2 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



of a dear friend of mine. He was a tall man, very 

 slim all legs and arms it seemed with a small, pale 

 face, illumined by large, clear, gray-blue eyes; the 

 features finely cut, and the nobly shaped head sur- 

 mounted by thick brown curls. Though only twenty 

 years of age he looked older, because of the small 

 beard so commonly worn by students in Russia then. 

 He had just entered upon his second year in the Law 

 School of the Odessa University, where a brilliant 

 career was predicted for him. 



It is to his younger sister that I am indebted for 

 most of what I know of his childhood and boyhood. 

 He was born in Berdiansk, Russia, an Azov seaport. 

 His father died when he was not quite four years old, 

 leaving his mother with seven children four boys and 

 three girls. My husband was next to the youngest, and 

 his sister, the baby of the family, was only one and 

 a half years old. The two eldest boys, big men of 

 fourteen and twelve, now became the sole support of 

 the family. While nothing more could be expected of 

 Grisha, as they called my husband, than that he should 

 remain in the Talmud Torah, or Hebrew School, he 

 was there distinguishing himself as the brightest pupil. 

 In fact, by the time he was eight his brothers were so 

 well pleased with his unusual ability and his love of 

 study that they decided he must enter the Gymnasium 

 just then opening its doors in Berdiansk. Though 

 my husband was generally known to his Russian 

 friends as Grisha or Gregory, he later in life used only 



