Show we ave changed mai aall by herbert quick and elena mac mahon copyright by 1 the dobbs bobba merrall co J service THE STORY commissar Comm lagar soviet quad u d invades the home of kras kraa aln ma aristocrat at kazan with the purpose of requisitioning tho the place for government use vil insky insults the daughter mu big commissar lorla loris Ts in urged to confiscate the home the family consists of judge krassin Krass ln mrs mra ilya former officer and husiow loris promises prom lees to anve digate CHAPTER ill III continued con linued 4 she was mourning her horses and cow so low had her possession fallen in n number and value to a young man named darned vladimir one of those young joung men who had flocked to kazan from the capital because lie he was a citizen of the place and because he was drifting sitting la in salons was the great occupation of the Russ lafi nobility at this in fact act it hod had always been historians of the french revolution describe the knitters in the sun who scarcely paused in their knitting as they counted their one two and so on na as the guillotine rose and fell the antithesis of the knitters in the sun are the sitters to in the salon the young mon men vladimir listened attentively to th the e princess ile he hod had slipped into the house houie by a gate on the back street the night before and wore defiantly antly the uniform wIt with hIts its soft golden epaulettes epaul ettes of his bis old regiment defiantly dorthey for they were banned by the lie he would have lave sung led god save the czar in public if occasion had called tor it the wearing of the forbidden trial insignia griliI was characteristic of lila its bold reckless contempt of the usurpers usurp ers of the power of the russian people and of his class the vaunt of race tie he answered nn the ahe princesses princes p sas if she had been placing be before him a matter of high atae statecraft t ernt the new way said he it wont lost long ag 1 I am glad led you on are 0 eo o hope hopeful rul said bald colonel boyarsky 1 I 1 hope you yon are right vladimir and you my dear princess prin cesa are no BO worse off than others they have taken almost all the animals in kazan under this thievish decree ill 1 the colonel wore no forbidden insignia he had come from petrograd Petro grad to his old family sent seat here because his occupation in petrograd Petro grad was gone in these LenInI zed days life there had become so hard and he had bad hoped hobed thattie th that atthe the grain fruits fowls and other provisions of hla his kazan I 1 lands might keep in that old delicately nurtured body the breath of a 6 life lifa which strange to say was still of value to ta him courtly soldierly from the crown crown of his gray head to the soles of his not very well shod feet his beard trimmed like that of Ni nicholas cholag i 11 II his erect form and manner ele 1 i gant almost to excess might serve as an advertisement of hla his rank to any servant or oppressor of the proletariat who might catch a glimpse of him A typical sitter in the salon the sitters in the salon had bad always talked and always talked elegantly and usually rather well of those in power they did so BO now no as we have heard but mrs krassin and rid the princess soon managed a little aside on the phase of tho the subject which related to ilya krassin Krass ln mrs krastins Krass Kras lna sins son and his file peril under th the soviet power the mother refused to admit that there was any peril but though to a stranger she would have seemed os cool as when she was surrounded I 1 by her great friends and tier her corps of submissive servants in the old days her intimates surprised a frightened lookin look in her eyes from time to time time as she patte patter I her graying hair and made her habl babi cual gesture of courtesy toward one of the speakers kers 1 I beg your pardon said site she to colonel boyarsky 1 I did not quite understand what you were saying to vladimir 1 I was saying sold raid the colonel that tills this fearful scourge of human beasts if I 1 may express myself so strongly atron gly Is taking on new peril to ev everything ery thing good in this loris and I 1 the rabble under hint him it Is hard to i enumerate the consequences 11 they are arc very numerous said bald mrs biro krassin krassan ln they and the refugees from the german geman front are simply packing the town full 1 I do not mean the number of I 1 them replied the colonel and he would have been proud to know how much like nicholas it II he looked us its he made hla his characteristic flourish with his hand hut but the effects of their control nor the material effects elT ecta either though they are very evil 1 I agree with you there said mrs krassin Krass ln fig as if to evade a facing of it the real subject of the colonels words 11 1 I suffer some of these material con sequences the people on my lands are behaving very badly babli some of 0 them actually claim that they own the landsi lands 1 but others are bringing lu a part of what they took from us and are I 1 am sure giving a part of 0 the loot to the ho bolshevism trying to act so as to be safe bate whoever finally fin tilly wins wine I 1 suppose I 1 should be desperate if I 1 did not line have about two years provisions in the refrigerators and store rooms what we aro are coming to I 1 can not imagine sho she was plaintive over her evil plight she elie was triumphant because it was no worse and she was courteous according to the old hospitable ethics of her class in thus giving her guests the assurance that there was waa still plenty for nil all it was a characteristic te speech As for the complaint in it all the landowners had acquired abo he habit of 0 f speaking like children or servants conscious of injustice and abuse and bark back of it all was a sense of impending scarcity even with all their supplies on hand it if the nile could think it too would complain on becoming conscious of the fact that the rainfall in abyssinia and the lake region had permanently ceased and that when the water already coining downstream should fall there would be no more and no more nile why should mrs airs krassin Kras aln retrain refrain from complaining at a similar catastrophe she had been a Va turlin and all the volga valley knows that the Va turlin family have been great people min since ce the tartar invasions by birth they were of the higher nobility some members of this and other old families maintained among themselves that they were better born bora than any of the royal roval family they had always controlled things through their ownership of lands and their powerful organization their men had always presided nt at the local military mobilizations they had controlled a majority of votes in the and held many honorable hon oralla offices serving always without salary they were conscious of having devoted themselves to the state of having made sacrifices of having ren dered valuable service and duty to tho the nation whatever may have been their public virtues they felt virtuous and unselfish whatever they received front from the old order came to them like the tight light of morning or the rain from heaven an is a part of ct the natural scheme of things had find tt it not always been so aal aol why should not mrs afro krassin have two years provisions laid in even in this time of scarcity was not her brother a Va turlin an elected marst lal of the nobility did she not have near relatives who held high diplomatic posts who had bad been officers of the guards who were in confidential places inthe in the ministries in was not her uncle a secretary of tho the interior was not hei her lousin a trellia at the court odthe of the empress mother why should she not live in plenty and security with the homage and services service of everybody b 0 d y 1 I paid id to her a aa it hall bad always b been ee nv there was ao answer tn in this salon the bolshevik revolution its oligarchy did not bring nn an answer to this fearful earful question of inequality of human beings in the house bouse of krassin they were the queries of knaves fools assassins and lunatics and yet with all their ability and training in public life these people of the upper nobility were the first to suffer la in the revolution in the first fall of a government to the forces of the revolution they were in a majority me and then came the second coup the kossof toss of their lands they mere vi ere down had and out before any one else fell the banks the merchants and the manufacturers held hed on for two years or so BO after what i sky called the krassin gang were already down and done for had they only known it before the revolution knost of them had bad gloated over critt darn of the old government the imperial or for or that matter over tiny any government or power and now they sat in their salons and an d talked bitterly of the old times yet nobody could say bow they might have escaped cap ed ruin the dice of destiny were loaded against them not only against their fortunes and their bodies their very souls w were ere on trial TO BE CONTINUED |