Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchwas to do with the children, saying it was not his duty to feed them.Infectious diseases I did not meet with in Sahalin. There is verylittle congenital syphilis, but I saw blind children, filthy, coveredwith eruptions—all diseases that are evidence of neglect. Of courseI am not going to settle the problem of the children. I don’t knowwhat ought to be done. But it seems to me that one will do nothingby means of philanthropy and what little is left of prison and otherfunds. To my thinking, to make something of great importance dependentupon charity, which in Russia always has a casual character,and on funds which do not exist, is pernicious. I should prefer itto be financed out of the government treasury.216