In an interview published by THE TIMES a while ago Mr. Tchelisheff mentions that his attention was first drawn to the subject of the evils of drunkenness by a book which he saw a muzhik reading. Judging from the point at which he inserts that mention into his outline sketch of his career (previous to the great famine which he—erroneously—assigns to the "end of the '80s," but which came in 1891) his interest was aroused precisely at the time when Dr. Alexyeeff's first utterances may be assumed to have seen the light of print. At any rate, it is an admitted fact that Dr. Alexyeeff carried to Russia and to Tolstoy from the United States the idea and inspiration which has borne such wonderful fruit in the abolition of the liquor traffic "forever," as the Imperial ukase runs.
Mr. Tchelisheff is a noteworthy figure in history accordingly, but Dr. Alexyeeff should not be forgotten. When I made his acquaintance at Count Tolstoy's, in Moscow, he had just requested (and obtained) a detail of service in Tchita, Trans-Baikal Province, Siberia, as physician to the political exiles there, thinking the region would repay study from many points of view, in his leisure hours. The preface to the first edition of his book "Concerning Drunkenness" is dated "July, 1899, Tchita," and from Tchita I received my copy from him. In that preface he states the scope of his book in a way which confirms my conviction that Mr. Tchelisheff was first stirred to interest, and in the end aroused to action, by the United States, via Dr. Alexyeeff. He writes:
The battle which in all ages has been waged against drunkenness has been confined hitherto almost exclusively to the realms of medicine and ethics; the social part of the question is only just beginning to be worked out, and has hardly as yet won the rights of citizenship, and down to our own day there have been no serious legal measures adopted for the battle with drunkenness.
Therefore, he omits the legal aspects of the matter in his book and confines himself to an attempt at popularizing the information scattered in divers individual books, "borrowing everything which can lead to the ultimate goal—the extermination of the evil caused by the use of spirituous drinks." He continues:
Public opinion has nowhere as yet, even in the lands where considerable success has attended the war on drunkenness, ripened sufficiently a desire to give, even incompletely, a summary of the information about that battle, and make my fellow-countrymen acquainted with a matter still little known in Russia, so I am prompted to write what follows.
The second edition of this book, with the surprising list of Russian treatises on drunkenness to which I have already alluded, is dated "June, 1895, Riga," where he lived after his return from Siberia, as an official of the Government medical service, until his death in August, 1913. During the stay in Tchita of the Alexyeeffs, the present Emperor (then the heir,) passed through it, on his way home (from the trip to India and Japan which came so near terminating fatally in the latter country) after having officially opened work upon the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. A formal reception and ceremonies were organized in Tchita; and I allude to the matter because of a curious detail mentioned in a letter to me by Mrs. Alexyeeff. Foreigners have very queer ideas, she said, as to the position and treatment of the political exiles in Siberia; some of the Tchita exiles served as heads of the committees for welcoming the heir, and he shook hands with them and treated them exactly as he treated the Governor General of the Province.
Whether it was his admiration for the American temperance movement which influenced Dr. Alexyeeff's views on everything American, I cannot say. But, assuredly, not many foreign visitors have pronounced upon our country such a panegyric as is contained in the preface to his "Across America." He writes:
Conscientious fulfillment of every duty, industry, energy, and moral purity are the typical qualities of the genuine American. It is difficult to form any idea of the wide development of philanthropy, the significance of religion, and the practical application to life of ethical principles, the application of moral obligations in business, the upright, God-fearing life of the Americans, unless one has lived among them. They have neither prostitution, foundling hospitals, nor hospitals for venereal diseases. A European is not accustomed to see empty prisons and hospitals in densely settled localities—to come upon cities where there is nothing for the police, the Judges, and the doctors to do he finds startling. They have attained the height where priests, pastors, preachers, and teachers are rarely obliged to contend with indifference....
After a trip to America it would be difficult to return an atheist—you are more likely to come back in a religious frame of mind.... Idleness and luxury are not among the distinguishing characteristics of the descendants of the Puritans.... In the light, transparent atmosphere of the States, simplicity, the cheerful, alert spirit infects the foreigner, makes him a more frank, trustful, optimistic warrior for the truth, and causes him to forget what it means to be downcast in spirit, or what spleen and hypochondria are.
Until he died, in Siberia, in Russia, everywhere, Dr. Alexyeeff worked for temperance. He was enthusiastic about it when I saw him and his wife in England, in 1907.