SI. Francis—jf a Buddha who preached love and alt uegaUon.'' in this way lias one writer summed up the life of Count Leo Tolstoi, whose eightieth birthday is being celebrated to-day. Only last month t> great Russian created some stir in the Old World by publishing what has been described as "the most overwhelming indictment of the present system o'f 'government by executions' in Russia that has ever been uttered." What that indictment may mean to Tolstoi himself can be guessed from the passionate outburst in which he exclaims* "1 can no longer endure it! 1 write this . . . either that these inhuman deeds may be stopped, or that my connection witli them may be snapped and I put in prison, where 1 may be clearly conscious that these horrors arc not committed on my behalf; or still bettcu (so good that 1 dare not even dream of such happiness) that they may put on me, as on twenty or twelve peasants, a shroud and a cap, and may push me also off a bench, so that by my own weight I may tighten the well-soaped noose round my own throat." In conI elusion the writer makes a noble apI peal to the better nature of his count rymen.

" THE- FREEST MAN*." Tolstoi has been described as the freest man in Russia. Not the great Muscovite Tsar himself is so free in will and deed. Of all the fifteen thousand laws of the land not one weighs upon him. He says what he pleases, writes what he pleases, and does what he pleases. From Tsar to lax-collector, no official perturbs him. Not even the cares of property or the burden of a family rests upon him. in that whi'.e land where nothing is free—where the Tsar is cabined among his councillors, and even thought is chained—Tolstoi's liberty is absolutely untrammelled. " Yes, I know I have complete freedom," he is reported to have said, " but the very liberty they leave me binds me. I "feel less free than 1 would if they should begin to'move against me—to do something—to attack me. I am like a passenger on n ship which is drifting in on the rocks—the only one, as it were, who is permitted to use a speaking trumpet. 1 must use it wisel .', and not say foolish things; and that is not always easy." "Tolstoi owes his miraculous freedom not to State policy; he owes it to the Tsar," writes Vance Thompson. "Nicholas 11., whose realm runs over forty degrees of latitude, and who is considered the sole representative lo his subjects of God upon earth, is himself a Tolstoist. The Tsar is a kindly, overworked, unhappy man. He writes vague, melancholy • verses, rides a bicycle, and takes amateur photographs. His amusements are few. Tolstoi's books appealed to the Slavic mysticism in him, and accorded with his dreamy love of humanity." "OPEN HOUSE.

At Yasnaia Poliana he keeps open house. The very laws relating to passports relax a little in favour of those •who enter Russia speaking his name. Visitors in an endless pilgrimage pass to his home—writers, statesmen, financiers, farmers, senators, brigands, students, soldiers, and correspondents of newspapers of all lands—not a day passes but some pilgrim goes down the Dolo-Klianiovnitcheskaia, seeking an interview with this great Russian writer, who turned prophet in his old age. They make a steady stream of respectful guests—young men and old, Russians, 'French, and Americans; Dutch, Polish, and English adventurers; the. penitent bandit; Tchourkine, or a Brahmin of the Indies, Paul Deroulede, or—at fo.ir in the morning, and greatly to the i prophet's astonishment—William Jennings Bryan—and many others.

WHAT IS 1110'; "After all, what is he—this rich mar. who has put on the rags of Lazarus, this great writer who condemns all the great books he has written, this old soldier who assails wary" asks one critic. "For some he is a Christian hero; for others a blasphemer; for some he is a fanatic; for others a sage, visited by the spiritual light that illumined Socrates, Buddha, and Confiisciu*. and which makes of him, as of them, the founder of a new religion." In his youth he wrote these words, as prophetic, it may be, as any he ever penned: "T am certain that, if I should live to be verv old, and if T should then describe exactly what 1 should be, my narration would show me—at seventy years of age—given up to the same childish fancies as to-day."

SOLDIER AND WHITER. Tempted by dreams of military glory he took service in an artillery regiment under orders for Crimea, and there ho distinguished himself. Then he sought another glory—that of a writer. He went to St. Petersburg; he travelled abroad. At thirty-four he married and settled down at Yasnaia iPolinna. He wrote his great books, "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." The glory he loved came to him. His wife—his Mil l :' companion, secretary, and friend —bore him thirteen children. Money poured ia on him; he grew rich, and he was happy.

LIVE FOR HI'MANITY. Here, at the summit of his prosperity, on the edge of old age, be discovered, like Solomon, that " all is vanity and vexation of spirit." "The only way I can live at all," he said, " is to live for humanity."

lie went to Moscow and organised a committee of charity. He made speeches in the Town Hall. The people wondered a little, hut out of respect for the great writer they subscribed freely. He established a soup-kitchen and other charities. Of the fund he had left thirtyseven roubles. lie tried to give it away, but in all Moscow, he said, lie could not discover anyone at once poor enough and good enough to merit the gift. So he returned it to the rich. He' donned a bkrase and went down among the working men. He lias taken up many ideas since. Although happily marrisd lie denounced marriage. lie also took uj) vegetarianism, and in a pamphlet lie announced to the world: "Virtue is incompatiole with beefsteak."

ALWAYS THE COUNT. | It has been said of Tolstoi that he j never has a penny in his pocket —he made over all bis fortune to his wifeami he preaches poverty while his fortune grows; his very pamphlets against wealth bring golden royalties from the publishers of all lands, for his wife is a marvellous business agent. " Even in his old age " —according to Vance Thompson—" it is hard for him to be a Tolstoist. The sword he earlied in the Crimea hangs just above his writing-table. The old soldier wears a blouse, eats only vegetables, makes his own bed, and refuses to sleep on feathers. He is still the aristocrat, hating the verbose Socialist and Hie insane anarchist, but loving the violets of Parma and a good saddle horse—always the Count Leo Nikolaiovitch Tolstoi of Yasnaia Poliaua."