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Show GREAT WRITERS NEAR DUEL Tolstoy and Turgenev in Fierce Dispute Dis-pute That Might Have Led to Deadly Encounter. Tolstoy and Turgenev, famous Russian Rus-sian novelists, were contemporaries and friends, but on one occasion they had a serious fnlllng out. As gathered from a recent biography, this is the story of their quarrel : The two fa-mouse fa-mouse novelists met at a friend's house. Turgenev spoke enthusiastically of his young daughter's new English governess, gov-erness, mentioning that she required the child to mend old, ragged clothes to give to the poor. "Do you consider that good?" demanded Tolstoy. "I certainly cer-tainly do," replied Turgenev; "it makes the charity workers realize everydny needs." "And I think that a well-dressed well-dressed girl with filthy, malodorous rags in her hands Is acting an Insincere farce," commented Tolstoy. "I ask you not to say that," exclaimed Turgenev, Tur-genev, hotly. "Why should I not say what I am convinced Is true?" retorted Tolstoy. "If you say that again I will box your cars !" Turgenev cried, white with rage, and rushed from the room. A duel was narrowly averted. Afterward After-ward these famous men became reconciled, rec-onciled, and on his deathbed Turgenev wrote an affecting note to Tolstoy, addressing ad-dressing him as "the grcut writer of our Russian land." Outlook. |