organization of relief must be left to the Episcopal department and the Red
Cross. In short, private initiative was suppressed at its first efforts.
Everyone was cast down and dispirited; some were furious, some simply
washed their hands of the whole business. One must have the courage and
authority of Tolstoy to act in opposition to all prohibitions and
prevailing sentiments, and to follow the dictates of duty.

Well, now about myself. I am in complete sympathy with individual
initiative, for every man has the right to do good in the way he thinks
best; but all the discussion concerning the government, the Red Cross, and
so on, seemed to me inopportune and impractical. I imagined that with
coolness and good humour, one might get round all the terrors and delicacy
of the position, and that there was no need to go to the Minister about it.
I went to Sahalin without a single letter of recommendation, and yet I did
everything I wanted to. Why cannot I go to the famine-stricken provinces? I
remembered, too, such representatives of the government as you, Kiselyov,
and all the Zemsky Natchalniks and tax inspectors of my acquaintance--all
extremely decent people, worthy of complete confidence. And I resolved--if
only for a small region--to combine the two elements of officialdom and
private initiative. I want to come and consult you as soon as I can. The
public trusts me; it would trust you, too, and I might reckon on
succeeding. Do you remember I wrote to you? Suvorin came to Moscow at the
time; I complained to him that I did not know your address. He telegraphed
to Baranov, and Baranov was so kind as to send it to me. Suvorin was ill
with influenza; as a rule when he comes to Moscow we spend whole days
together discussing literature, of which he has a wide knowledge; we did
the same on this occasion, and in consequence I caught his influenza, was
laid up, and had a raging cough. Korolenko was in Moscow, and he found me
ill. Lung complications kept me ill for a whole month, confined to the
house and unable to do anything. Now I am on the way to recovery, though I