RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 85 



I had often wondered how a Moses, an Isaiah, a 

 Jeremiah, a Socrates, looked and talked, denounced 

 and dreamed : the moment I saw and heard Tolstoy I 

 knew. One hour's talk with him seemed equal to a 

 whole university course in political and social science ; 

 one walk with him on his estate stored up in the 

 listener more knowledge of moral philosophy than 

 could be crowded into a year's seminary instruction. 

 Great as was the power of his pen, immeasurably 

 greater was the power of his living word. In some 

 mysterious way the flow of his speech seemed to 

 exercise a hypnotic spell upon the speaker as much 

 as upon the listener. The speaker seemed at times 

 translated into a super-human being, seemed inspired, 

 seemed to speak words not his own, as one of the 

 ancient prophets of Israel must have spoken when he 

 said the words: "Thus saith the Lord, ' : while the 

 listener seemed scarcely capable of thought or speech, 

 felt his being almost lose its identity and become 

 merged with that of the speaker. 



The first question Count Tolstoy put to me was 

 from what part of the United States I hailed. Upon 

 my telling him that Philadelphia was my home, he 

 expressed himself as much pleased. He recalled the 

 two shiploads of food we sent from our port, two years 

 earlier, for the relief of the famine-stricken of Russia, 

 of the distribution of which he had personal charge, 

 and he spoke with pleasure and appreciation of 

 Mr. Francis B. Reeves, our fellow-townsman, who had 

 accompanied the food-relief. 



With even keener delight he recalled that the first 



