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Show B " It B AN EF?RATIC PEACE OFFICER, iw I tftl B ussIan of unpronouncable name writes in a B ' m Hi Russian journal of like unpronouncable name, a B i ' 111 Sl sketch of how the great Tolstoy, in the district of B ' ill II Krapirensk, in 18G1-G2, acted as a magistrate. B i ' w mm Tne wrlter sets his material from the records left B i m mm ln ihat offlce of JustIce of the Peace. He decided B ' ' ' W m many cases unjustly, and in every case, where a B ' ,' ! peasant and landlord clashed, he at once became B j !. the unconscious attorney for the under dog. Ho B ' """ i seemed to have the same idea of his office and Its " ! t ! functions that the Deseret News has of a city (; j council. i M To have told him that what he was doing was both unjust and unlawful, would have probably kindled his wrath. He never realized that he was ) I too prejudiced to act as arbiter in differences be- ,i I tween men, and when a law directly Xorbade any H act that he contemplated doing, he reconciled his ji S conscience by secretly believing that the law was ; B wrong. That is, with Tolstoy, down deep, he did not believe in the sacredness of law, never once h - tf , V realized that an honest man ought ever to sur- H j Jl i lender his own convictions, no matter what the ; I law commanded, and could never see that orderly H ' l 1 society would be impossible without law, or that m i "ffj B the science of law was merely putting in form H i p the rules on which society could alone exist, and Mm vicious men be compelled to render justice to 1MM their fellowmen, or suffer prescribed penalties. J Tolstoy believed that every man, should do what K was right, and so all-embracing was his Deinoc- racy that his belief went further even to the point mm of thinking that every man would be just, if so- fflji ciety was not, itself, so unjust. It is a clear m case that he was not fit to hold the office of mag- jHl istrate. With him, for a man to be rich and H comfortable was a crime, so long as there were 1H so many human beings in the world who were b ,,ji IK poor anud miserable, and had some wretch mal- H f mm treated him, he would have turned upon him, as BB ll mm Mrs' Browning explains of another, and in a tone B m MB of comPassion would have exclaimed, "how you BS W flH must have suffered to have become so wicked." H ' ' ri 1H BB i4m 'H SoeakinS of Tolstoy, Ry-Ratchieff, in Mir Bozy, HK' 'ill I contrasts his ideal of political economy with those BB H MB of usk,n- Tolstoy's first thought was to satisfy BB f 1MB tho "Physical hunger" of the masses. Ruskin was iB ( Mi Bl most concerned lest existing social conditions; BW Mm BP would result in stifling the souls of men. The mis- BBfH 1 'IB fortune is that both were right. As a rule, men's flBHHf Bl souls do not grow when they suffer for common BBBIil Wm needed things, when a generous man sees those Hij 3b whotr he loves suffer, his soul is liable to grow HglIfii B so dark that he can see no good in anything. BrlfP i I Many people think that capital should" divide BBi f B a larger proportion of its profits with employees; Mfll 1 i JB after deducting tho interest on cost of plant, ro- Hmb I H (mm paird, improvements, etc. Our thought is, if a BB flw MM small percentage of profits was put in a fund to Hii 1 m provide halls, books, music, catchy lectures, and a simple luncheon for employees nightly, inviting invit-ing them to join, and giving simple prizes for the best songs or essays or stories, or hand-writing, or either of a dozen other accomplishments, and if the rule was general .there would be no strikes. When a man is paid for his work a generous gen-erous wage, if you please, and nothing is done to keep his heart warm, it, as a rule, either grows cold or he seeks uncanny places or stimulants to keep it warm. One sentence in the Lord's prayer is, "Deliver us from evil." The best way to give a practical answer to that prayer here below is to guide tho footsteps of our fellowmen who are lonely or Aveak into places where, in lieu of evil, there are innocent delights of a kind the influence in-fluence of which is to lead men to forget loneliness loneli-ness and trouble through pleasant and instructive entertainment. Men, as a rule, work eight hours; they sleep eight hours; three or four more hours are consumed in incidental duties; the other four or five hours are pretty sure to make him better or worse. The concernment should be to make him better. |