Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton Chekhovno salary and no vote attached. A clever way out of it! The professorswill be elected real academicians, and those of the writers willbe elected honorary academicians who do not live in Petersburg,and so cannot be present at the sittings and abuse the professors.I hear the muezzin calling in the minaret. The Turks are very religious;it’s their fast now, they eat nothing the whole day. They haveno religious ladies, that element which makes religion shallow asthe sand does the Volga.You do well to print the martyrology of Russian towns avoided bythe extortionate railway contractors. Here is what the famous authorChekhov wrote on the subject in his story “My Life.”* Railwaycontractors are revengeful people; refuse them a trifle, and they willpunish you for it all your life—and it’s their tradition.Thanks for your letter, thanks for your indulgence.*Appended to the letter was a printed cutting.383