Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchwith long beaks. This would be the place to take a summer villa in!At a little place called Reinov a goldminer asked me to see his sickwife. As I was leaving him he thrust into my hands a roll of notes. Ifelt ashamed. I was beginning to refuse and thrust it back, sayingthat I was very rich myself; we talked together for a long time tryingto persuade each other, and yet in the end fifteen roubles remainedin my hands. Yesterday a goldminer with the face of Petya Polevaevdined in my cabin; at dinner he drank champagne instead of water,and treated us to it.The villages here are like those on the Don. There is a differencein the buildings but nothing to speak of. The inhabitants don’t keepthe fasts, and eat meat even in Holy Week; the girls smoke cigarettes,and old women smoke pipes—it is the correct thing. It’sstrange to see peasants with cigarettes! And what liberalism! Oh,what liberalism!The air on the steamer is positively red-hot with the talk that goeson. People are not afraid to talk aloud here. There’s no one to arrestthem and nowhere to exile them to, so you can be as liberal as youlike. The people for the most part are independent, self-reliant, andlogical. If there is any misunderstanding at Ust-Kara, where the convictswork (among them many politicals who don’t work), all theAmur region is in revolt. It is not the thing to tell tales. An escapedconvict can travel freely on the steamer to the ocean, without anyfear of the captain’s giving him up. This is partly due to the absoluteindifference to everything that is done in Russia. Everybody says:“What is it to do with me?”I forgot to tell you that in Transbaikalia the drivers are not Russiansbut Buriats. A funny people! Their horses are regular vipers;they could never be harnessed without trouble—more furious thanfire-brigade horses. While the trace-horse is being harnessed, its legsare hobbled; as soon as they are set free the chaise goes flying to thedevil, so that one holds one’s breath. If one does not hobble a horsewhile it is being harnessed, it kicks, knocks bits out of the shaft withits hoofs, tears the harness, and behaves like a young devil that hasbeen caught by the horns.194