TOLSTOY'S LIFE IN BRIEF.

Grey River Argus, 23 November 1910, Page 1

TOLSTOY'S LIFE IN BRIEF.

Count Lyof Nikolaivitch Tolstoy, the most eminent of Russian'novelists, was born on August 28, iB2B, at -Yasnaia, Poliana, in- the government of Toula. He -entered the army when twenty-three, and served^in the. Gaucasuo and at Sebastopol. He first made a literary reputation by his vivid : sketches from . Sebastopol.. Leaving; the Army soon after the close of the' Crimean .war, he ■ devoted himself to literature.* His and Peace," a tale of the invasion of Russia; by Napoleon iitn 1812, is regarded by Russians as his masterpiece ;■ but his ; "Anna Karenina," which appeared in; 1876, is better appreciated .. abroad; "The Cossacks' ds another .admirable work. He has written much on education, and published . ,many short tales and -reminiscences of childhood and youth* Latterly he devoted himself to religious teaching. He made "Resist not evil" the keynote of the Christian faith, and insisted that the literal interpretation of the> Sermon on the Mount was the only rule of the Christian life. ' His religious views axe set forth in 'Christ's Christianity' and "My Religion." Translations of his "Krutzer Sonata" - appeared in--1890. In October 1892, he deposited his Memoirs and Diaries with the Curator of the Rumyanzoff Museum on the condition that they should not be published till ten years after his death. In November he legally made over his fortune, including- his real and personal estate, to his wife and children. He married in 1861, and has nine children living. During "1&93 he wrote "The Kingdom . of God Within Us." an important work on the social question; in 1894 a powerful criticism of .the Franco-Russian "'alliance, entitled "Patriotism and Christianity" appeared; and in 1895 he published "The Four Gospels ;.Harmonised and Translated" ;by. himself. In September 1900 : what amounted to a decree of excommunication was pronounced against him by the-pre-sident of the Holy Synod. For many years he' worked- on -his farm as a I peasant, dressing- in. rustic style and

going barefoot. "■ ' Lately his health' has failed rapidly, and it was doubtless in the belief that the end was near that the Nobel Prize Committee decided to anticipate the awards of prizes for 1911, and to 1 award the Peace Prize for that year to the distinguished Russian. TOLSTOY AT HOME. Dr E. P. Dillon, . the well-known authority on Russian affairs, paid a visit to Tolstoy at his farm, in 1892, and ths was the picture he painted. '1 myself paid a visit to the Count a few week ago in the hamlet, of Beghitshevica, which, though geographically speaking .^very near Moscow, I discovered, to my cost, to be twentyfour hours distant by the most rapid communication available, namely, railways for all but twenty-five niiles of the journey. I found vtJbe Count fin excellent health, working- all day and half the night with the enthusiasm . and enterprise of a strong man of twentyrfive.' Every morning. a"t about eight or nine o'clock his antechamber was filled with a crowd of men' and. women from : the villages around, all waiting . in- respectful silence, some in an attitude of humble adoration, for the appearance, of the Co.unt, like the impotent folk. of Jerusalem waiing for the descent of. the angel the, moving of the water. The wants and woes of these good people are? as various as their names • and-, ages, and' few of them have any notion where benevolence ends and .omnipotence begins . Some want peabe, established in their homes, fuel ."for their-- huis, fodder ior their cattle, vengeance on their enemies, oyrcoats and fathers for, their destitute children. • There is always, a goodly muster of these petitioners in spitt: of the .Count's- expressed determination to relieve their pressing

.. wants only at the soup-toitcheris which ■he visits ever day, sometimes driving ovur to distant villages to open new ones- Instead of enjoying well-earned •repose at tne: close of his day's labours, he burns considerable quantities of midnight oil over, his articles and essays, some of which -will probablybe thoroughly mellowed by time before finaly seeing the light of daA r ." * ■ ■ : TOLSTOY AT EIGHTY-TWO Count Tolstoy, novelist and countryman, social reformer and aristocrat j was eighty- two on September 10, and • "Home : Countries": had. a very interesting, article on the Russian as "The Great Countryman", with his 18,000 acres, dn the "World's Work.' It \yas iii the form of a conversation with Mr Aylmer Maud, Tolstoy's biographer. ,

\ The reason why' the first consecutive and intimate account of Tolstoy's later years doesi mot aome to the world from Russia itself, he. wrote; is that there are aspects of the Count's life that may not be freely written about in his own country. Among non-Russians, Mr Maude, who made Tolstoy's, acquaintance nearly a quarter o^ a century ago, was the man best qualified to tell the tale.

.Mr Maude says that "after leaving the university and after leaving the army, he went back to Yashaya Polyana. When he married tin 1861 he settled down on the estate and hardly ever went away. He very seldom went up to Moscow or anywhere else, and he put an fifteen years of novelwriting .and estate-managing, .breeding horses and cattle and pigs, keeping bees on a very large scale planting, large apple orchards" and trees, ■and managing the estate generally.

"He once said of his farming: 'I only ask that it should not demand of me so- much attention and participation as to deprive me of my tranquility.' ■

• "After the period of the 'Conversion' he took a distaste to estate- ■ managing for. profit. But he. had a very severe attack of agriculture as a moral-- duty, as helping the peasants, as the normal way of life. That lasted pretty well 'up to 1891, when there was a bad famine, and he threw, up .everything and went off for a couple of years to the famine district and worked among the. famine-stricken. .Wher. he returned home-— he was then already over sixty — he had a great .accumulation of literary work and problems that were occupying his mind very much, and, partly- ,from old age,: and partly from his "naftira'l bent : to' literature, he was drawn' away from his agricultural' labour, (excepting intermittently and for the .sake of exercise. , "Even when he was living in Moscow he had to find some form of physical work to keep himself fit. ( 'In the mornings,' he said, 'I try to work, but. it goes badly. At twe/ or three o'clock I go across the River Moskva to saw up timber. And when I have the strength and wish to do- it it refreshes me, and I see something of real life, into which — if but for a moment — I dive, and am refreshed.' "His love for the country and his dislike of towns sprang partly from his keen appreciation of the charm of Nature. At one time he frequently carried flowers -jn his leather girdle. ■ "No bad weather was allowed to interfere with his daily work (his bro- : tlier-in-law writes of the earlier period of his married life). He could put up whh a loss of appetite which he occasionally suffered, but h-e could never go a day without a sharp walk in the open air." Here is an interesting glimpse of what Tolstoy's wife thought of some of-'hii doings: — "You have sent, away Andrian (a manservant), who was desperately ainxious to stay out the montH^ and have let the man-cooly . go, for whom it would also have been a pleasure to do something for his pelnsion; and from morning to evening you will be doing unpiofitable physical work, which ev-jn among, the peasants ds done by th c young men and the womenfolk. So it would have been better and more useful for you here with the children. Of course, you will' say that to live so accords witK your convictio.i, and 'that^you -enjoy it. That is another matter,' and I can only say 'Enjoy yourself !' but all the same I a*n annoyed that such mental strength' shouild be lost at' log-splitting, lighting samovar,, and making boots — which are all excellent as a rest or change of occupation, but not as a spetial employment. Well, enough of that ! Had I not written it I should have remained vexed; but now. it is past, and the thing amuses me, and I have quieted down, saying : 'Let the child amuse itself as it likes, so long as, it doesn't - cry'— A Russian pro \ verb.' ■■■■' " .. ' ■.