Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, vol 2 | Page 4

Great Britain. Difficulties regarding Israelites; my
long despatch on the subject to Secretary Gresham. Adventurous
Americans. Efforts to prostitute American citizenship. Difficulties
arising from the complicated law of the Empire. Violations of the
Buchanan Treaty. Cholera at St. Petersburg; thorough measures taken
by the Government; death of Tschaikovsky; difficulty in imposing
sanitary regulations upon the peasantry.
CHAPTER XXXVI
. MY RECOLLECTIONS OF POBEDONOSTZEFF--1892-1894
My desire to know Pobedonostzeff; his history; his power. Public
business which led to our meeting; his characteristics; reasons for his
course; his view of the relations of the Russo-Greek Church to the
Empire; his frankness in speaking of the Church. His hostility to
Western civilization. His discussion of revolutionary efforts in Russia.

His theory of Russian public instruction. His ultra-reactionary views.
His mingled feelings regarding Tolstoi. His love for American
literature; his paradoxical admiration for Emerson, his translation of
Emerson's "Essays"; his literary gift. Feeling toward him in Russian
society. His religious character. His esthetic character. Charles A.
Dana's impression of him. Our discussion of possible relations between
the Russian and English Churches; his talks upon introducing the "Holy
Orthodox Church" into the United States. His treatment of hostile
articles in the English Reviews. His professorial friends. His statements
regarding Father Ivan; miracles by the latter; proofs of their legendary
character; Pobedonostzeff's testimony on the subject.
CHAPTER XXXVII
. WALKS AND TALKS WITH TOLSTOI--MARCH, 1894
Moscow revisited. Little change for the better. First visit to Tolstoi.
Curious arrangement of his household. Our first discussions; condition
of the peasants; his view of Quakers; their "want of logic." His view of
Russian religious and general thought. Socrates as a saint in the
Kremlin. His views of the Jews; of Russian treatment of prisoners. His
interest in American questions. Our visit to the Moscow Museum; his
remark on the pictures for the Cathedral of Kieff; his love for realistic
religious pictures; his depreciation of landscape painting; deep feeling
shown by him before sundry genre pictures. His estimate of Peter the
Great. His acknowledgment of human progress. His view of the agency
of the Czar in maintaining peace. His ideas regarding French literature;
of Maupassant; of Balzac. His views of American literature and the
source of its strength; his discussion of various American authors and
leaders in philanthropic movements; his amazing answer to my
question as to the greatest of American writers. Our walks together; his
indiscriminate almsgiving; discussion thereupon. His view of travel.
The cause of his main defects. Lack of interchange of thought in Russia;
general result of this. Our visit to the Kremlin. His views of religion;
questions regarding American women; unfavorable view of feminine
character. Our attendance at a funeral; strange scenes. Further
discussion upon religion. Visit to an "Old Believer"; beauty of his
house and its adornments; his religious fanaticism; its effects on Tolstoi.
His views as to the duty of educated young men in Russia. Further

discussion of American literature. His hope for Russian progress. His
manual labor. His view of Napoleon. His easy-going theory of warlike
operations. Our farewell. Estimate of him. His great qualities. His
sincerity. Cause of his limitations. Personal characteristics related to
these. Evident evolution of his ideas. Effect of Russian civilization on
sundry strong men.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
. OFFICIAL LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG--1892-1894
Difficulty in securing accurate information in Russia; the censorship of
newspapers and books; difficulty in ascertaining the truth on any
question; growth of myth and legend in the Russian atmosphere of
secrecy and repression. Difficulties of the American Minister arising
from too great proneness of Americans to believe Russian stories;
typical examples. American adventurers; a musical apostle; his Russian
career. Relation of the Legation to the Chicago Exposition; crankish
requests from queer people connected with it; danger of their bringing
the Exposition into disrepute; their final suppression. Able and gifted
men and women scattered through Russian society. Russian hospitality.
Brilliant festivities at the Winter Palace; the Blessing of the Waters; the
"palm balls"; comparison of the Russian with the German Court. Visit
of Prince Victor Napoleon to St. Petersburg; its curious characteristics.
Visit of the Ameer of Bokhara; singular doings of his son and heir.
Marriage of the Grand Duchess Xenia; kindness, at the Peterhof Palace,
of an American "Nubian." Funeral of the Grand Duchess Catherine;
beginnings of the Emperor's last illness then evident. Midnight mass on
Easter eve; beauty of the music. The opera. Midnight excursions in the
northern twilight. Finland and Helsingfors. Moscow revisited. Visit to
the Scandinavian countries. Confidence reposed in me by President
Cleveland. My resignation.
CHAPTER XXXIX
. AS MEMBER OF THE VENEZUELAN COMMISSION--1895-1896
The Venezuelan Commission; curious circumstances of my nomination
to it by President Cleveland. Nature of the question to be decided; its
previous evolution. Mr. Cleveland's message. Attacks upon him; his
firmness. Sessions of the Commission; initial difficulties; solution of

them.