Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1889 — AMIABLE BARBARIANS. [ARTICLE]

AMIABLE BARBARIANS.

Interesting Anecdotes of Tolstoi end Melikoff. From the Czar down to the humblest mujik, the Russians are more or less barbarians, from the point of view of the refined West, but certainly most amiable barbarians, so far as foreigners are concerned. As an example of the strange contrasts of real Russia we we will cite two anecdotes that were related to us by a distinguished official. The conversation happened to turn upon General Loris Melikoff, the famous chief of the dreaded “Third Section,” The Emperor, we were told by our informant, had given Loris Melikoff unbounded power to act against the nihilists, and had virtually created him Vice Emperor, as Melikoff himself used to say. Now, Melikoff had discovered that one of the leading nihilist chiefs was in the habit of frequently visiting Count Tolstoi, the novelist, and one day he went out to Tolstoi’s country house. Before the visitor had announced himself, Tolstoi recognized him, and said: “You are Loris Melikoff, chief of the Third Section. Do you come to see me officially, or as a private man ? If you come officially, here are my keys; search; open everything. You are free.”

“I come not officially,” replied Melikoff. “Very good,” answered Tolstoi, and calling two mujiks he said to them: “Throw this man out of the house.” The mujiks obeyed Tolstoi to the letter, and Loris Melikoff had to accept this treatment, for in his way Tolstoi is a mightier man than even “our father the Czar.” In the eyes of the Russian people he is an exceptional being, being more than a saint and almost a savior.

The mention of Loris " Melikoff brought up another anecdote. Some twelve years ago the Emperor sent for Melikoff and annouced to him that the plague was raging in two villages of the empire, and ordered him to do whatever was needful with a view to stopping its ravages, at the same time giving him unlimited powers. Thereupon Loris Melikoff went first of all to the Minister of Finance, informed him that he should perhaps require a great deal of money in order to carry out the Emperor’s commands, and demanded a credit of 50,030,000 of rubles. The Minister of Finance made a long face, but was unable to refuse. Loris Melikoff then posted to the village in question, and, having observed the situation, he telegraphed for twenty fire-engines to be sent from the neighboring towns, had the pumps charged with petroleum, and ordered the firemen to approach the villages by night, inundate the cottages with petroleum, set them on fire, and save nobody. The order was executed, the cottages and their few hundred inhabitants—men, women, children, and cattle—were burned to ashes, and those two villages disappeared from the map of Russia and from the registers of the empire. The measure was radical, but it stamped out the plague effectually. Loris Melikoff thereupon reported to the Emperor that his command had been executed, and then called on the Minister of Finance to tell him that out of the credit of 50,000,000 of rubles granted to him he had only spent 200 rubles to buy petroleum, and that consequently his excellency the Minister could dispose of the balance. —Theodore Child, in Harper's Magazine.