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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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<strong>Anton</strong> <strong>Chekhov</strong>TO HIS SISTER.PARIS, April 21, 1891.To-day is Easter. So Christ is risen! It’s my first Easter away fromhome.I arrived in Paris on Friday morning and at once went to the Exhibition.Yes, the Eiffel Tower is very very high. The other exhibitionbuildings I saw only from the outside, as they were occupied bycavalry brought there in anticipation <strong>of</strong> disorders. On Friday theyexpected riots. The people flocked in crowds about the streets, shoutingand whistling, greatly excited, while the police kept dispersingthem. To disperse a big crowd a dozen policemen are sufficient here.The police make a combined attack, and the crowd runs like mad.In one <strong>of</strong> these attacks the honour was vouchsafed to me—a policemancaught hold <strong>of</strong> me under my shoulder, and pushed me in front<strong>of</strong> him.There was a great deal <strong>of</strong> movement, the streets were swarmingand surging. Noise, hubbub. The pavements are filled with littletables, and at the tables sit Frenchmen who feel as though they wereat home in the street. A magnificent people. There is no describingParis, though; I will put <strong>of</strong>f the description <strong>of</strong> it till I get home.I heard the midnight service in the Church <strong>of</strong> the Embassy ….I am afraid you have no money.Misha, get my pince-nez mended, for the salvation <strong>of</strong> your soul! Iam simply a martyr without spectacles. I went to the Salon andcouldn’t see half the pictures, thanks to my short sight. By the way,the Russian artists are far more serious than the French …. In comparisonwith the landscape painters I saw here yesterday Levitan is aking ….243

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