By ignoring social conventions Gorky has unwittingly injured his cause. It may be said of him, however, that he is to-day one of the foremost literary figures of the world, and is so regarded in Europe. He has abandoned literary ambition and the easy life of a fêted idol to serve an idea—the idea of full Russian freedom.
With these words of men whose passion is liberty for their country may be compared the speech of the Czar at the opening of the new Russian Duma. The occasion and the utterance are already historical.
The Supreme Providence which gave me the care of our fatherland moved me to call to my assistance in legislative work elected representatives of the people. In the expectation of a brilliant future for Russia, I greet in your persons the best men from the empire, whom I ordered my beloved subjects to choose from among themselves.
A difficult work lies before you. I trust that love for your fatherland and your earnest desire to serve it will inspire and unite you. I shall keep inviolate the institutions which I have granted, with the firm assurance that you will devote all your strength to the service of your country, and especially to the needs of the peasantry, which are so close to my heart, and to the education of the people and their economical welfare, remembering that to the dignity and prosperity of the state not only freedom but order founded upon justice is necessary.
I desire from my heart to see my people happy, and hand down to my son an empire secure, well organized, and enlightened. May God bless the work that lies before me in unity with the Council of the Empire and the Imperial Duma. May this day be the day of the moral revival of Russia and the day for the renewal of its highest forces. Approach with solemnity the labors for which I call you, and be worthy of the responsibilities put upon you by the emperor and people. May God assist us!
Students the world over are now recalling dubiously the fateful French States-General of 1789.
FROM THOSE WHO LIVE IN DARKNESS.
A Pathetic Picture of the Sadness of
Being Blind, Drawn for Us by
One Who Has Never Seen.
Helen Keller, the marvelous deaf and blind girl, whose life would be pathetic, were it not so great a triumph over the limitations of silence and darkness, keeps close to her fellows through the sense of touch. One would think that, knowing others to have so much which she can never have, her outlook would be sorrowful. But she is no pessimist. We who can see are more depressed by our apparent inability to solve the mysteries of a future life, or to prevent injustice in this, than is she by the physical helplessness of blindness.