,transcribed from the #ahhg ,tomas ,y4 ,crowell edition by ,david ,price1 email ccx#jgdpglaf4org ,picture3 ,public domain cover ,,what ,,to ,,do8 ,,thoughts ,,evoked ,,by ,,the ,,census ,,of ,,moscow ,,by ,,count ,,lyof ,n4 ,,tolsto ,,translated ,,from ,,the ,,russian ,,by ,,isabel ,f4 ,,hapgood ,,new ,,york ,,thomas ,y4 ,,crowell ,,co4 #ac ,,astor ,,place #ahhg ,,copyright1 #ahhg1 ,,by ,,thomas ,y4 ,,crowell ,,co4 ,,electrotyped ,,and ,,printed ,,by ,,rand ,,avery ,,company1 ,,boston4 ,,translator',s ,,note4 ,books which are prohibited by the ,russian ,censor are not always inaccessible4 ,an enterprising publishing-house in ,geneva makes a specialty of supplying the natural craving of man for forbidden fruit1 under which heading some of ,count ,l4 ,n4 ,tolstoi's essays belong4 ,these essays circulate in ,russia in manuscript2 and it is from one of these manuscripts1 which fell into the hands of the ,geneva firm1 that the first half of the present translation has been made4 ,it is thus that the ,censor's omissions have been noted1 even in cases where such omissions are in no way indicated in the twelfth volume of ,count ,tolstoi's collected works1 published in ,moscow4 ,as an interesting detail in this connection1 ,i may mention that this twelfth volume contains all that the censor allows of 8,my ,religion10 amounting to a very much abridged scrap of ,chapter ,x4 in the last-named volume as known to the public outside of ,russia4 ,the last half of the present book has not been published by the ,geneva house1 and omissions cannot be marked4 ,,isabel ,f4 ,,hapgood ,,boston1 ,sept4 #a1 #ahhg ,,thoughts ,,evoked ,,by ,,the ,,census ,,of ,,moscow4 #ahhd-ahhe4 ,and the people asked him1 saying1 ,what shall we do then8 ,he answereth and saith unto them1 ,he that hath two coats1 let him impart to him that hath none2 and he that hath meat1 let him do likewise--,,luke iii4 #aj4 #aa4 ,lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth1 where moth and rust doth corrupt1 and where thieves break through and steal3 ,but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven1 where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt1 and where thieves do not break through nor steal3 ,for where your treasure is1 there will your heart be also4 ,the light of the body is the eye3 if therefore thine eye be single1 thy whole body shall be full of light4 ,but if thine eye be evil1 thy whole body shall be full of darkness4 ,if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness1 how great is that darkness6 ,no man can serve two masters3 for either he will hate the one1 and love the other2 or else he will hold to the one1 and despise the other4 ,ye cannot serve ,god and mammon4 ,therefore ,i say unto you1 ,take no thought for your life1 what ye shall eat1 or what ye shall drink2 nor yet for your body1 what ye shall put on4 ,is not the life more than meat1 and the body than raiment8--,,matt4 vi4 #ai-be4 ,therefore take no thought1 saying1 ,what shall we eat8 or1 ,what shall we drink8 ,or1 ,wherewithal shall we be clothed8 7,for after all these things do the ,gentiles seek37 for your heavenly ,father knoweth that ye have need of all these things4 ,but seek ye first the kingdom of ,god1 and his righteousness2 and all these things shall be added unto you4 ,take therefore no thought for the morrow3 for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself4 ,sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof4--,,matt4 vi4 #ca-cd4 ,for it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye1 than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of ,god4--,,matt4 xix4 #bd2 ,,mark x4 #be2 ,,luke xviii4 #be4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,i had lived all my life out of town4 ,when1 in #ahha1 ,i went to live in ,moscow1 the poverty of the town greatly surprised me4 ,i am familiar with poverty in the country2 but city poverty was new and incomprehensible to me4 ,in ,moscow it was impossible to pass along the street without encountering beggars1 and especially beggars who are unlike those in the country4 ,these beggars do not go about with their pouches in the name of ,christ1 as country beggars are accustomed to do1 but these beggars are without the pouch and the name of ,christ4 ,the ,moscow beggars carry no pouches1 and do not ask for alms4 ,generally1 when they meet or pass you1 they merely try to catch your eye2 and1 according to your look1 they beg or refrain from it4 ,i know one such beggar who belongs to the gentry4 ,the old man walks slowly along1 bending forward every time he sets his foot down4 ,when he meets you1 he rests on one foot and makes you a kind of salute4 ,if you stop1 he pulls off his hat with its cockade1 and bows and begs3 if you do not halt1 he pretends that that is merely his way of walking1 and he passes on1 bending forward in like manner on the other foot4 ,he is a real ,moscow beggar1 a cultivated man4 ,at first ,i did not know why the ,moscow beggars do not ask alms directly2 afterwards ,i came to understand why they do not beg1 but still ,i did not understand their position4 ,once1 as ,i was passing through ,afanasievskaya ,lane1 ,i saw a policeman putting a ragged peasant1 all swollen with dropsy1 into a cab4 ,i inquired3 8,what is that for80 ,the policeman answered3 8,for asking alms40 8,is that forbidden80 8,of course it is forbidden10 replied the policeman4 ,the sufferer from dropsy was driven off4 ,i took another cab1 and followed him4 ,i wanted to know whether it was true that begging alms was prohibited and how it was prohibited4 ,i could in no wise understand how one man could be forbidden to ask alms of any other man2 and besides1 ,i did not believe that it was prohibited1 when ,moscow is full of beggars4 ,i went to the station-house whither the beggar had been taken4 ,at a table in the station-house sat a man with a sword and a pistol4 ,i inquired3 8,for what was this peasant arrested80 ,the man with the sword and pistol gazed sternly at me1 and said3 8,what business is it of yours80 ,but feeling conscious that it was necessary to offer me some explanation1 he added3 8,the authorities have ordered that all such persons are to be arrested2 of course it had to be done40 ,i went out4 ,the policeman who had brought the beggar was seated on the window-sill in the ante-chamber1 staring gloomily at a note-book4 ,i asked him3 8,is it true that the poor are forbidden to ask alms in ,christ's name80 ,the policeman came to himself1 stared at me1 then did not exactly frown1 but apparently fell into a doze again1 and said1 as he sat on the window-sill3-- 8,the authorities have so ordered1 which shows that it is necessary10 and betook himself once more to his note-book4 ,i went out on the porch1 to the cab4 8,well1 how did it turn out8 ,have they arrested him80 asked the cabman4 ,the man was evidently interested in this affair also4 8,yes10 ,i answered4 ,the cabman shook his head4 8,why is it forbidden here in ,moscow to ask alms in ,christ's name80 ,i inquired4 8,who knows80 said the cabman4 8,how is this80 said ,i1 8he is ,christ's poor1 and he is taken to the station-house40 8,a stop has been put to that now1 it is not allowed10 said the cab-driver4 ,on several occasions afterwards1 ,i saw policemen conducting beggars to the station house1 and then to the ,yusupoff house of correction4 ,once ,i encountered on the ,myasnitzkaya a company of these beggars1 about thirty in number4 ,in front of them and behind them marched policemen4 ,i inquired3 8,what for80--8,for asking alms40 ,it turned out that all these beggars1 several of whom you meet with in every street in ,moscow1 and who stand in files near every church during services1 and especially during funeral services1 are forbidden to ask alms4 ,but why are some of them caught and locked up somewhere1 while others are left alone8 ,this ,i could not understand4 ,either there are among them legal and illegal beggars1 or there are so many of them that it is impossible to apprehend them all2 or do others assemble afresh when some are removed8 ,there are many varieties of beggars in ,moscow3 there are some who live by this profession2 there are also genuine poor people1 who have chanced upon ,moscow in some manner or other1 and who are really in want4 ,among these poor people1 there are many simple1 common peasants1 and women in their peasant costume4 ,i often met such people4 ,some of them have fallen ill here1 and on leaving the hospital they can neither support themselves here1 nor get away from ,moscow4 ,some of them1 moreover1 have indulged in dissipation 7such was probably the case of the dropsical man72 some have not been ill1 but are people who have been burnt out of their houses1 or old people1 or women with children2 some1 too1 were perfectly healthy and able to work4 ,these perfectly healthy peasants who were engaged in begging1 particularly interested me4 ,these healthy1 peasant beggars1 who were fit for work1 also interested me1 because1 from the date of my arrival in ,moscow1 ,i had been in the habit of going to the ,sparrow ,hills with two peasants1 and sawing wood there for the sake of exercise4 ,these two peasants were just as poor as those whom ,i encountered on the streets4 ,one was ,piotr1 a soldier from ,kaluga2 the other ,semyon1 a peasant from ,vladimir4 ,they possessed nothing except the wages of their body and hands4 ,and with these hands they earned1 by dint of very hard labor1 from forty to forty-five kopeks a day1 out of which each of them was laying by savings1 the ,kaluga man for a fur coat1 the ,vladimir man in order to get enough to return to his village4 ,therefore1 on meeting precisely such men in the streets1 ,i took an especial interest in them4 ,why did these men toil1 while those others begged8 ,on encountering a peasant of this stamp1 ,i usually asked him how he had come to that situation4 ,once ,i met a peasant with some gray in his beard1 but healthy4 ,he begs4 ,i ask him who is he1 whence comes he8 ,he says that he came from ,kaluga to get work4 ,at first he found employment chopping up old wood for use in stoves4 ,he and his comrade finished all the chopping which one householder had2 then they sought other work1 but found none2 his comrade had parted from him1 and for two weeks he himself had been struggling along2 he had spent all his money1 he had no saw1 and no axe1 and no money to buy anything4 ,i gave him money for a saw1 and told him of a place where he could find work4 ,i had already made arrangements with ,piotr and ,semyon1 that they should take an assistant1 and they looked up a mate for him4 8,see that you come4 ,there is a great deal of work there40 8,i will come2 why should ,i not come8 ,do you suppose ,i like to beg8 ,i can work40 ,the peasant declares that he will come1 and it seems to me that he is not deceiving me1 and that he intents to come4 ,on the following day ,i go to my peasants1 and inquire whether that man has arrived4 ,he has not been there2 and in this way several men deceived me4 ,and those also deceived me who said that they only required money for a ticket in order to return home1 and who chanced upon me again in the street a week later4 ,many of these ,i recognized1 and they recognized me1 and sometimes1 having forgotten me1 they repeated the same trick on me2 and others1 on catching sight of me1 beat a retreat4 ,thus ,i perceived1 that in the ranks of this class also deceivers existed4 ,but these cheats were very pitiable creatures3 all of them were but half-clad1 poverty-stricken1 gaunt1 sickly men2 they were the very people who really freeze to death1 or hang themselves1 as we learn from the newspapers4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,when ,i mentioned this poverty of the town to inhabitants of the town1 they always said to me3 8,oh1 all that you have seen is nothing4 ,you ought to see the ,khitroff market-place1 and the lodging-houses for the night there4 ,there you would see a regular #8golden company4'0 #ba;a ,one jester told me that this was no longer a company1 but a golden regiment3 so greatly had their numbers increased4 ,the jester was right1 but he would have been still more accurate if he had said that these people now form in ,moscow neither a company nor a regiment1 but an entire army1 almost fifty thousand in number1 ,i think4 ,the old inhabitants1 when they spoke to me about the poverty in town1 always referred to it with a certain satisfaction1 as though pluming themselves over me1 because they knew it4 ,i remember that when ,i was in ,london1 the old inhabitants there also rather boasted when they spoke of the poverty of ,london4 ,the case is the same with us4 #ba;b ,and ,i wanted to have a sight of this poverty of which ,i had been told4 ,several times ,i set out in the direction of the ,khitroff market-place1 but on every occasion ,i began to feel uncomfortable and ashamed4 8,why am ,i going to gaze on the sufferings of people whom ,i cannot help80 said one voice4 8,no1 if you live here1 and see all the charms of city life1 go and view this also10 said another voice4 ,in ,december three years ago1 therefore1 on a cold and windy day1 ,i betook myself to that centre of poverty1 the ,khitroff market-place4 ,this was at four o'clock in the afternoon of a week-day4 ,as ,i passed through the ,solyanka1 ,i already began to see more and more people in old garments which had not originally belonged to them1 and in still stranger foot-gear1 people with a peculiar1 unhealthy hue of countenance1 and especially with a singular indifference to every thing around them1 which was peculiar to them all4 ,a man in the strangest of all possible attire1 which was utterly unlike any thing else1 walked along with perfect unconcern1 evidently without a thought of the appearance which he must present to the eyes of others4 ,all these people were making their way towards a single point4 ,without inquiring the way1 with which ,i was not acquainted1 ,i followed them1 and came out on the ,khitroff market-place4 ,on the market-place1 women both old and young1 of the same description1 in tattered cloaks and jackets of various shapes1 in ragged shoes and overshoes1 and equally unconcerned1 notwithstanding the hideousness of their attire1 sat1 bargained for something1 strolled about1 and scolded4 ,there were not many people in the market itself4 ,evidently market-hours were over1 and the majority of the people were ascending the rise beyond the market and through the place1 all still proceeding in one direction4 ,i followed them4 ,the farther ,i advanced1 the greater in numbers were the people of this sort who flowed together on one road4 ,passing through the market-place and proceeding along the street1 ,i overtook two women2 one was old1 the other young4 ,both wore something ragged and gray4 ,as they walked they were discussing some matter4 ,after every necessary word1 they uttered one or two unnecessary ones1 of the most improper character4 ,they were not intoxicated1 but merely troubled about something2 and neither the men who met them1 nor those who walked in front of them and behind them1 paid any attention to the language which was so strange to me4 ,in these quarters1 evidently1 people always talked so4 ,ascending the rise1 we reached a large house on a corner4 ,the greater part of the people who were walking along with me halted at this house4 ,they stood all over the sidewalk of this house1 and sat on the curbstone1 and even the snow in the street was thronged with the same kind of people4 ,on the right side of the entrance door were the women1 on the left the men4 ,i walked past the women1 past the men 7there were several hundred of them in all7 and halted where the line came to an end4 ,the house before which these people were waiting was the ,lyapinsky free lodging-house for the night4 ,the throng of people consisted of night lodgers1 who were waiting to be let in4 ,at five o'clock in the afternoon1 the house is opened1 and the people permitted to enter4 ,hither had come nearly all the people whom ,i had passed on my way4 ,i halted where the line of men ended4 ,those nearest me began to stare at me1 and attracted my attention to them by their glances4 ,the fragments of garments which covered these bodies were of the most varied sorts4 ,but the expression of all the glances directed towards me by these people was identical4 ,in all eyes the question was expressed3 8,why have you1 a man from another world1 halted here beside us8 ,who are you8 ,are you a self-satisfied rich man who wants to enjoy our wretchedness1 to get rid of his tedium1 and to torment us still more8 or are you that thing which does not and can not exist1--a man who pities us80 ,this query was on every face4 ,you glance about1 encounter some one's eye1 and turn away4 ,i wished to talk with some one of them1 but for a long time ,i could not make up my mind to it4 ,but our glances had drawn us together already while our tongues remained silent4 ,greatly as our lives had separated us1 after the interchange of two or three glances we felt that we were both men1 and we ceased to fear each other4 ,the nearest of all to me was a peasant with a swollen face and a red beard1 in a tattered caftan1 and patched overshoes on his bare feet4 ,and the weather was eight degrees below zero4 #bd;a ,for the third or fourth time ,i encountered his eyes1 and ,i felt so near to him that ,i was no longer ashamed to accost him1 but ashamed not to say something to him4 ,i inquired where he came from8 he answered readily1 and we began to talk2 others approached4 ,he was from ,smolensk1 and had come to seek employment that he might earn his bread and taxes4 8,there is no work10 said he3 8the soldiers have taken it all away4 ,so now ,i am loafing about2 as true as ,i believe in ,god1 ,i have had nothing to eat for two days40 ,he spoke modestly1 with an effort at a smile4 ,a sbiten#bd;b-seller1 an old soldier1 stood near by4 ,i called him up4 ,he poured out his sbiten4 ,the peasant took a boiling-hot glassful in his hands1 and as he tried before drinking not to let any of the heat escape in vain1 and warmed his hands over it1 he related his adventures to me4 ,these adventures1 or the histories of them1 are almost always identical3 the man has been a laborer1 then he has changed his residence1 then his purse containing his money and ticket has been stolen from him in the night lodging-house2 now it is impossible to get away from ,moscow4 ,he told me that he kept himself warm by day in the dram-shops2 that he nourished himself on the bits of bread in these drinking places1 when they were given to him2 and when he was driven out of them1 he came hither to the ,lyapinsky house for a free lodging4 ,he was only waiting for the police to make their rounds1 when1 as he had no passport1 he would be taken to jail1 and then despatched by stages to his place of settlement4 8,they say that the inspection will be made on ,friday10 said he1 8then they will arrest me4 ,if ,i can only get along until ,friday40 7,the jail1 and the journey by stages1 represent the ,promised ,land to him47 ,as he told his story1 three men from among the throng corroborated his statements1 and said that they were in the same predicament4 ,a gaunt1 pale1 long-nosed youth1 with merely a shirt on the upper portion of his body1 and that torn on the shoulders1 and a cap without a visor1 forced his way sidelong through the crowd4 ,he shivered violently and incessantly1 but tried to smile disdainfully at the peasants' remarks1 thinking by this means to adopt the proper tone with me1 and he stared at me4 ,i offered him some sbiten2 he also1 on taking the glass1 warmed his hands over it2 but no sooner had he begun to speak1 than he was thrust aside by a big1 black1 hook-nosed individual1 in a chintz shirt and waistcoat1 without a hat4 ,the hook-nosed man asked for some sbiten also4 ,then came a tall old man1 with a mass of beard1 clad in a great-coat girded with a rope1 and in bast shoes1 who was drunk4 ,then a small man with a swollen face and tearful eyes1 in a brown nankeen round-jacket1 with his bare knees protruding from the holes in his summer trousers1 and knocking together with cold4 ,he shivered so that he could not hold his glass1 and spilled it over himself4 ,the men began to reproach him4 ,he only smiled in a woe-begone way1 and went on shivering4 ,then came a crooked monster in rags1 with pattens on his bare feet2 then some sort of an officer2 then something in the ecclesiastical line2 then something strange and nose-less1--all hungry and cold1 beseeching and submissive1 thronged round me1 and pressed close to the sbiten4 ,they drank up all the sbiten4 ,one asked for money1 and ,i gave it4 ,then another asked1 then a third1 and the whole crowd besieged me4 ,confusion and a press resulted4 ,the porter of the adjoining house shouted to the crowd to clear the sidewalk in front of his house1 and the crowd submissively obeyed his orders4 ,some managers stepped out of the throng1 and took me under their protection1 and wanted to lead me forth out of the press2 but the crowd1 which had at first been scattered over the sidewalk1 now became disorderly1 and hustled me4 ,all stared at me and begged2 and each face was more pitiful and suffering and humble than the last4 ,i distributed all that ,i had with me4 ,i had not much money1 something like twenty rubles2 and in company with the crowd1 ,i entered the ,lyapinsky lodging-house4 ,this house is huge4 ,it consists of four sections4 ,in the upper stories are the men's quarters2 in the lower1 the women's4 ,i first entered the women's place2 a vast room all occupied with bunks1 resembling the third-class bunks on the railway4 ,these bunks were arranged in two rows1 one above the other4 ,the women1 strange1 tattered creatures1 both old and young1 wearing nothing over their dresses1 entered and took their places1 some below and some above4 ,some of the old ones crossed themselves1 and uttered a petition for the founder of this refuge2 some laughed and scolded4 ,i went up-stairs4 ,there the men had installed themselves2 among them ,i espied one of those to whom ,i had given money4 ,on catching sight of him1 ,i all at once felt terribly abashed1 and ,i made haste to leave the room4 ,and it was with a sense of absolute crime that ,i quitted that house and returned home4 ,at home ,i entered over the carpeted stairs into the ante-room1 whose floor was covered with cloth2 and having removed my fur coat1 ,i sat down to a dinner of five courses1 waited on by two lackeys in dress-coats1 white neckties1 and white gloves4 ,thirty years ago ,i witnessed in ,paris a man's head cut off by the guillotine in the presence of thousands of spectators4 ,i knew that the man was a horrible criminal4 ,i was acquainted with all the arguments which people have been devising for so many centuries1 in order to justify this sort of deed4 ,i knew that they had done this expressly1 deliberately4 ,but at the moment when head and body were severed1 and fell into the trough1 ,i groaned1 and apprehended1 not with my mind1 but with my heart and my whole being1 that all the arguments which ,i had heard anent the death-penalty were arrant nonsense2 that1 no matter how many people might assemble in order to perpetrate a murder1 no matter what they might call themselves1 murder is murder1 the vilest sin in the world1 and that that crime had been committed before my very eyes4 ,by my presence and non-interference1 ,i had lent my approval to that crime1 and had taken part in it4 ,so now1 at the sight of this hunger1 cold1 and degradation of thousands of persons1 ,i understood not with my mind1 but with my heart and my whole being1 that the existence of tens of thousands of such people in ,moscow1 while ,i and other thousands dined on fillets and sturgeon1 and covered my horses and my floors with cloth and rugs1--no matter what the wise ones of this world might say to me about its being a necessity1--was a crime1 not perpetrated a single time1 but one which was incessantly being perpetrated over and over again1 and that ,i1 in my luxury1 was not only an accessory1 but a direct accomplice in the matter4 ,the difference for me between these two impressions was this1 that ,i might have shouted to the assassins who stood around the guillotine1 and perpetrated the murder1 that they were committing a crime1 and have tried with all my might to prevent the murder4 ,but while so doing ,i should have known that my action would not prevent the murder4 ,but here ,i might not only have given sbiten and the money which ,i had with me1 but the coat from my back1 and every thing that was in my house4 ,but this ,i had not done2 and therefore ,i felt1 ,i feel1 and shall never cease to feel1 myself an accomplice in this constantly repeated crime1 so long as ,i have superfluous food and any one else has none at all1 so long as ,i have two garments while any one else has not even one4 #bh ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,that very evening1 on my return from the ,lyapinsky house1 ,i related my impressions to a friend4 ,the friend1 an inhabitant of the city1 began to tell me1 not without satisfaction1 that this was the most natural phenomenon of town life possible1 that ,i only saw something extraordinary in it because of my provincialism1 that it had always been so1 and always would be so1 and that such must be and is the inevitable condition of civilization4 ,in ,london it is even worse4 ,of course there is nothing wrong about it1 and it is impossible to be displeased with it4 ,i began to reply to my friend1 but with so much heat and ill-temper1 that my wife ran in from the adjoining room to inquire what had happened4 ,it appears that1 without being conscious of it myself1 ,i had been shouting1 with tears in my voice1 and flourishing my hands at my friend4 ,i shouted3 8,it's impossible to live thus1 impossible to live thus1 impossible60 ,they made me feel ashamed of my unnecessary warmth2 they told me that ,i could not talk quietly about any thing1 that ,i got disagreeably excited2 and they proved to me1 especially1 that the existence of such unfortunates could not possibly furnish any excuse for imbittering the lives of those about me4 ,i felt that this was perfectly just1 and held my peace2 but in the depths of my soul ,i was conscious that ,i was in the right1 and ,i could not regain my composure4 ,and the life of the city1 which had1 even before this1 been so strange and repellent to me1 now disgusted me to such a degree1 that all the pleasures of a life of luxury1 which had hitherto appeared to me as pleasures1 become tortures to me4 ,and try as ,i would1 to discover in my own soul any justification whatever for our life1 ,i could not1 without irritation1 behold either my own or other people's drawing-rooms1 nor our tables spread in the lordly style1 nor our equipages and horses1 nor shops1 theatres1 and assemblies4 ,i could not behold alongside these the hungry1 cold1 and down-trodden inhabitants of the ,lyapinsky house4 ,and ,i could not rid myself of the thought that these two things were bound up together1 that the one arose from the other4 ,i remember1 that1 as this feeling of my own guilt presented itself to me at the first blush1 so it persisted in me1 but to this feeling a second was speedily added which overshadowed it4 ,when ,i mentioned my impressions of the ,lyapinsky house to my nearest friends and acquaintances1 they all gave me the same answer as the first friend at whom ,i had begun to shout2 but1 in addition to this1 they expressed their approbation of my kindness of heart and my sensibility1 and gave me to understand that this sight had so especially worked upon me because ,i1 ,lyof ,nikolaevitch1 was very kind and good4 ,and ,i willingly believed this4 ,and before ,i had time to look about me1 instead of the feeling of self-reproach and regret1 which ,i had at first experienced1 there came a sense of satisfaction with my own kindliness1 and a desire to exhibit it to people4 8,it really must be10 ,i said to myself1 8that ,i am not especially responsible for this by the luxury of my life1 but that it is the indispensable conditions of existence that are to blame4 ,in truth1 a change in my mode of life cannot rectify the evil which ,i have seen3 by altering my manner of life1 ,i shall only make myself and those about me unhappy1 and the other miseries will remain the same as ever4 ,and therefore my problem lies not in a change of my own life1 as it had first seemed to me1 but in aiding1 so far as in me lies1 in the amelioration of the situation of those unfortunate beings who have called forth my compassion4 ,the whole point lies here1--that ,i am a very kind1 amiable man1 and that ,i wish to do good to my neighbors40 ,and ,i began to think out a plan of beneficent activity1 in which ,i might exhibit my benevolence4 ,i must confess1 however1 that while devising this plan of beneficent activity1 ,i felt all the time1 in the depths of my soul1 that that was not the thing2 but1 as often happens1 activity of judgment and imagination drowned that voice of conscience within me4 ,at that juncture1 the census came up4 ,this struck me as a means for instituting that benevolence in which ,i proposed to exhibit my charitable disposition4 ,i knew of many charitable institutions and societies which were in existence in ,moscow1 but all their activity seemed to me both wrongly directed and insignificant in comparison with what ,i intended to do4 ,and ,i devised the following scheme3 to arouse the sympathy of the wealthy for the poverty of the city1 to collect money1 to get people together who were desirous of assisting in this matter1 and to visit all the refuges of poverty in company with the census1 and1 in addition to the work of the census1 to enter into communion with the unfortunate1 to learn the particulars of their necessities1 and to assist them with money1 with work1 by sending them away from ,moscow1 by placing their children in school1 and the old people in hospitals and asylums4 ,and not only that1 ,i thought1 but these people who undertake this can be formed into a permanent society1 which1 by dividing the quarters of ,moscow among its members1 will be able to see to it that this poverty and beggary shall not be bred2 they will incessantly annihilate it at its very inception2 then they will fulfil their duty1 not so much by healing as by a course of hygiene for the wretchedness of the city4 ,i fancied that there would be no more simply needy1 not to mention abjectly poor persons1 in the town1 and that all of us wealthy individuals would thereafter be able to sit in our drawing-rooms1 and eat our five-course dinners1 and ride in our carriages to theatres and assemblies1 and be no longer annoyed with such sights as ,i had seen at the ,lyapinsky house4 ,having concocted this plan1 ,i wrote an article on the subject2 and before sending it to the printer1 ,i went to some acquaintances1 from whom ,i hoped for sympathy4 ,i said the same thing to every one whom ,i met that day 7and ,i applied chiefly to the rich71 and nearly the same that ,i afterwards printed in my memoir2 proposed to take advantage of the census to inquire into the wretchedness of ,moscow1 and to succor it1 both by deeds and money1 and to do it in such a manner that there should be no poor people in ,moscow1 and so that we rich ones might be able1 with a quiet conscience1 to enjoy the blessings of life to which we were accustomed4 ,all listened to me attentively and seriously1 but nevertheless the same identical thing happened with every one of them without exception4 ,no sooner did my hearers comprehend the question1 than they seemed to feel awkward and somewhat mortified4 ,they seemed to be ashamed1 and principally on my account1 because ,i was talking nonsense1 and nonsense which it was impossible to openly characterize as such4 ,some external cause appeared to compel my hearers to be forbearing with this nonsense of mine4 8,ah1 yes6 of course4 ,that would be very good10 they said to me4 8,it is a self-understood thing that it is impossible not to sympathize with this4 ,yes1 your idea is a capital one4 ,i have thought of that myself1 but 4 4 4 we are so indifferent1 as a rule1 that you can hardly count on much success 4 4 4 however1 so far as ,i am concerned1 ,i am1 of course1 ready to assist40 ,they all said something of this sort to me4 ,they all agreed1 but agreed1 so it seemed to me1 not in consequence of my convictions1 and not in consequence of their own wish1 but as the result of some outward cause1 which did not permit them not to agree4 ,i had already noticed this1 and1 since not one of them stated the sum which he was willing to contribute1 ,i was obliged to fix it myself1 and to ask3 8,so ,i may count on you for three hundred1 or two hundred1 or one hundred1 or twenty-five rubles80 ,and not one of them gave me any money4 ,i mention this because1 when people give money for that which they themselves desire1 they generally make haste to give it4 ,for a box to see ,sarah ,bernhardt1 they will instantly place the money in your hand1 to clinch the bargain4 ,here1 however1 out of all those who agreed to contribute1 and who expressed their sympathy1 not one of them proposed to give me the money on the spot1 but they merely assented in silence to the sum which ,i suggested4 ,in the last house which ,i visited on that day1 in the evening1 ,i accidentally came upon a large company4 ,the mistress of the house had busied herself with charity for several years4 ,numerous carriages stood at the door1 several lackeys in rich liveries were sitting in the ante-chamber4 ,in the vast drawing-room1 around two tables and lamps1 sat ladies and young girls1 in costly garments1 dressing small dolls2 and there were several young men there also1 hovering about the ladies4 ,the dolls prepared by these ladies were to be drawn in a lottery for the poor4 ,the sight of this drawing-room1 and of the people assembled in it1 struck me very unpleasantly4 ,not to mention the fact that the property of the persons there congregated amounted to many millions1 not to mention the fact that the mere income from the capital here expended on dresses1 laces1 bronzes1 brooches1 carriages1 horses1 liveries1 and lackeys1 was a hundred-fold greater than all that these ladies could earn2 not to mention the outlay1 the trip hither of all these ladies and gentlemen2 the gloves1 linen1 extra time1 the candles1 the tea1 the sugar1 and the cakes had cost the hostess a hundred times more than what they were engaged in making here4 ,i saw all this1 and therefore ,i could understand1 that precisely here ,i should find no sympathy with my mission3 but ,i had come in order to make my proposition1 and1 difficult as this was for me1 ,i said what ,i intended4 7,i said very nearly the same thing that is contained in my printed article47 ,out of all the persons there present1 one individual offered me money1 saying that she did not feel equal to going among the poor herself on account of her sensibility1 but that she would give money2 how much money she would give1 and when1 she did not say4 ,another individual and a young man offered their services in going about among the poor1 but ,i did not avail myself of their offer4 ,the principal person to whom ,i appealed1 told me that it would be impossible to do much because means were lacking4 ,means were lacking because all the rich people in ,moscow were already on the lists1 and all of them were asked for all that they could possibly give2 because on all these benefactors rank1 medals1 and other dignities were bestowed2 because in order to secure financial success1 some new dignities must be secured from the authorities1 and that this was the only practical means1 but this was extremely difficult4 ,on my return home that night1 ,i lay down to sleep not only with a presentment that my idea would come to nothing1 but with shame and a consciousness that all day long ,i had been engaged in a very repulsive and disgraceful business4 ,but ,i did not give up this undertaking4 ,in the first place1 the matter had been begun1 and false shame would have prevented my abandoning it2 in the second place1 not only the success of this scheme1 but the very fact that ,i was busying myself with it1 afforded me the possibility of continuing to live in the conditions under which ,i was then living2 failure entailed upon me the necessity of renouncing my present existence and of seeking new paths of life4 ,and this ,i unconsciously dreaded1 and ,i could not believe the inward voice1 and ,i went on with what ,i had begun4 ,having sent my article to the printer1 ,i read the proof of it to the ,city ,council 7,dum74 ,i read it1 stumbling1 and blushing even to tears1 ,i felt so awkward4 ,and ,i saw that it was equally awkward for all my hearers4 ,in answer to my question at the conclusion of my reading1 as to whether the superintendents of the census would accept my proposition to retain their places with the object of becoming mediators between society and the needy1 an awkward silence ensued4 ,then two orators made speeches4 ,these speeches in some measure corrected the awkwardness of my proposal2 sympathy for me was expressed1 but the impracticability of my proposition1 which all had approved1 was demonstrated4 ,everybody breathed more freely4 ,but when1 still desirous of gaining my object1 ,i afterwards asked the superintendents separately3 ,were they willing1 while taking the census1 to inquire into the needs of the poor1 and to retain their posts1 in order to serve as go-betweens between the poor and the rich8 they all grew uneasy again4 ,they seemed to say to me with their glances3 8,why1 we have just condoned your folly out of respect to you1 and here you are beginning it again60 ,such was the expression of their faces1 but they assured me in words that they agreed2 and two of them said in the very same words1 as though they had entered into a compact together3 8,we consider ourselves morally bound to do this40 ,the same impression was produced by my communication to the student-census-takers1 when ,i said to them1 that while taking our statistics1 we should follow up1 in addition to the objects of the census1 the object of benevolence4 ,when we discussed this1 ,i observed that they were ashamed to look the kind-hearted man1 who was talking nonsense1 in the eye4 ,my article produced the same impression on the editor of the newspaper1 when ,i handed it to him2 on my son1 on my wife1 on the most widely different persons4 ,all felt awkward1 for some reason or other2 but all regarded it as indispensable to applaud the idea itself1 and all1 immediately after this expression of approbation1 began to express their doubts as to its success1 and began for some reason 7and all of them1 too1 without exception7 to condemn the indifference and coldness of our society and of every one1 apparently1 except themselves4 ,in the depths of my own soul1 ,i still continued to feel that all this was not at all what was needed1 and that nothing would come of it2 but the article was printed1 and ,i prepared to take part in the census2 ,i had contrived the matter1 and now it was already carrying me a way with it4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,at my request1 there had been assigned to me for the census1 a portion of the ,khamovnitchesky quarter1 at the ,smolensk market1 along the ,prototchny cross-street1 between ,beregovoy ,passage and ,nikolsky ,alley4 ,in this quarter are situated the houses generally called the ,rzhanoff ,houses1 or the ,rzhanoff fortress4 ,these houses once belonged to a merchant named ,rzhanoff1 but now belong to the ,zimins4 ,i had long before heard of this place as a haunt of the most terrible poverty and vice1 and ,i had accordingly requested the directors of the census to assign me to this quarter4 ,my desire was granted4 ,on receiving the instructions of the ,city ,council1 ,i went alone1 a few days previous to the beginning of the census1 to reconnoitre my section4 ,i found the ,rzhanoff fortress at once1 from the plan with which ,i had been furnished4 ,i approached from ,nikolsky ,alley4 ,nikolsky ,alley ends on the left in a gloomy house1 without any gates on that side2 ,i divined from its appearance that this was the ,rzhanoff fortress4 ,passing down ,nikolsky ,street1 ,i overtook some lads of from ten to fourteen years of age1 clad in little caftans and great-coats1 who were sliding down hill1 some on their feet1 and some on one skate1 along the icy slope beside this house4 ,the boys were ragged1 and1 like all city lads1 bold and impudent4 ,i stopped to watch them4 ,a ragged old woman1 with yellow1 pendent cheeks1 came round the corner4 ,she was going to town1 to the ,smolensk market1 and she groaned terribly at every step1 like a foundered horse4 ,as she came alongside me1 she halted and drew a hoarse sigh4 ,in any other locality1 this old woman would have asked money of me1 but here she merely addressed me4 8,look there10 said she1 pointing at the boys who were sliding1 8all they do is to play their pranks6 ,they'll turn out just such ,rzhanoff fellows as their fathers40 ,one of the boys clad in a great-coat and a visorless cap1 heard her words and halted3 8,what are you scolding about80 he shouted to the old woman4 8,you're an old ,rzhanoff nanny-goat yourself60 ,i asked the boy3 8,and do you live here80 8,yes1 and so does she4 ,she stole boot-legs10 shouted the boy2 and raising his foot in front1 he slid away4 ,the old woman burst forth into injurious words1 interrupted by a cough4 ,at that moment1 an old man1 all clad in rags1 and as white as snow1 came down the hill in the middle of the street1 flourishing his hands in one of them he held a bundle with one little kalatch and baranki #ci4 ,this old man bore the appearance of a person who had just strengthened himself with a dram4 ,he had evidently heard the old woman's insulting words1 and he took her part4 8,i'll give it to you1 you imps1 that ,i will60 he screamed at the boys1 seeming to direct his course towards them1 and taking a circuit round me1 he stepped on to the sidewalk4 ,this old man creates surprise on the ,arbata by his great age1 his weakness1 and his indigence4 ,here he was a cheery laboring-man returning from his daily toil4 ,i followed the old man4 ,he turned the corner to the left1 into ,prototchny ,alley1 and passing by the whole length of the house and the gate1 he disappeared through the door of the tavern4 ,two gates and several doors open on ,prototchny ,alley3 those belonging to a tavern1 a dram-shop1 and several eating and other shops4 ,this is the ,rzhanoff fortress itself4 ,every thing here is gray1 dirty1 and malodorous--both buildings and locality1 and court-yards and people4 ,the majority of the people whom ,i met here were ragged and half-clad4 ,some were passing through1 others were running from door to door4 ,two were haggling over some rags4 ,i made the circuit of the entire building from ,prototchny ,alley and ,beregovoy ,passage1 and returning ,i halted at the gate of one of these houses4 ,i wished to enter1 and see what was going on inside1 but ,i felt that it would be awkward4 ,what should ,i say when ,i was asked what ,i wanted there8 ,i hesitated1 but went in nevertheless4 ,as soon as ,i entered the court-yard1 ,i became conscious of a disgusting odor4 ,the yard was frightfully dirty4 ,i turned a corner1 and at the same instant ,i heard to my left and overhead1 on the wooden balcony1 the tramp of footsteps of people running1 at first along the planks of the balcony1 and then on the steps of the staircase4 ,there emerged1 first a gaunt woman1 with her sleeves rolled up1 in a faded pink gown1 and little boots on her stockingless feet4 ,after her came a tattered man in a red shirt and very full trousers1 like a petticoat1 and with overshoes4 ,the man caught the woman at the bottom of the steps4 8,you shall not escape10 he said laughing4 8,see here1 you cock-eyed devil10 began the woman1 evidently flattered by this pursuit2 but catching sight of me1 she shrieked viciously1 8,what do you want80 ,as ,i wanted nothing1 ,i became confused and beat a retreat4 ,there was nothing remarkable about the place2 but this incident1 after what ,i had witnessed on the other side of the yard1 the cursing old woman1 the jolly old man1 and the lads sliding1 suddenly presented the business which ,i had concocted from a totally different point of view4 ,i then comprehended for the first time1 that all these unfortunates to whom ,i was desirous of playing the part of benefactor1 besides the time1 when1 suffering from cold and hunger1 they awaited admission into the house1 had still other time1 which they employed to some other purpose1 that there were four and twenty hours in every day1 that there was a whole life of which ,i had never thought1 up to that moment4 ,here1 for the first time1 ,i understood1 that all those people1 in addition to their desire to shelter themselves from the cold and to obtain a good meal1 must still1 in some way1 live out those four and twenty hours each day1 which they must pass as well as everybody else4 ,i comprehended that these people must lose their tempers1 and get bored1 show courage1 and grieve and be merry4 ,strange as this may seem1 when put into words1 ,i understood clearly for the first time1 that the business which ,i had undertaken could not consist alone in feeding and clothing thousands of people1 as one would feed and drive under cover a thousand sheep1 but that it must consist in doing good to them4 ,and then ,i understood that each one of those thousand people was exactly such a man1--with precisely the same past1 with the same passions1 temptations1 failings1 with the same thoughts1 the same perplexities1--exactly such a man as myself1 and then the thing that ,i had undertaken suddenly presented itself to me as so difficult that ,i felt my powerlessness2 but the thing had been begun1 and ,i went on with it4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,on the first appointed day1 the student enumerators arrived in the morning1 and ,i1 the benefactor1 joined them at twelve o'clock4 ,i could not go earlier1 because ,i had risen at ten o'clock1 then ,i had drunk my coffee and smoked1 while waiting on digestion4 ,at twelve o'clock ,i reached the gates of the ,rzhanoff house4 ,a policeman pointed out to me the tavern with a side entrance on ,beregovoy ,passage1 where the census-takers had ordered every one who asked for them to be directed4 ,i entered the tavern4 ,it was very dark1 ill-smelling1 and dirty4 ,directly opposite the entrance was the counter1 on the left was a room with tables1 covered with soiled cloths1 on the right a large apartment with pillars1 and the same sort of little tables at the windows and along the walls4 ,here and there at the tables sat men both ragged and decently clad1 like laboring-men or petty tradesmen1 and a few women drinking tea4 ,the tavern was very filthy1 but it was instantly apparent that it had a good trade4 ,there was a business-like expression on the face of the clerk behind the counter1 and a clever readiness about the waiters4 ,no sooner had ,i entered1 than one waiter prepared to remove my coat and bring me whatever ,i should order4 ,it was evident that they had been trained to brisk and accurate service4 ,i inquired for the enumerators4 8,vanya60 shouted a small man1 dressed in ,german fashion1 who was engaged in placing something in a cupboard behind the counter2 this was the landlord of the tavern1 a ,kaluga peasant1 ,ivan ,fedotitch1 who hired one-half of the ,zimins' houses and sublet them to lodgers4 ,the waiter1 a thin1 hooked-nosed young fellow of eighteen1 with a yellow complexion1 hastened up4 8,conduct this gentleman to the census-takers2 they went into the main building over the well40 ,the young fellow threw down his napkin1 and donned a coat over his white jacket and white trousers1 and a cap with a large visor1 and1 tripping quickly along with his white feet1 he led me through the swinging door in the rear4 ,in the dirty1 malodorous kitchen1 in the out-building1 we encountered an old woman who was carefully carrying some very bad-smelling tripe1 wrapped in a rag1 off somewhere4 ,from the out-building we descended into a sloping court-yard1 all encumbered with small wooden buildings on lower stories of stone4 ,the odor in this whole yard was extremely powerful4 ,the centre of this odor was an out-house1 round which people were thronging whenever ,i passed it4 ,it merely indicated the spot1 but was not altogether used itself4 ,it was impossible1 when passing through the yard1 not to take note of this spot2 one always felt oppressed when one entered the penetrating atmosphere which was emitted by this foul smell4 ,the waiter1 carefully guarding his white trousers1 led me cautiously past this place of frozen and unfrozen uncleanness to one of the buildings4 ,the people who were passing through the yard and along the balconies all stopped to stare at me4 ,it was evident that a respectably dressed man was a curiosity in these localities4 ,the young man asked a woman 8whether she had seen the census-takers80 ,and three men simultaneously answered his question3 some said that they were over the well1 but others said that they had been there1 but had come out and gone to ,nikita ,ivanovitch4 ,an old man dressed only in his shirt1 who was wandering about the centre of the yard1 said that they were in ,no4 #cj4 ,the young man decided that this was the most probable report1 and conducted me to ,no4 #cj through the basement entrance1 and darkness and bad smells1 different from that which existed outside4 ,we went down-stairs1 and proceeded along the earthen floor of a dark corridor4 ,as we were passing along the corridor1 a door flew open abruptly1 and an old drunken man1 in his shirt1 probably not of the peasant class1 thrust himself out4 ,a washerwoman1 wringing her soapy hands1 was pursuing and hustling the old man with piercing screams4 ,vanya1 my guide1 pushed the old man aside1 and reproved him4 8,it's not proper to make such a row10 said me1 8and you an officer1 too60 and we went on to the door of ,no4 #cj4 ,vanya gave it a little pull4 ,the door gave way with a smack1 opened1 and we smelled soapy steam1 and a sharp odor of spoilt food and tobacco1 and we entered into total darkness4 ,the windows were on the opposite side2 but the corridors ran to right and left between board partitions1 and small doors opened1 at various angles1 into the rooms made of uneven whitewashed boards4 ,in a dark room1 on the left1 a woman could be seen washing in a tub4 ,an old woman was peeping from one of these small doors on the right4 ,through another open door we could see a red-faced1 hairy peasant1 in bast shoes1 sitting on his wooden bunk2 his hands rested on his knees1 and he was swinging his feet1 shod in bast shoes1 and gazing gloomily at them4 ,at the end of the corridor was a little door leading to the apartment where the census-takers were4 ,this was the chamber of the mistress of the whole of ,no4 #cj2 she rented the entire apartment from ,ivan ,feodovitch1 and let it out again to lodgers and as night-quarters4 ,in her tiny room1 under the tinsel images1 sat the student census-taker with his charts2 and1 in his quality of investigator1 he had just thoroughly interrogated a peasant wearing a shirt and a vest4 ,this latter was a friend of the landlady1 and had been answering questions for her4 ,the landlady herself1 an elderly woman1 was there also1 and two of her curious tenants4 ,when ,i entered1 the room was already packed full4 ,i pushed my way to the table4 ,i exchanged greetings with the student1 and he proceeded with his inquiries4 ,and ,i began to look about me1 and to interrogate the inhabitants of these quarters for my own purpose4 ,it turned out1 that in this first set of lodgings1 ,i found not a single person upon whom ,i could pour out my benevolence4 ,the landlady1 in spite of the fact that the poverty1 smallness and dirt of these quarters struck me after the palatial house in which ,i dwell1 lived in comfort1 compared with many of the poor inhabitants of the city1 and in comparison with the poverty in the country1 with which ,i was thoroughly familiar1 she lived luxuriously4 ,she had a feather-bed1 a quilted coverlet1 a samovar1 a fur cloak1 and a dresser with crockery4 ,the landlady's friend had the same comfortable appearance4 ,he had a watch and a chain4 ,her lodgers were not so well off1 but there was not one of them who was in need of immediate assistance3 the woman who was washing linen in a tub1 and who had been abandoned by her husband and had children1 an aged widow without any means of livelihood1 as she said1 and that peasant in bast shoes1 who told me that he had nothing to eat that day4 ,but on questioning them1 it appeared that none of these people were in special want1 and that1 in order to help them1 it would be necessary to become well acquainted with them4 ,when ,i proposed to the woman whose husband had abandoned her1 to place her children in an asylum1 she became confused1 fell into thought1 thanked me effusively1 but evidently did not wish to do so2 she would have preferred pecuniary assistance4 ,the eldest girl helped her in her washing1 and the younger took care of the little boy4 ,the old woman begged earnestly to be taken to the hospital1 but on examining her nook ,i found that the old woman was not particularly poor4 ,she had a chest full of effects1 a teapot with a tin spout1 two cups1 and caramel boxes filled with tea and sugar4 ,she knitted stockings and gloves1 and received monthly aid from some benevolent lady4 ,and it was evident that what the peasant needed was not so much food as drink1 and that whatever might be given him would find its way to the dram-shop4 ,in these quarters1 therefore1 there were none of the sort of people whom ,i could render happy by a present of money4 ,but there were poor people who appeared to me to be of a doubtful character4 ,i noted down the old woman1 the woman with the children1 and the peasant1 and decided that they must be seen to2 but later on1 as ,i was occupied with the peculiarly unfortunate whom ,i expected to find in this house1 ,i made up my mind that there must be some order in the aid which we should bestow2 first came the most wretched1 and then this kind4 ,but in the next quarters1 and in the next after that1 it was the same story1 all the people had to be narrowly investigated before they could be helped4 ,but unfortunates of the sort whom a gift of money would convert from unfortunate into fortunate people1 there were none4 ,mortifying as it is to me to avow this1 ,i began to get disenchanted1 because ,i did not find among these people any thing of the sort which ,i had expected4 ,i had expected to find peculiar people here2 but1 after making the round of all the apartments1 ,i was convinced that the inhabitants of these houses were not peculiar people at all1 but precisely such persons as those among whom ,i lived4 ,as there are among us1 just so among them2 there were here those who were more or less good1 more or less stupid1 happy and unhappy4 ,the unhappy were exactly such unhappy beings as exist among us1 that is1 unhappy people whose unhappiness lies not in their external conditions1 but in themselves1 a sort of unhappiness which it is impossible to right by any sort of bank-note whatever4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,the inhabitants of these houses constitute the lower class of the city1 which numbers in ,moscow1 probably1 one hundred thousand4 ,there1 in that house1 are representatives of every description of this class4 ,there are petty employers1 and master-artisans1 bootmakers1 brush-makers1 cabinet-makers1 turners1 shoemakers1 tailors1 blacksmiths2 there are cab-drivers1 young women living alone1 and female pedlers1 laundresses1 old-clothes dealers1 money-lenders1 day-laborers1 and people without any definite employment2 and also beggars and dissolute women4 ,here were many of the very people whom ,i had seen at the entrance to the ,lyapinsky house2 but here these people were scattered about among the working-people4 ,and moreover1 ,i had seen these people at their most unfortunate time1 when they had eaten and drunk up every thing1 and when1 cold1 hungry1 and driven forth from the taverns1 they were awaiting admission into the free night lodging-house1 and thence into the promised prison for despatch to their places of residence1 like heavenly manna2 but here ,i beheld them and a majority of workers1 and at a time1 when by one means or another1 they had procured three or five kopeks for a lodging for the night1 and sometimes a ruble for food and drink4 ,and strange as the statement may seem1 ,i here experienced nothing resembling that sensation which ,i had felt in the ,lyapinsky house2 but1 on the contrary1 during the first round1 both ,i and the students experienced an almost agreeable feeling1--yes1 but why do ,i say 8almost agreeable08 ,this is not true2 the feeling called forth by intercourse with these people1 strange as it may sound1 was a distinctly agreeable one4 ,our first impression was1 that the greater part of the dwellers here were working people and very good people at that4 ,we found more than half the inhabitants at work3 laundresses bending over their tubs1 cabinet-makers at their lathes1 cobblers on their benches4 ,the narrow rooms were full of people1 and cheerful and energetic labor was in progress4 ,there was an odor of toilsome sweat and leather at the cobbler's1 of shavings at the cabinet-maker's2 songs were often to be heard1 and glimpses could be had of brawny arms with sleeves roiled high1 quickly and skilfully making their accustomed movements4 ,everywhere we were received cheerfully and politely3 hardly anywhere did our intrusion into the every-day life of these people call forth that ambition1 and desire to exhibit their importance and to put us down1 which the appearance of the enumerators in the quarters of well-to-do people evoked4 ,it not only did not arouse this1 but1 on the contrary1 they answered all other questions properly1 and without attributing any special significance to them4 ,our questions merely served them as a subject of mirth and jesting as to how such and such a one was to be set down in the list1 when he was to be reckoned as two1 and when two were to be reckoned as one1 and so forth4 ,we found many of them at dinner1 or tea2 and on every occasion to our greeting3 8bread and salt10 or 8tea and sugar10 they replied3 8we beg that you will partake10 and even stepped aside to make room for us4 ,instead of the den with a constantly changing population1 which we had expected to find here1 it turned out1 that there were a great many apartments in the house where people had been living for a long time4 ,one cabinet-maker with his men1 and a boot-maker with his journeymen1 had lived there for ten years4 ,the boot-maker's quarters were very dirty and confined1 but all the people at work were very cheerful4 ,i tried to enter into conversation with one of the workmen1 being desirous of inquiring into the wretchedness of his situation and his debt to his master1 but the man did not understand me and spoke of his master and his life from the best point of view4 ,in one apartment lived an old man and his old woman4 ,they peddled apples4 ,their little chamber was warm1 clean1 and full of goods4 ,on the floor were spread straw mats3 they had got them at the apple-warehouse4 ,they had chests1 a cupboard1 a samovar1 and crockery4 ,in the corner there were numerous images1 and two lamps were burning before them2 on the wall hung fur coats covered with sheets4 ,the old woman1 who had star-shaped wrinkles1 and who was polite and talkative1 evidently delighted in her quiet1 comfortable1 existence4 ,ivan ,fedotitch1 the landlord of the tavern and of these quarters1 left his establishment and came with us4 ,he jested in a friendly manner with many of the landlords of apartments1 addressing them all by their ,christian names and patronymics1 and he gave us brief sketches of them4 ,all were ordinary people1 like everybody else1--,martin ,semyonovitches1 ,piotr ,piotrovitches1 ,marya ,ivanovnas1--people who did not consider themselves unhappy1 but who regarded themselves1 and who actually were1 just like the rest of mankind4 ,we had been prepared to witness nothing except what was terrible4 ,and1 all of a sudden1 there was presented to us1 not only nothing that was terrible1 but what was good1--things which involuntarily compelled our respect4 ,and there were so many of these good people1 that the tattered1 corrupt1 idle people whom we came across now and then among them1 did not destroy the principal impression4 ,this was not so much of a surprise to the students as to me4 ,they simply went to fulfil a useful task1 as they thought1 in the interests of science1 and1 at the same time1 they made their own chance observations2 but ,i was a benefactor1 ,i went for the purpose of aiding the unfortunate1 the corrupt1 vicious people1 whom ,i supposed that ,i should meet with in this house4 ,and1 behold1 instead of unfortunate1 corrupt1 and vicious people1 ,i saw that the majority were laborious1 industrious1 peaceable1 satisfied1 contented1 cheerful1 polite1 and very good folk indeed4 ,i felt particularly conscious of this when1 in these quarters1 ,i encountered that same crying want which ,i had undertaken to alleviate4 ,when ,i encountered this want1 ,i always found that it had already been relieved1 that the assistance which ,i had intended to render had already been given4 ,this assistance had been rendered before my advent1 and rendered by whom8 ,by the very unfortunate1 depraved creatures whom ,i had undertaken to reclaim1 and rendered in such a manner as ,i could not compass4 ,in one basement lay a solitary old man1 ill with the typhus fever4 ,there was no one with the old man4 ,a widow and her little daughter1 strangers to him1 but his neighbors round the corner1 looked after him1 gave him tea and purchased medicine for him out of their own means4 ,in another lodging lay a woman in puerperal fever4 ,a woman who lived by vice was rocking the baby1 and giving her her bottle2 and for two days1 she had been unremitting in her attention4 ,the baby girl1 on being left an orphan1 was adopted into the family of a tailor1 who had three children of his own4 ,so there remained those unfortunate idle people1 officials1 clerks1 lackeys out of place1 beggars1 drunkards1 dissolute women1 and children1 who cannot be helped on the spot with money1 but whom it is necessary to know thoroughly1 to be planned and arranged for4 ,i had simply sought unfortunate people1 the unfortunates of poverty1 those who could be helped by sharing with them our superfluity1 and1 as it seemed to me1 through some signal ill-luck1 none such were to be found2 but ,i hit upon unfortunates to whom ,i should be obliged to devote my time and care4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,the unfortunates whom ,i noted down1 divided themselves1 according to my ideas1 into three sections1 namely3 people who had lost their former advantageous position1 and who were awaiting a return to it 7there were people of this sort from both the lower and the higher class72 next1 dissolute women1 of whom there are a great many in these houses2 and a third division1 children4 ,more than all the rest1 ,i found and noted down people of the first division1 who had forfeited their former advantageous position1 and who hoped to regain it4 ,of such persons1 especially from the governmental and official world1 there are a very great number in these houses4 ,in almost all the lodgings which we entered1 with the landlord1 ,ivan ,fedotitch1 he said to us3 8,here you need not write down the lodger's card yourself2 there is a man here who can do it1 if he only happens not to be intoxicated to-day40 ,and ,ivan ,fedotitch called by name and patronymic this man1 who was always one of those persons who had fallen from a lofty position4 ,at ,ivan ,fedotitch's call1 there crawled forth from some dark corner1 a former wealthy member of the noble or official class1 generally intoxicated and always undressed4 ,if he was not drunk1 he always readily acceded to the task proposed to him1 nodded significantly1 frowned1 set down his remarks in learned phraseology1 held the card neatly printed on red paper in his dirty1 trembling hands1 and glanced round at his fellow-lodgers with pride and contempt1 as though now triumphing in his education over those who had so often humiliated him4 ,he evidently enjoyed intercourse with that world in which cards are printed on red paper1 and with that world of which he had once formed a part4 ,nearly always1 in answer to my inquiries about his life1 the man began1 not only willingly1 but eagerly1 to relate the story of the misfortunes which he had undergone1--which he had learned by rote like a prayer1--and particularly of his former position1 in which he ought still to be by right of his education4 ,a great many such people were scattered over all the corners of the ,rzhanoff house4 ,but one lodging was densely occupied by them alone--both men and women4 ,after we had already entered1 ,ivan ,fedotitch said to us3 8,now1 here are some of the nobility40 ,the lodging was perfectly crammed2 nearly all of the people1 forty in number1 were at home4 ,more demoralized countenances1 unhappy1 aged1 and swollen1 young1 pallid1 and distracted1 were not to be seen in the whole building4 ,i conversed with several of them4 ,the story was nearly identical in all cases1 only in various stages of development4 ,every one of them had been rich1 or his father1 his brother or his uncle was still wealthy1 or his father or he himself had had a very fine position4 ,then misfortune had overtaken him1 the blame for which rested either on envious people1 or on his own kind-heartedness1 or some special chance1 and so he had lost every thing1 and had been forced to condescend to these surroundings to which he was not accustomed1 and which were hateful to him--among lice1 rags1 among drunkards and corrupt persons1 and to nourish himself on bread and liver1 and to extend his hand in beggary4 ,all the thoughts1 desires1 memories of these people were directed exclusively to the past4 ,the present appeared to them something unreal1 repulsive1 and not worthy of attention4 ,not one of them had any present4 ,they had only memories of the past1 and expectations from the future1 which might be realized at any moment1 and for the realization of which only a very little was required2 but this little they did not possess1 it was nowhere to be obtained1 and this had been ruining their whole future life in vain1 in the case of one man1 for a year1 of a second for five years1 and of a third for thirty years4 ,all one needed was merely to dress respectably1 so that he could present himself to a certain personage1 who was well-disposed towards him another only needed to be able to dress1 pay off his debts1 and get to ,orel2 a third required to redeem a small property which was mortgaged1 for the continuation of a law-suit1 which must be decided in his favor1 and then all would be well once more4 ,they all declare that they merely require something external1 in order to stand once more in the position which they regard as natural and happy in their own case4 ,had my mind not been obscured by my pride as a benefactor1 a glance at their faces1 both old and young1 which were mostly weak and sensitive1 but amiable1 would have given me to understand that their misfortunes were irreparable by any external means1 that they could not be happy in any position whatever1 if their views of life were to remain unchanged1 that they were in no wise remarkable people1 in remarkably unfortunate circumstances1 but that they were the same people who surround us on all sides1 and just like ourselves4 ,i remember that intercourse with this sort of unfortunates was peculiarly difficult for me4 ,i now understand why this was so2 in them ,i beheld myself1 as in a mirror4 ,if ,i had reflected on my own life and on the life of the people in our circle1 ,i should have seen that no real difference existed between them4 ,if those about me dwell in spacious quarters1 and in their own houses on the ,sivtzevy ,vrazhok and on the ,dimitrovka1 and not in the ,rzhanoff house1 and still eat and drink dainties1 and not liver and herrings with bread1 that does not prevent them from being exactly as unhappy4 ,they are just as dissatisfied with their own positions1 they mourn over the past1 and pine for better things1 and the improved position for which they long is precisely the same as that which the inhabitants of the ,rzhanoff house long for2 that is to say1 one in which they may do as little work as possible themselves1 and derive the utmost advantage from the labors of others4 ,the difference is merely one of degrees and time4 ,if ,i had reflected at that time1 ,i should have understood this2 but ,i did not reflect1 and ,i questioned these people1 and wrote them down1 supposing1 that1 having learned all the particulars of their various conditions and necessities1 ,i could aid them later on4 ,i did not understand that such a man can only be helped by changing his views of the world4 ,but in order to change the views of another1 one must needs have better views himself1 and live in conformity with them2 but mine were precisely the same as theirs1 and ,i lived in accordance with those views1 which must undergo a change1 in order that these people might cease to be unhappy4 ,i did not see that these people were unhappy1 not because they had not1 so to speak1 nourishing food1 but because their stomachs had been spoiled1 and because their appetites demanded not nourishing but irritating viands2 and ,i did not perceive that1 in order to help them1 it was not necessary to give them food1 but that it was necessary to heal their disordered stomachs4 ,although ,i am anticipating by so doing1 ,i will mention here1 that1 out of all these persons whom ,i noted down1 ,i really did not help a single one1 in spite of the fact that for some of them1 that was done which they desired1 and that which1 apparently1 might have raised them4 ,three of their number were particularly well known to me4 ,all three1 after repeated rises and falls1 are now in precisely the same situation in which they were three years ago4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,the second class of unfortunates whom ,i also expected to assist later on1 were the dissolute women2 there were a very great many of them1 of all sorts1 in the ,rzhanoff house--from those who were young and who resembled women1 to old ones1 who were frightful and horrible1 and who had lost every semblance of humanity4 ,the hope of being of assistance to these women1 which ,i had not at first entertained1 occurred to me later4 ,this was in the middle of our rounds4 ,we had already worked out several mechanical tricks of procedure4 ,when we entered a new establishment1 we immediately questioned the landlady of the apartment2 one of us sat down1 clearing some sort of a place for himself where he could write1 and another penetrated the corners1 and questioned each man in all the nooks of the apartment separately1 and reported the facts to the one who did the writing4 ,on entering a set of rooms in the basement1 a student went to hunt up the landlady1 while ,i began to interrogate all who remained in the place4 ,the apartment was thus arranged3 in the centre was a room six arshins square1 #ei and a small oven4 ,from the oven radiated four partitions1 forming four tiny compartments4 ,in the first1 the entrance slip1 which had four bunks1 there were two persons--an old man and a woman4 ,immediately adjoining this1 was a rather long slip of a room2 in it was the landlord1 a young fellow1 dressed in a sleeveless gray woollen jacket1 a good-looking1 very pale citizen4 #fj ,on the left of the first corner1 was a third tiny chamber2 there was one person asleep there1 probably a drunken peasant1 and a woman in a pink blouse which was loose in front and close-fitting behind4 ,the fourth chamber was behind the partition2 the entrance to it was from the landlord's compartment4 ,the student went into the landlord's room1 and ,i remained in the entrance compartment1 and questioned the old man and woman4 ,the old man had been a master-printer1 but now had no means of livelihood4 ,the woman was the wife of a cook4 ,i went to the third compartment1 and questioned the woman in the blouse about the sleeping man4 ,she said that he was a visitor4 ,i asked the woman who she was4 ,she replied that she was a ,moscow peasant4 8,what is your business80 ,she burst into a laugh1 and did not answer me4 8,what do you live on80 ,i repeated1 thinking that she had not understood my question4 8,i sit in the taverns10 she said4 ,i did not comprehend1 and again ,i inquired3 8,what is your means of livelihood80 ,she made no reply and laughed4 ,women's voices in the fourth compartment which we had not yet entered1 joined in the laugh4 ,the landlord emerged from his cabin and stepped up to us4 ,he had evidently heard my questions and the woman's replies4 ,he cast a stern glance at the woman and turned to me3 8,she is a prostitute10 said he1 apparently pleased that he knew the word in use in the language of the authorities1 and that he could pronounce it correctly4 ,and having said this1 with a respectful and barely perceptible smile of satisfaction addressed to me1 he turned to the woman4 ,and no sooner had he turned to her1 than his whole face altered4 ,he said1 in a peculiar1 scornful1 hasty tone1 such as is employed towards dogs3 8,what do you jabber in that careless way for8 #8,i sit in the taverns4' ,you do sit in the taverns1 and that means1 to talk business1 that you are a prostitute10 and again he uttered the word4 8,she does not know the name for herself40 ,this tone offended me4 8,it is not our place to abuse her10 said ,i4 8,if all of us lived according to the laws of ,god1 there would be none of these women40 8,that's the very point10 said the landlord1 with an awkward smile4 8,therefore1 we should not reproach but pity them4 ,are they to blame80 ,i do not recollect just what ,i said1 but ,i do remember that ,i was vexed by the scornful tone of the landlord of these quarters which were filled with women1 whom he called prostitutes1 and that ,i felt compassion for this woman1 and that ,i gave expression to both feelings4 ,no sooner had ,i spoken thus1 than the boards of the bed in the next compartment1 whence the laugh had proceeded1 began to creak1 and above the partition1 which did not reach to the ceiling1 there appeared a woman's curly and dishevelled head1 with small1 swollen eyes1 and a shining1 red face1 followed by a second1 and then by a third4 ,they were evidently standing on their beds1 and all three were craning their necks1 and holding their breath with strained attention1 and gazing silently at us4 ,a troubled pause ensued4 ,the student1 who had been smiling up to this time1 became serious2 the landlord grew confused and dropped his eyes4 ,all the women held their breath1 stared at me1 and waited4 ,i was more embarrassed than any of them4 ,i had not1 in the least1 anticipated that a chance remark would produce such an effect4 ,like ,ezekiel's field of death1 strewn with dead men's bones1 there was a quiver at the touch of the spirit1 and the dead bones stirred4 ,i had uttered an unpremeditated word of love and sympathy1 and this word had acted on all as though they had only been waiting for this very remark1 in order that they might cease to be corpses and might live4 ,they all stared at me1 and waited for what would come next4 ,they waited for me to utter those words1 and to perform those actions by reason of which these bones might draw together1 clothe themselves with flesh1 and spring into life4 ,but ,i felt that ,i had no such words1 no such actions1 by means of which ,i could continue what ,i had begun2 ,i was conscious1 in the depths of my soul1 that ,i had lied that ,i was just like them1 #fb and there was nothing further for me to say2 and ,i began to inscribe on the cards the names and callings of all the persons in this set of apartments4 ,this incident led me into a fresh dilemma1 to the thought of how these unfortunates also might be helped4 ,in my self-delusion1 ,i fancied that this would be very easy4 ,i said to myself3 8,here1 we will make a note of all these women also1 and later on when we ,i did not specify to myself who 8we0 were write every thing out1 we will attend to these persons too40 ,i imagined that we1 the very ones who have brought and have been bringing these women to this condition for several generations1 would take thought some fine day and reform all this4 ,but1 in the mean time1 if ,i had only recalled my conversation with the disreputable woman who had been rocking the baby of the fever-stricken patient1 ,i might have comprehended the full extent of the folly of such a supposition4 ,when we saw this woman with the baby1 we thought that it was her child4 ,to the question1 8,who was she80 she had replied in a straightforward way that she was unmarried4 ,she did not say--a prostitute4 ,only the master of the apartment made use of that frightful word4 ,the supposition that she had a child suggested to me the idea of removing her from her position4 ,i inquired3 8,is this your child80 8,no1 it belongs to that woman yonder40 8,why are you taking care of it80 8,because she asked me2 she is dying40 ,although my supposition proved to be erroneous1 ,i continued my conversation with her in the same spirit4 ,i began to question her as to who she was1 and how she had come to such a state4 ,she related her history very readily and simply4 ,she was a ,moscow myeshchanka1 the daughter of a factory hand4 ,she had been left an orphan1 and had been adopted by an aunt4 ,from her aunt's she had begun to frequent the taverns4 ,the aunt was now dead4 ,when ,i asked her whether she did not wish to alter her mode of life1 my question1 evidently1 did not even arouse her interest4 ,how can one take an interest in the proposition of a man1 in regard to something absolutely impossible8 ,she laughed1 and said3 8,and who would take me in with my yellow ticket80 8,well1 but if a place could be found somewhere as cook80 said ,i4 ,this thought occurred to me because she was a stout1 ruddy woman1 with a kindly1 round1 and rather stupid face4 ,cooks are often like that4 ,my words evidently did not please her4 ,she repeated3 8,a cook--but ,i don't know how to make bread10 said she1 and she laughed4 ,she said that she did not know how2 but ,i saw from the expression of her countenance that she did not wish to become a cook1 that she regarded the position and calling of a cook as low4 ,this woman1 who in the simplest possible manner was sacrificing every thing that she had for the sick woman1 like the widow in the ,gospels1 at the same time1 like many of her companions1 regarded the position of a person who works as low and deserving of scorn4 ,she had been brought up to live not by work1 but by this life which was considered the natural one for her by those about her4 ,in that lay her misfortune4 ,and she fell in with this misfortune and clung to her position4 ,this led her to frequent the taverns4 ,which of us--man or woman--will correct her false view of life8 ,where among us are the people to be found who are convinced that every laborious life is more worthy of respect than an idle life1--who are convinced of this1 and who live in conformity with this belief1 and who in conformity with this conviction value and respect people8 ,if ,i had thought of this1 ,i might have understood that neither ,i1 nor any other person among my acquaintances1 could heal this complaint4 ,i might have understood that these amazed and affected heads thrust over the partition indicated only surprise at the sympathy expressed for them1 but not in the least a hope of reclamation from their dissolute life4 ,they do not perceive the immorality of their life4 ,they see that they are despised and cursed1 but for what they are thus despised they cannot comprehend4 ,their life1 from childhood1 has been spent among just such women1 who1 as they very well know1 always have existed1 and are indispensable to society1 and so indispensable that there are governmental officials to attend to their legal existence4 ,moreover1 they know that they have power over men1 and can bring them into subjection1 and rule them often more than other women4 ,they see that their position in society is recognized by women and men and the authorities1 in spite of their continual curses1 and therefore1 they cannot understand why they should reform4 ,in the course of one of the tours1 one of the students told me that in a certain lodging1 there was a woman who was bargaining for her thirteen-year-old daughter4 ,being desirous of rescuing this girl1 ,i made a trip to that lodging expressly4 ,mother and daughter were living in the greatest poverty4 ,the mother1 a small1 dark-complexioned1 dissolute woman of forty1 was not only homely1 but repulsively homely4 ,the daughter was equally disagreeable4 ,to all my pointed questions about their life1 the mother responded curtly1 suspiciously1 and in a hostile way1 evidently feeling that ,i was an enemy1 with evil intentions2 the daughter made no reply1 did not look at her mother1 and evidently trusted the latter fully4 ,they inspired me with no sincere pity1 but rather with disgust4 ,but ,i made up my mind that the daughter must be rescued1 and that ,i would interest ladies who pitied the sad condition of these women1 and send them hither4 ,but if ,i had reflected on the mother's long life in the past1 of how she had given birth to1 nursed and reared this daughter in her situation1 assuredly without the slightest assistance from outsiders1 and with heavy sacrifices--if ,i had reflected on the view of life which this woman had formed1 ,i should have understood that there was1 decidedly1 nothing bad or immoral in the mother's act3 she had done and was doing for her daughter all that she could1 that is to say1 what she considered the best for herself4 ,this daughter could be forcibly removed from her mother2 but it would be impossible to convince the mother that she was doing wrong1 in selling her daughter4 ,if any one was to be saved1 then it must be this woman--the mother ought to have been saved2 and that long before1 from that view of life which is approved by every one1 according to which a woman may live unmarried1 that is1 without bearing children and without work1 and simply for the satisfaction of the passions4 ,if ,i had thought of this1 ,i should have understood that the majority of the ladies whom ,i intended to send thither for the salvation of that little girl1 not only live without bearing children and without working1 and serving only passion1 but that they deliberately rear their daughters for the same life2 one mother takes her daughter to the taverns1 another takes hers to balls4 ,but both mothers hold the same view of the world1 namely1 that a woman must satisfy man's passions1 and that for this she must be fed1 dressed1 and cared for4 ,then how are our ladies to reform this woman and her daughter8 #ff ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,still more remarkable were my relations to the children4 ,in my rle of benefactor1 ,i turned my attention to the children also1 being desirous to save these innocent beings from perishing in that lair of vice1 and noting them down in order to attend to them afterwards4 ,among the children1 ,i was especially struck with a twelve-year-old lad named ,serozha4 ,i was heartily sorry for this bold1 intelligent lad1 who had lived with a cobbler1 and who had been left without a shelter because his master had been put in jail1 and ,i wanted to do good to him4 ,i will here relate the upshot of my benevolence in his case1 because my experience with this child is best adapted to show my false position in the rle of benefactor4 ,i took the boy home with me and put him in the kitchen4 ,it was impossible1 was it not1 to take a child who had lived in a den of iniquity in among my own children8 ,and ,i considered myself very kind and good1 because he was a care1 not to me1 but to the servants in the kitchen1 and because not ,i but the cook fed him1 and because ,i gave him some cast-off clothing to wear4 ,the boy staid a week4 ,during that week ,i said a few words to him as ,i passed on two occasions and in the course of my strolls1 ,i went to a shoemaker of my acquaintance1 and proposed that he should take the lad as an apprentice4 ,a peasant who was visiting me1 invited him to go to the country1 into his family1 as a laborer2 the boy refused1 and at the end of the week he disappeared4 ,i went to the ,rzhanoff house to inquire after him4 ,he had returned there1 but was not at home when ,i went thither4 ,for two days already1 he had been going to the ,pryesnensky ponds1 where he had hired himself out at thirty kopeks a day in some procession of savages in costume1 who led about elephants4 ,something was being presented to the public there4 ,i went a second time1 but he was so ungrateful that he evidently avoided me4 ,had ,i then reflected on the life of that boy and on my own1 ,i should have understood that this boy was spoiled because he had discovered the possibility of a merry life without labor1 and that he had grown unused to work4 ,and ,i1 with the object of benefiting and reclaiming him1 had taken him to my house1 where he saw--what8 ,my children1--both older and younger than himself1 and of the same age1--who not only never did any work for themselves1 but who made work for others by every means in their power1 who soiled and spoiled every thing about them1 who ate rich1 dainty1 and sweet viands1 broke china1 and flung to the dogs food which would have been a tidbit to this lad4 ,if ,i had rescued him from the abyss1 and had taken him to that nice place1 then he must acquire those views which prevailed in the life of that nice place2 but by these views1 he understood that in that fine place he must so live that he should not toil1 but eat and drink luxuriously1 and lead a joyous life4 ,it is true that he did not know that my children bore heavy burdens in the acquisition of the declensions of ,latin and ,greek grammar1 and that he could not have understood the object of these labors4 ,but it is impossible not to see that if he had understood this1 the influence of my children's example on him would have been even stronger4 ,he would then have comprehended that my children were being educated in this manner1 so that1 while doing no work now1 they might be in a position hereafter1 also profiting by their diplomas1 to work as little as possible1 and to enjoy the pleasures of life to as great an extent as possible4 ,he did understand this1 and he would not go with the peasant to tend cattle1 and to eat potatoes and kvas with him1 but he went to the zological garden in the costume of a savage1 to lead the elephant at thirty kopeks a day4 ,i might have understood how clumsy ,i was1 when ,i was rearing my children in the most utter idleness and luxury1 to reform other people and their children1 who were perishing from idleness in what ,i called the den of the ,rzhanoff house1 where1 nevertheless1 three-fourths of the people toil for themselves and for others4 ,but ,i understood nothing of this4 ,there were a great many children in the ,rzhanoff house1 who were in the same pitiable plight2 there were the children of dissolute women1 there were orphans1 there were children who had been picked up in the streets by beggars4 ,they were all very wretched4 ,but my experience with ,serozha showed me that ,i1 living the life ,i did1 was not in a position to help them4 ,while ,serozha was living with us1 ,i noticed in myself an effort to hide our life from him1 in particular the life of our children4 ,i felt that all my efforts to direct him towards a good1 industrious life1 were counteracted by the examples of our lives and by that of our children4 ,it is very easy to take a child away from a disreputable woman1 or from a beggar4 ,it is very easy1 when one has the money1 to wash1 clean and dress him in neat clothing1 to support him1 and even to teach him various sciences2 but it is not only difficult for us1 who do not earn our own bread1 but quite the reverse1 to teach him to work for his bread1 but it is impossible1 because we1 by our example1 and even by those material and valueless improvements of his life1 inculcate the contrary4 ,a puppy can be taken1 tended1 fed1 and taught to fetch and carry1 and one may take pleasure in him3 but it is not enough to tend a man1 to feed and teach him ,greek2 we must teach the man how to live1--that is1 to take as little as possible from others1 and to give as much as possible2 and we cannot help teaching him to do the contrary1 if we take him into our houses1 or into an institution founded for this purpose4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,this feeling of compassion for people1 and of disgust with myself1 which ,i had experienced in the ,lyapinsky house1 ,i experienced no longer4 ,i was completely absorbed in the desire to carry out the scheme which ,i had concocted1--to do good to those people whom ,i should meet here4 ,and1 strange to say1 it would appear1 that1 to do good--to give money to the needy--is a very good deed1 and one that should dispose me to love for the people1 but it turned out the reverse3 this act produced in me ill-will and an inclination to condemn people4 ,but during our first evening tour1 a scene occurred exactly like that in the ,lyapinsky house1 and it called forth a wholly different sentiment4 ,it began by my finding in one set of apartments an unfortunate individual1 of precisely the sort who require immediate aid4 ,i found a hungry woman who had had nothing to eat for two days4 ,it came about thus3 in one very large and almost empty night-lodging1 ,i asked an old woman whether there were many poor people who had nothing to eat8 ,the old woman reflected1 and then told me of two2 and then1 as though she had just recollected1 8,why1 here is one of them10 said she1 glancing at one of the occupied bunks4 8,i think that woman has had no food40 8,really8 ,who is she80 8,she was a dissolute woman3 no one wants any thing to do with her now1 so she has no way of getting any thing4 ,the landlady has had compassion on her1 but now she means to turn her out 4 4 4 ,agafya1 hey there1 ,agafya60 cried the woman4 ,we approached1 and something rose up in the bunk4 ,it was a woman haggard and dishevelled1 whose hair was half gray1 and who was as thin as a skeleton1 dressed in a ragged and dirty chemise1 and with particularly brilliant and staring eyes4 ,she looked past us with her staring eyes1 clutched at her jacket with one thin hand1 in order to cover her bony breast which was disclosed by her tattered chemise1 and oppressed1 she cried1 8,what is it8 what is it80 ,i asked her about her means of livelihood4 ,for a long time she did not understand1 and said1 8,i don't know myself2 they persecute me40 ,i asked her1--it puts me to shame1 my hand refuses to write it1--,i asked her whether it was true that she had nothing to eat8 ,she answered in the same hurried1 feverish tone1 staring at me the while1--8,no1 ,i had nothing yesterday1 and ,i have had nothing to-day40 ,the sight of this woman touched me1 but not at all as had been the case in the ,lyapinsky house2 there1 my pity for these people made me instantly feel ashamed of myself3 but here1 ,i rejoiced because ,i had at last found what ,i had been seeking1--a hungry person4 ,i gave her a ruble1 and ,i recollect being very glad that others saw it4 ,the old woman1 on seeing this1 immediately begged money of me also4 ,it afforded me such pleasure to give1 that1 without finding out whether it was necessary to give or not1 ,i gave something to the old woman too4 ,the old woman accompanied me to the door1 and the people standing in the corridor heard her blessing me4 ,probably the questions which ,i had put with regard to poverty1 had aroused expectation1 and several persons followed us4 ,in the corridor also1 they began to ask me for money4 ,among those who begged were some drunken men1 who aroused an unpleasant feeling in me2 but1 having once given to the old woman1 ,i had no might to refuse these people1 and ,i began to give4 ,as long as ,i continued to give1 people kept coming up2 and excitement ran through all the lodgings4 ,people made them appearance on the stairs and galleries1 and followed me4 ,as ,i emerged into the court-yard1 a little boy ran swiftly down one of the staircases thrusting the people aside4 ,he did not see me1 and exclaimed hastily3 8,he gave ,agashka a ruble60 ,when he reached the ground1 the boy joined the crowd which was following me4 ,i went out into the street3 various descriptions of people followed me1 and asked for money4 ,i distributed all my small change1 and entered an open shop with the request that the shopkeeper would change a ten-ruble bill for me4 ,and then the same thing happened as at the ,lyapinsky house4 ,a terrible confusion ensued4 ,old women1 noblemen1 peasants1 and children crowded into the shop with outstretched hands2 ,i gave1 and interrogated some of them as to their lives1 and took notes4 ,the shopkeeper1 turning up the furred points of the collar of his coat1 sat like a stuffed creature1 glancing at the crowd occasionally1 and then fixing his eyes beyond them again4 ,he evidently1 like every one else1 felt that this was foolish1 but he could not say so4 ,the poverty and beggary in the ,lyapinsky house had horrified me1 and ,i felt myself guilty of it2 ,i felt the desire and the possibility of improvement4 ,but now1 precisely the same scene produced on me an entirely different effect2 ,i experienced1 in the first place1 a malevolent feeling towards many of those who were besieging me2 and in the second place1 uneasiness as to what the shopkeepers and porters would think of me4 ,on my return home that day1 ,i was troubled in my soul4 ,i felt that what ,i had done was foolish and immoral4 ,but1 as is always the result of inward confusion1 ,i talked a great deal about the plan which ,i had undertaken1 as though ,i entertained not the slightest doubt of my success4 ,on the following day1 ,i went to such of the people whom ,i had inscribed on my list1 as seemed to me the most wretched of all1 and those who1 as it seemed to me1 would be the easiest to help4 ,as ,i have already said1 ,i did not help any of these people4 ,it proved to be more difficult to help them than ,i had thought4 ,and either because ,i did not know how1 or because it was impossible1 ,i merely imitated these people1 and did not help any one4 ,i visited the ,rzhanoff house several times before the final tour1 and on every occasion the very same thing occurred3 ,i was beset by a throng of beggars in whose mass ,i was completely lost4 ,i felt the impossibility of doing any thing1 because there were too many of them1 and because ,i felt ill-disposed towards them because there were so many of them2 and in addition to this1 each one separately did not incline me in his favor4 ,i was conscious that every one of them was telling me an untruth1 or less than the whole truth1 and that he saw in me merely a purse from which money might be drawn4 ,and it very frequently seemed to me1 that the very money which they squeezed out of me1 rendered their condition worse instead of improving it4 ,the oftener ,i went to that house1 the more ,i entered into intercourse with the people there1 the more apparent became to me the impossibility of doing any thing2 but still ,i did not give up any scheme until the last night tour4 ,the remembrance of that last tour is particularly mortifying to me4 ,on other occasions ,i had gone thither alone1 but twenty of us went there on this occasion4 ,at seven o'clock1 all who wished to take part in this final night round1 began to assemble at my house4 ,nearly all of them were strangers to me1--students1 one officer1 and two of my society acquaintances1 who1 uttering the usual1 8,c'est trs intressant60 had asked me to include them in the number of the census-takers4 ,my worldly acquaintances had dressed up especially for this1 in some sort of hunting-jacket1 and tall1 travelling boots1 in a costume in which they rode and went hunting1 and which1 in their opinion1 was appropriate for an excursion to a night-lodging-house4 ,they took with them special note-books and remarkable pencils4 ,they were in that peculiarly excited state of mind in which men set off on a hunt1 to a duel1 or to the wars4 ,the most apparent thing about them was their folly and the falseness of our position1 but all the rest of us were in the same false position4 ,before we set out1 we held a consultation1 after the fashion of a council of war1 as to how we should begin1 how divide our party1 and so on4 ,this consultation was exactly such as takes place in councils1 assemblages1 committees2 that is to say1 each person spoke1 not because he had any thing to say or to ask1 but because each one cudgelled his brain for something that he could say1 so that he might not fall short of the rest4 ,but1 among all these discussions1 no one alluded to that beneficence of which ,i had so often spoken to them all4 ,mortifying as this was to me1 ,i felt that it was indispensable that ,i should once more remind them of benevolence1 that is1 of the point1 that we were to observe and take notes of all those in destitute circumstances whom we should encounter in the course of our rounds4 ,i had always felt ashamed to speak of this2 but now1 in the midst of all our excited preparations for our expedition1 ,i could hardly utter the words4 ,all listened to me1 as it seemed to me1 with sorrow1 and1 at the same time1 all agreed in words2 but it was evident that they all knew that it was folly1 and that nothing would come of it1 and all immediately began again to talk about something else4 ,this went on until the time arrived for us to set out1 and we started4 ,we reached the tavern1 roused the waiters1 and began to sort our papers4 ,when we were informed that the people had heard about this round1 and were leaving their quarters1 we asked the landlord to lock the gates2 and we went ourselves into the yard to reason with the fleeing people1 assuring them that no one would demand their tickets4 ,i remember the strange and painful impression produced on me by these alarmed night-lodgers3 ragged1 half-dressed1 they all seemed tall to me by the light of the lantern and the gloom of the court-yard4 ,frightened and terrifying in their alarm1 they stood in a group around the foul-smelling out-house1 and listened to our assurances1 but they did not believe us1 and were evidently prepared for any thing1 like hunted wild beasts1 provided only that they could escape from us4 ,gentlemen in divers shapes--as policemen1 both city and rural1 and as examining judges1 and judges--hunt them all their lives1 in town and country1 on the highway and in the streets1 and in the taverns1 and in night-lodging houses2 and now1 all of a sudden1 these gentlemen had come and locked the gates1 merely in order to count them3 it was as difficult for them to believe this1 as for hares to believe that dogs have come1 not to chase but to count them4 ,but the gates were locked1 and the startled lodgers returned3 and we1 breaking up into groups1 entered also4 ,with me were the two society men and two students4 ,in front of us1 in the dark1 went ,vanya1 in his coat and white trousers1 with a lantern1 and we followed4 ,we went to quarters with which ,i was familiar4 ,i knew all the establishments1 and some of the people2 but the majority of the people were new1 and the spectacle was new1 and more dreadful than the one which ,i had witnessed in the ,lyapinsky house4 ,all the lodgings were full1 all the bunks were occupied1 not by one person only1 but often by two4 ,the sight was terrible in that narrow space into which the people were huddled1 and men and women were mixed together4 ,all the women who were not dead drunk slept with men2 and women with two children did the same4 ,the sight was terrible1 on account of the poverty1 dirt1 rags1 and terror of the people4 ,and it was chiefly dreadful on account of the vast numbers of people who were in this situation4 ,one lodging1 and then a second like it1 and a third1 and a tenth1 and a twentieth1 and still there was no end to them4 ,and everywhere there was the same foul odor1 the same close atmosphere1 the same crowding1 the same mingling of the sexes1 the same men and women intoxicated to stupidity1 and the same terror1 submission and guilt on all faces2 and again ,i was overwhelmed with shame and pain1 as in the ,lyapinsky house1 and ,i understood that what ,i had undertaken was abominable and foolish and therefore impracticable4 ,and ,i no longer took notes of anybody1 and ,i asked no questions1 knowing that nothing would come of this4 ,i was deeply pained4 ,in the ,lyapinsky house ,i had been like a man who has seen a fearful wound1 by chance1 on the body of another man4 ,he is sorry for the other man1 he is ashamed that he has not pitied the man before1 and he can still rise to the succor of the sufferer4 ,but now ,i was like a physician1 who has come with his medicine to the sick man1 has uncovered his sore1 and examined it1 and who must confess to himself that every thing that he has done has been in vain1 and that his remedy is good for nothing4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,this visit dealt the final blow to my self-delusion4 ,it now appeared indisputable to me1 that what ,i had undertaken was not only foolish but loathsome4 ,but1 in spite of the fact that ,i was aware of this1 it seemed to me that ,i could not abandon the whole thing on the spot4 ,it seemed to me that ,i was bound to carry out this enterprise1 in the first place1 because by my article1 by my visits and promises1 ,i had aroused the expectations of the poor2 in the second1 because by my article also1 and by my talk1 ,i had aroused the sympathies of benevolent persons1 many of whom had promised me their co-operation both in personal labor and in money4 ,and ,i expected that both sets of people would turn to me for an answer to this4 ,what happened to me1 so far as the appeal of the needy to me is concerned1 was as follows3 ,by letter and personal application ,i received more than a hundred2 these applications were all from the wealthy-poor1 if ,i may so express myself4 ,i went to see some of them1 and some of them received no answer4 ,nowhere did ,i succeed in doing any thing4 ,all applications to me were from persons who had once occupied privileged positions 7,i thus designate those in which people receive more from others than they give71 who had lost them1 and who wished to occupy them again4 ,to one1 two hundred rubles were indispensable1 in order that he might prop up a failing business1 and complete the education of his children which had been begun2 another wanted a photographic outfit2 a third wanted his debts paid1 and respectable clothing purchased for him2 a fourth needed a piano1 in order to perfect himself and support his family by giving lessons4 ,but the majority did not stipulate for any given sum of money1 and simply asked for assistance2 and when ,i came to examine into what was required1 it turned out that their demands grew in proportion to the aid1 and that there was not and could not be any way of satisfying them4 ,i repeat1 that it is very possible that this arose from the fact that ,i did not understand how2 but ,i did not help any one1 although ,i sometimes endeavored to do so4 ,a very strange and unexpected thing happened to me as regards the co-operation of the benevolently disposed4 ,out of all the persons who had promised me financial aid1 and who had even stated the number of rubles1 not a single one handed to me for distribution among the poor one solitary ruble4 ,but according to the pledges which had been given me1 ,i could reckon on about three thousand rubles2 and out of all these people1 not one remembered our former discussions1 or gave me a single kopek4 ,only the students gave the money which had been assigned to them for their work on the census1 twelve rubles1 ,i think4 ,so my whole scheme1 which was to have been expressed by tens of thousands of rubles contributed by the wealthy1 for hundreds and thousands of poor people who were to be rescued from poverty and vice1 dwindled down to this1 that ,i gave away1 haphazard1 a few scores of rubles to those people who asked me for them1 and that there remained in my hands twelve rubies contributed by the students1 and twenty-five sent to me by the ,city ,council for my labor as a superintendent1 and ,i absolutely did not know to whom to give them4 ,the whole matter came to an end4 ,and then1 before my departure for the country1 on the ,sunday before carnival1 ,i went to the ,rzhanoff house in the morning1 in order to get rid of those thirty-seven rubles before ,i should leave ,moscow1 and to distribute them to the poor4 ,i made the round of the quarters with which ,i was familiar1 and in them found only one sick man1 to whom ,i gave five rubles4 ,there was no one else there to give any to4 ,of course many began to beg of me4 ,but as ,i had not known them at first1 so ,i did not know them now1 and ,i made up my mind to take counsel with ,ivan ,fedotitch1 the landlord of the tavern1 as to the persons upon whom it would be proper to bestow the remaining thirty-two rubies4 ,it was the first day of the carnival4 ,everybody was dressed up1 and everybody was full-fed1 and many were already intoxicated4 ,in the court-yard1 close to the house1 stood an old man1 a rag-picker1 in a tattered smock and bast shoes1 sorting over the booty in his basket1 tossing out leather1 iron1 and other stuff in piles1 and breaking into a merry song1 with a fine1 powerful voice4 ,i entered into conversation with him4 ,he was seventy years old1 he was alone in the world1 and supported himself by his calling of a rag-picker2 and not only did he utter no complaints1 but he said that he had plenty to eat and drink4 ,i inquired of him as to especially needy persons4 ,he flew into a rage1 and said plainly that there were no needy people1 except drunkards and lazy men2 but1 on learning my object1 he asked me for a five-kopek piece to buy a drink1 and ran off to the tavern4 ,i too entered the tavern to see ,ivan ,fedotitch1 and commission him to distribute the money which ,i had left4 ,the tavern was full2 gayly-dressed1 intoxicated girls were flitting in and out2 all the tables were occupied2 there were already a great many drunken people1 and in the small room the harmonium was being played1 and two persons were dancing4 ,out of respect to me1 ,ivan ,fedotitch ordered that the dance should be stopped1 and seated himself with me at a vacant table4 ,i said to him1 that1 as he knew his tenants1 would not he point out to me the most needy among them2 that ,i had been entrusted with the distribution of a little money1 and1 therefore1 would he indicate the proper persons8 ,good-natured ,ivan ,fedotitch 7he died a year later71 although he was pressed with business1 broke away from it for a time1 in order to serve me4 ,he meditated1 and was evidently undecided4 ,an elderly waiter heard us1 and joined the conference4 ,they began to discuss the claims of persons1 some of whom ,i knew1 but still they could not come to any agreement4 8,the ,paramonovna10 suggested the waiter4 8,yes1 that would do4 ,sometimes she has nothing to eat4 ,yes1 but then she tipples40--8,well1 what of that8 ,that makes no difference40--8,well1 ,sidoron ,ivanovitch has children4 ,he would do40 ,but ,ivan ,fedotitch had his doubts about ,sidoron ,ivanovitch also4 8,akulina shall have some4 ,there1 now1 give something to the blind40 ,to this ,i responded4 ,i saw him at once4 ,he was a blind old man of eighty years1 without kith or kin4 ,it seemed as though no condition could be more painful1 and ,i went immediately to see him4 ,he was lying on a feather-bed1 on a high bedstead1 drunk2 and1 as he did not see me1 he was scolding his comparatively youthful female companion in a frightful bass voice1 and in the very worst kind of language4 ,they also summoned an armless boy and his mother4 ,i saw that ,ivan ,fedotitch was in great straits1 on account of his conscientiousness1 for me knew that whatever was given would immediately pass to his tavern4 ,but ,i had to get rid of my thirty-two rubles1 so ,i insisted2 and in one way and another1 and half wrongfully to boot1 we assigned and distributed them4 ,those who received them were mostly well dressed1 and we had not far to go to find them1 as they were there in the tavern4 ,the armless boy appeared in wrinkled boots1 and a red shirt and vest4 ,with this my charitable career came to an end1 and ,i went off to the country2 irritated at others1 as is always the case1 because ,i myself had done a stupid and a bad thing4 ,my benevolence had ended in nothing1 and it ceased altogether1 but the current of thoughts and feelings which it had called up with me not only did not come to an end1 but the inward work went on with redoubled force4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,what was its nature8 ,i had lived in the country1 and there ,i was connected with the rustic poor4 ,not out of humility1 which is worse than pride1 but for the sake of telling the truth1 which is indispensable for the understanding of the whole course of my thoughts and sentiments1 ,i will say that in the country ,i did very little for the poor1 but the demands which were made upon me were so modest that even this little was of use to the people1 and formed around me an atmosphere of affection and union with the people1 in which it was possible to soothe the gnawing sensation of remorse at the independence of my life4 ,on going to the city1 ,i had hoped to be able to live in the same manner4 ,but here ,i encountered want of an entirely different sort4 ,city want was both less real1 and more exacting and cruel1 than country poverty4 ,but the principal point was1 that there was so much of it in one spot1 that it produced on me a frightful impression4 ,the impression which ,i experienced in the ,lyapinsky house had1 at the very first1 made me conscious of the deformity of my own life4 ,this feeling was genuine and very powerful4 ,but1 notwithstanding its genuineness and power1 ,i was1 at that time1 so weak that ,i feared the alteration in my life to which this feeling commended me1 and ,i resorted to a compromise4 ,i believed what everybody told me1 and everybody has said1 ever since the world was made1--that there is nothing evil in wealth and luxury1 that they are given by ,god1 that one may continue to live as a rich man1 and yet help the needy4 ,i believed this1 and ,i tried to do it4 ,i wrote an essay1 in which ,i summoned all rich people to my assistance4 ,the rich people all acknowledged themselves morally bound to agree with me1 but evidently they either did not wish to do any thing1 or they could not do any thing or give any thing to the poor4 ,i began to visit the poor1 and ,i beheld what ,i had not in the least expected4 ,on the one hand1 ,i beheld in those dens1 as ,i called them1 people whom it was not conceivable that ,i should help1 because they were working people1 accustomed to labor and privation1 and therefore standing much higher and having a much firmer foothold in life than myself2 on the other hand1 ,i saw unfortunate people whom ,i could not aid because they were exactly like myself4 ,the majority of the unfortunates whom ,i saw were unhappy only because they had lost the capacity1 desire1 and habit of earning their own bread2 that is to say1 their unhappiness consisted in the fact that they were precisely such persons as myself4 ,i found no unfortunates who were sick1 hungry1 or cold1 to whom ,i could render immediate assistance1 with the solitary exception of hungry ,agafya4 ,and ,i became convinced1 that1 on account of my remoteness from the lives of those people whom ,i desired to help1 it would be almost impossible to find any such unfortunates1 because all actual wants had already been supplied by the very people among whom these unfortunates live2 and1 most of all1 ,i was convinced that money cannot effect any change in the life led by these unhappy people4 ,i was convinced of all this1 but out of false shame at abandoning what ,i had once undertaken1 because of my self-delusion as a benefactor1 ,i went on with this matter for a tolerably long time1--and would have gone on with it until it came to nothing of itself1--so that it was with the greatest difficulty that1 with the help of ,ivan ,fedotitch1 ,i got rid1 after a fashion1 as well as ,i could1 in the tavern of the ,rzhanoff house1 of the thirty-seven rubles which ,i did not regard as belonging to me4 ,of course ,i might have gone on with this business1 and have made out of it a semblance of benevolence2 by urging the people who had promised me money1 ,i might have collected more1 ,i might have distributed this money1 and consoled myself with my charity2 but ,i perceived1 on the one hand1 that we rich people neither wish nor are able to share a portion of our a superfluity with the poor 7we have so many wants of our own71 and that money should not be given to any one1 if the object really be to do good and not to give money itself at haphazard1 as ,i had done in the ,rzhanoff tavern4 ,and ,i gave up the whole thing1 and went off to the country with despair in my heart4 ,in the country ,i tried to write an essay about all this that ,i had experienced1 and to tell why my undertaking had not succeeded4 ,i wanted to justify myself against the reproaches which had been made to me on the score of my article on the census2 ,i wanted to convict society of its in difference1 and to state the causes in which this city poverty has its birth1 and the necessity of combating it1 and the means of doing so which ,i saw4 ,i began this essay at once1 and it seemed to me that in it ,i was saying a very great deal that was important4 ,but toil as ,i would over it1 and in spite of the abundance of materials1 in spite of the superfluity of them even1 ,i could not get though that essay2 and so ,i did not finish it until the present year1 because of the irritation under the influence of which ,i wrote1 because ,i had not gone through all that was requisite in order to bear myself properly in relation to this essay1 because ,i did not simply and clearly acknowledge the cause of all this1--a very simple cause1 which had its root in myself4 ,in the domain of morals1 one very remarkable and too little noted phenomenon presents itself4 ,if ,i tell a man who knows nothing about it1 what ,i know about geology1 astronomy1 history1 physics1 and mathematics1 that man receives entirely new information1 and he never says to me3 8,well1 what is there new in that8 ,everybody knows that1 and ,i have known it this long while40 ,but tell that same man the most lofty truth1 expressed in the clearest1 most concise manner1 as it has never before been expressed1 and every ordinary individual1 especially one who takes no particular interest in moral questions1 or1 even more1 one to whom the moral truth stated by you is displeasing1 will infallibly say to you3 8,well1 who does not know that8 ,that was known and said long ago40 ,it really seems to him that this has been said long ago and in just this way4 ,only those to whom moral truths are dear and important know how important and precious they are1 and with what prolonged labor the elucidation1 the simplification1 of moral truths1 their transit from the state of a misty1 indefinitely recognized supposition1 and desire1 from indistinct1 incoherent expressions1 to a firm and definite expression1 unavoidably demanding corresponding concessions1 are attained4 ,we have all become accustomed to think that moral instruction is a most absurd and tiresome thing1 in which there can be nothing new or interesting2 and yet all human life1 together with all the varied and complicated activities1 apparently independent1 of morality1 both governmental and scientific1 and artistic and commercial1 has no other aim than the greater and greater elucidation1 confirmation1 simplification1 and accessibility of moral truth4 ,i remember that ,i was once walking along the street in ,moscow1 and in front of me ,i saw a man come out and gaze attentively at the stones of the sidewalk1 after which he selected one stone1 seated himself on it1 and began to plane 7as it seemed to me7 or to rub it with the greatest diligence and force4 8,what is he doing to the sidewalk80 ,i said to myself4 ,on going close to him1 ,i saw what the man was doing4 ,he was a young fellow from a meat-shop2 he was whetting his knife on the stone of the pavement4 ,he was not thinking at all of the stones when he scrutinized them1 still less was he thinking of them when he was accomplishing his task3 he was whetting his knife4 ,he was obliged to whet his knife so that he could cut the meat2 but to me it seemed as though he were doing something to the stones of the sidewalk4 ,just so it appears as though humanity were occupied with commerce1 conventions1 wars1 sciences1 arts2 but only one business is of importance to it1 and with only one business is it occupied3 it is elucidating to itself those moral laws by which it lives4 ,the moral laws are already in existence2 humanity is only elucidating them1 and this elucidation seems unimportant and imperceptible for any one who has no need of moral laws1 who does not wish to live by them4 ,but this elucidation of the moral law is not only weighty1 but the only real business of all humanity4 ,this elucidation is imperceptible just as the difference between the dull and the sharp knife is imperceptible4 ,the knife is a knife all the same1 and for a person who is not obliged to cut any thing with this knife1 the difference between the dull and the sharp one is imperceptible4 ,for the man who has come to an understanding that his whole life depends on the greater or less degree of sharpness in the knife1--for such a man1 every whetting of it is weighty1 and that man knows that the knife is a knife only when it is sharp1 when it cuts that which needs cutting4 ,this is what happened to me1 when ,i began to write my essay4 ,it seemed to me that ,i knew all about it1 that ,i understood every thing connected with those questions which had produced on me the impressions of the ,lyapinsky house1 and the census2 but when ,i attempted to take account of them and to demonstrate them1 it turned out that the knife would not cut1 and that it must be whetted4 ,and it is only now1 after the lapse of three years1 that ,i have felt that my knife is sufficiently sharp1 so that ,i can cut what ,i choose4 ,i have learned very little that is new4 ,my thoughts are all exactly the same1 but they were duller then1 and they all scattered and would not unite on any thing2 there was no edge to them2 they would not concentrate on one point1 on the simplest and clearest decision1 as they have now concentrated themselves4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 ,i remember that during the entire period of my unsuccessful efforts at helping the inhabitants of the city1 ,i presented to myself the aspect of a man who should attempt to drag another man out of a swamp while he himself was standing on the same unstable ground4 ,every attempt of mine had made me conscious of the untrustworthy character of the soil on which ,i stood4 ,i felt that ,i was in the swamp myself1 but this consciousness did not cause me to look more narrowly at my own feet1 in order to learn upon what ,i was standing2 ,i kept on seeking some external means1 outside myself1 of helping the existing evil4 ,i then felt that my life was bad1 and that it was impossible to live in that manner4 ,but from the fact that my life was bad1 and that it was impossible to live in that manner1 ,i did not draw the very simple and clear deduction that it was necessary to amend my life and to live better1 but ,i knew the terrible deduction that in order to live well myself1 ,i must needs reform the lives of others2 and so ,i began to reform the lives of others4 ,i lived in the city1 and ,i wished to reform the lives of those who lived in the city2 but ,i soon became convinced that this ,i could not by any possibility accomplish1 and ,i began to meditate on the inherent characteristics of city life and city poverty4 8,what are city life and city poverty8 ,why1 when ,i am living in the city1 cannot ,i help the city poor80 ,i asked myself4 ,i answered myself that ,i could not do any thing for them1 in the first place1 because there were too many of them here in one spot2 in the second place1 because all the poor people here were entirely different from the country poor4 ,why were there so many of them here8 and in what did their peculiarity1 as opposed to the country poor1 consist8 ,there was one and the same answer to both questions4 ,there were a great many of them here1 because here all those people who have no means of subsistence in the country collect around the rich2 and their peculiarity lies in this1 that they are not people who have come from the country to support themselves in the city 7if there are any city paupers1 those who have been born here1 and whose fathers and grandfathers were born here1 then those fathers and grandfathers came hither for the purpose of earning their livelihood74 ,what is the meaning of this3 to earn one's livelihood in the city8 ,in the words 8to earn one's livelihood in the city10 there is something strange1 resembling a jest1 when you reflect on their significance4 ,how is it that people go from the country1--that is to say1 from the places where there are forests1 meadows1 grain1 and cattle1 where all the wealth of the earth lies1--to earn their livelihood in a place where there are neither trees1 nor grass1 nor even land1 and only stones and dust8 ,what is the significance of the words 8to earn a livelihood in the city10 which are in such constant use1 both by those who earn the livelihood1 and by those who furnish it1 as though it were something perfectly clear and comprehensible8 ,i recall the hundreds and thousands of city people1 both those who live well and the needy1 with whom ,i have conversed on the reason why they came hither3 and all without exception said1 that they had come from the country to earn their living2 that in ,moscow1 where people neither sow nor reap1--that in ,moscow there is plenty of every thing1 and that1 therefore1 it is only in ,moscow that they can earn the money which they require in the country for bread and a cottage and a horse1 and articles of prime necessity4 ,but assuredly1 in the country lies the source of all riches2 there only is real wealth1--bread1 and forests1 and horses1 and every thing4 ,and why1 above all1 take away from the country that which dwellers in the country need1--flour1 oats1 horses1 and cattle8 ,hundreds of times did ,i discuss this matter with peasants living in town2 and from my discussions with them1 and from my observations1 it has been made apparent to me1 that the congregation of country people in the city is partly indispensable because they cannot otherwise support themselves1 partly voluntary1 and that they are attracted to the city by the temptations of the city4 ,it is true1 that the position of the peasant is such that1 for the satisfaction of his demands made on him in the country1 he cannot extricate himself otherwise than by selling the grain and the cattle which he knows will be indispensable to him2 and he is forced1 whether he will or no1 to go to the city in order there to win back his bread4 ,but it is also true1 that the luxury of city life1 and the comparative ease with which money is there to be earned1 attract him thither2 and under the pretext of gaining his living in the town1 he betakes himself thither in order that he may have lighter work1 better food1 and drink tea three times a day1 and dress well1 and even lead a drunken and dissolute life4 ,the cause of both is identical1--the transfer of the riches of the producers into the hands of non-producers1 and the accumulation of wealth in the cities4 ,and1 in point of fact1 when autumn has come1 all wealth is collected in the country4 ,and instantly there arise demands for taxes1 recruits1 the temptations of vodka1 weddings1 festivals2 petty pedlers make their rounds through the villages1 and all sorts of other temptations crop up2 and by this road1 or1 if not1 by some other1 wealth of the most varied description--vegetables1 calves1 cows1 horses1 pigs1 chickens1 eggs1 butter1 hemp1 flax1 rye1 oats1 buckwheat1 pease1 hempseed1 and flaxseed--all passes into the hands of strangers1 is carried off to the towns1 and thence to the capitals4 ,the countryman is obliged to surrender all this to satisfy the demands that are made upon him1 and temptations2 and1 having parted with his wealth1 he is left with an insufficiency1 and he is forced to go whither his wealth has been carried and there he tries1 in part1 to obtain the money which he requires for his first needs in the country1 and in part1 being himself led away by the blandishments of the city1 he enjoys1 in company with others1 the wealth that has there accumulated4 ,everywhere1 throughout the whole of ,russia1--yes1 and not in ,russia alone1 ,i think1 but throughout the whole world1--the same thing goes on4 ,the wealth of the rustic producers passes into the hands of traders1 landed proprietors1 officials1 and factory-owners2 and the people who receive this wealth wish to enjoy it4 ,but it is only in the city that they can derive full enjoyment from this wealth4 ,in the country1 in the first place1 it is difficult to satisfy all the requirements of rich people1 on account of the sparseness of the population2 banks1 shops1 hotels1 every sort of artisan1 and all sorts of social diversions1 do not exist there4 ,in the second place1 one of the chief pleasures procured by wealth--vanity1 the desire to astonish and outshine other people--is difficult to satisfy in the country2 and this1 again1 on account of the lack of inhabitants4 ,in the country1 there is no one to appreciate elegance1 no one to be astonished4 ,whatever adornments in the way of pictures and bronzes the dweller in the country may procure for his house1 whatever equipages and toilets he may provide1 there is no one to see them and envy them1 and the peasants cannot judge of them4 ,and1 in the third place1 luxury is even disagreeable and dangerous in the country for the man possessed of a conscience and fear4 ,it is an awkward and delicate matter1 in the country1 to have baths of milk1 or to feed your puppies on it1 when directly beside you there are children who have no milk2 it is an awkward and delicate matter to build pavilions and gardens in the midst of people who live in cots banked up with dung1 which they have no means of warming4 ,in the country there is no one to keep the stupid peasants in order1 and in their lack of cultivation they might disarrange all this4 #id ,and accordingly rich people congregate1 and join themselves to other rich people with similar requirements1 in the city1 where the gratification of every luxurious taste is carefully protected by a numerous police force4 ,well-rooted inhabitants of the city of this sort1 are the governmental officials2 every description of artisan and professional man has sprung up around them1 and with them the wealthy join their forces4 ,all that a rich man has to do there is to take a fancy to a thing1 and he can get it4 ,it is also more agreeable for a rich man to live there1 because there he can gratify his vanity2 there is some one with whom he can vie in luxury2 there is some one to astonish1 and there is some one to outshine4 ,but the principal reason why it is more comfortable in the city for a rich man is that formerly1 in the country1 his luxury made him awkward and uneasy2 while now1 on the contrary1 it would be awkward for him not to live luxuriously1 not to live like all his peers around him4 ,that which seemed dreadful and awkward in the country1 here appears to be just as it should be4 ,rich people congregate in the city2 and there1 under the protection of the authorities1 they calmly demand every thing that is brought thither from the country4 ,and the countryman is1 in some measure1 compelled to go thither1 where this uninterrupted festival of the wealthy which demands all that is taken from him is in progress1 in order to feed upon the crumbs which fall from the tables of the rich2 and partly1 also1 because1 when he beholds the care-free1 luxurious life1 approved and protected by everybody1 he himself becomes desirous of regulating his life in such a way as to work as little as possible1 and to make as much use as possible of the labors of others4 ,and so he betakes himself to the city1 and finds employment about the wealthy1 endeavoring1 by every means in his power1 to entice from them that which he is in need of1 and conforming to all those conditions which the wealthy impose upon him1 he assists in the gratification of all their whims2 he serves the rich man in the bath and in the inn1 and as cab-driver and prostitute1 and he makes for him equipages1 toys1 and fashions2 and he gradually learns from the rich man to live in the same manner as the latter1 not by labor1 but by divers tricks1 getting away from others the wealth which they have heaped together2 and he becomes corrupt1 and goes to destruction4 ,and this colony1 demoralized by city wealth1 constitutes that city pauperism which ,i desired to aid and could not4 ,all that is necessary1 in fact1 is for us to reflect on the condition of these inhabitants of the country1 who have removed to the city in order to earn their bread or their taxes1--when they behold1 everywhere around them1 thousands squandered madly1 and hundreds won by the easiest possible means2 when they themselves are forced by heavy toil to earn kopeks1--and we shall be amazed that all these people should remain working people1 and that they do not all of them take to an easier method of getting gain1--by trading1 peddling1 acting as middlemen1 begging1 vice1 rascality1 and even robbery4 ,why1 we1 the participants in that never-ceasing orgy which goes on in town1 can become so accustomed to our life1 that it seems to us perfectly natural to dwell alone in five huge apartments1 heated by a quantity of beech logs sufficient to cook the food for and to warm twenty families2 to drive half a verst with two trotters and two men-servants2 to cover the polished wood floor with rugs2 and to spend1 ,i will not say1 on a ball1 five or ten thousand rubles1 and twenty-five thousand on a ,christmas-tree4 ,but a man who is in need of ten rubles to buy bread for his family1 or whose last sheep has been seized for a tax-debt of seven rubles1 and who cannot raise those rubles by hard labor1 cannot grow accustomed to this4 ,we think that all this appears natural to poor people there are even some ingenuous persons who say in all seriousness1 that the poor are very grateful to us for supporting them by this luxury4 #if ,but poor people are not devoid of human understanding simply because they are poor1 and they judge precisely as we do4 ,as the first thought that occurs to us on hearing that such and such a man has gambled away or squandered ten or twenty thousand rubles1 is3 8,what a foolish and worthless fellow he is to uselessly squander so much money6 and what a good use ,i could have made of that money in a building which ,i have long been in need of1 for the improvement of my estate1 and so forth60--just so do the poor judge when they behold the wealth which they need1 not for caprices1 but for the satisfaction of their actual necessities1 of which they are frequently deprived1 flung madly away before their eyes4 ,we make a very great mistake when we think that the poor can judge thus1 reason thus1 and look on indifferently at the luxury which surrounds them4 ,they never have acknowledged1 and they never will acknowledge1 that it can be just for some people to live always in idleness1 and for other people to fast and toil incessantly2 but at first they are amazed and insulted by this2 then they scrutinize it more attentively1 and1 seeing that these arrangements are recognized as legitimate1 they endeavor to free themselves from toil1 and to take part in the idleness4 ,some succeed in this1 and they become just such carousers themselves2 others gradually prepare themselves for this state2 others still fail1 and do not attain their goal1 and1 having lost the habit of work1 they fill up the disorderly houses and the night-lodging houses4 ,two years ago1 we took from the country a peasant boy to wait on table4 ,for some reason1 he did not get on well with the footman1 and he was sent away3 he entered the service of a merchant1 won the favor of his master1 and now he goes about with a vest and a watch-chain1 and dandified boots4 ,in his place1 we took another peasant1 a married man3 he became a drunkard1 and lost money4 ,we took a third3 he took to drunk1 and1 having drank up every thing he had1 he suffered for a long while from poverty in the night-lodging house4 ,an old man1 the cook1 took to drink and fell sick4 ,last year a footman who had formerly been a hard drinker1 but who had refrained from liquor for five years in the country1 while living in ,moscow without his wife who encouraged him1 took to drink again1 and ruined his whole life4 ,a young lad from our village lives with my brother as a table-servant4 ,his grandfather1 a blind old man1 came to me during my sojourn in the country1 and asked me to remind this grandson that he was to send ten rubies for the taxes1 otherwise it would be necessary for him to sell his cow4 8,he keeps saying1 ,i must dress decently10 said the old man3 8well1 he has had some shoes made1 and that's all right2 but what does he want to set up a watch for80 said the grandfather1 expressing in these words the most senseless supposition that it was possible to originate4 ,the supposition really was senseless1 if we take into consideration that the old man throughout ,lent had eaten no butter1 and that he had no split wood because he could not possibly pay one ruble and twenty kopeks for it2 but it turned out that the old man's senseless jest was an actual fact4 ,the young fellow came to see me in a fine black coat1 and shoes for which he had paid eight rubles4 ,he had recently borrowed ten rubles from my brother1 and had spent them on these shoes4 ,and my children1 who have known the lad from childhood1 told me that he really considers it indispensable to fit himself out with a watch4 ,he is a very good boy1 but he thinks that people will laugh at him so long as he has no watch2 and a watch is necessary4 ,during the present year1 a chambermaid1 a girl of eighteen1 entered into a connection with the coachman in our house4 ,she was discharged4 ,an old woman1 the nurse1 with whom ,i spoke in regard to the unfortunate girl1 reminded me of a girl whom ,i had forgotten4 ,she too1 ten yeans ago1 during a brief stay of ours in ,moscow1 had become connected with a footman4 ,she too had been discharged1 and she had ended in a disorderly house1 and had died in the hospital before reaching the age of twenty4 ,it is only necessary to glance about one1 to be struck with terror at the pest which we disseminate directly by our luxurious life among the people whom we afterwards wish to help1 not to mention the factories and establishments which serve our luxurious tastes4 ,and thus1 having penetrated into the peculiar character of city poverty1 which ,i was unable to remedy1 ,i perceived that its prime cause is this1 that ,i take absolute necessaries from the dwellers in the country1 and carry them all to the city4 ,the second cause is this1 that by making use here1 in the city1 of what ,i have collected in the country1 ,i tempt and lead astray1 by my senseless luxury1 those country people who come hither because of me1 in order in some way to get back what they have been deprived of in the country4 #ii ,,chapter ,,xiv4 ,i reached the same conclusion from a totally different point4 ,on recalling all my relations with the city poor during that time1 ,i saw that one of the reasons why ,i could not help the city poor was1 that the poor were disingenuous and untruthful with me4 ,they all looked upon me1 not as a man1 but as means4 ,i could not get near them1 and ,i thought that perhaps ,i did not understand how to do it2 but without uprightness1 no help was possible4 ,how can one help a man who does not disclose his whole condition8 ,at first ,i blamed them for this 7it is so natural to blame some one else72 but a remark from an observing man named ,siutaeff1 who was visiting me at the time1 explained this matter to me1 and showed me where the cause of my want of success lay4 ,i remember that ,siutaeff's remark struck me very forcibly at the time2 but ,i only understood its full significance later on4 ,it was at the height of my self-delusion4 ,i was sitting with my sister1 and ,siutaeff was there also at her house2 and my sister was questioning me about my undertaking4 ,i told her about it1 and1 as always happens when you have no faith in your course1 ,i talked to her with great enthusiasm and warmth1 and at great length1 of what ,i had done1 and of what might possibly come of it4 ,i told her every thing1--how we were going to keep track of pauperism in ,moscow1 how we were going to keep an eye on the orphans and old people1 how we were going to send away all country people who had grown poor here1 how we were going to smooth the pathway to reform for the depraved2 how1 if only the matter could be managed1 there would not be a man left in ,moscow1 who could not obtain assistance4 ,my sister sympathized with me1 and we discussed it4 ,in the middle of our conversation1 ,i glanced at ,siutaeff4 ,as ,i was acquainted with his ,christian life1 and with the significance which he attached to charity1 ,i expected his sympathy1 and spoke so that he understood this2 ,i talked to my sister1 but directed my remarks more at him4 ,he sat immovable in his dark tanned sheepskin jacket1--which he wore1 like all peasants1 both out of doors and in the house1--and as though he did not hear us1 but were thinking of his own affairs4 ,his small eyes did not twinkle1 and seemed to be turned inwards4 ,having finished what ,i had to say1 ,i turned to him with a query as to what he thought of it4 8,it's all a foolish business10 said he4 8,why80 8,your whole society is foolish1 and nothing good can come out of it10 he repeated with conviction4 8,why not8 ,why is it a stupid business to help thousands1 at any rate hundreds1 of unfortunate beings8 ,is it a bad thing1 according to the ,gospel1 to clothe the naked1 and feed the hungry80 8,i know1 ,i know1 but that is not what you are doing4 ,is it necessary to render assistance in that way8 ,you are walking along1 and a man asks you for twenty kopeks4 ,you give them to him4 ,is that alms8 ,do you give spiritual alms1--teach him4 ,but what is it that you have given8 ,it was only for the sake of getting rid of him40 8,no2 and1 besides1 that is not what we are talking about4 ,we want to know about this need1 and then to help by both money and deeds2 and to find work40 8,you can do nothing with those people in that way40 8,so they are to be allowed to die of hunger and cold80 8,why should they die8 ,are there many of them there80 8,what1 many of them80 said ,i1 thinking that he looked at the matter so lightly because he was not aware how vast was the number of these people4 8,why1 do you know10 said ,i1 8,i believe that there are twenty thousand of these cold and hungry people in ,moscow4 ,and how about ,petersburg and the other cities80 ,he smiled4 8,twenty thousand6 ,and how many households are there in ,russia alone1 do you think8 ,are there a million80 8,well1 what then80 8,what then80 and his eyes flashed1 and he grew animated4 8,come1 let us divide them among ourselves4 ,i am not rich1 ,i will take two persons on the spot4 ,there is the lad whom you took into your kitchen2 ,i invited him to come to my house1 and he did not come4 ,were there ten times as many1 let us divide them among us4 ,do you take some1 and ,i will take some4 ,we will work together4 ,he will see how ,i work1 and he will learn4 ,he will see how ,i live1 and we will sit down at the same table together1 and he will hear my words and yours4 ,this charity society of yours is nonsense40 ,these simple words impressed me4 ,i could not but admit their justice2 but it seemed to me at that time1 that1 in spite of their truth1 still that which ,i had planned might possibly prove of service4 ,but the further ,i carried this business1 the more ,i associated with the poor1 the more frequently did this remark recur to my mind1 and the greater was the significance which it acquired for me4 ,i arrive in a costly fur coat1 or with my horses2 or the man who lacks shoes sees my two-thousand-ruble apartments4 ,he sees how1 a little while ago1 ,i gave five rubles without begrudging them1 merely because ,i took a whim to do so4 ,he surely knows that if ,i give away rubles in that manner1 it is only because ,i have hoarded up so many of them1 that ,i have a great many superfluous ones1 which ,i not only have not given away1 but which ,i have easily taken from other people4 ,what else could he see in me but one of those persons who have got possession of what belongs to him8 ,and what other feeling can he cherish towards me1 than a desire to obtain from me as many of those rubles1 which have been stolen from him and from others1 as possible8 ,i wish to get close to him1 and ,i complain that he is not frank2 and here ,i am1 afraid to sit down on his bed for fear of getting lice1 or catching something infectious2 and ,i am afraid to admit him to my room1 and he1 coming to me naked1 waits1 generally in the vestibule1 or1 if very fortunate1 in the ante-chamber4 ,and yet ,i declare that he is to blame because ,i cannot enter into intimate relations with him1 and because me is not frank4 ,let the sternest man try the experiment of eating a dinner of five courses in the midst of people who have had very little or nothing but black bread to eat4 ,not a man will have the spirit to eat1 and to watch how the hungry lick their chops around him4 ,hence1 then1 in order to eat daintily amid the famishing1 the first indispensable requisite is to hide from them1 in order that they may not see it4 ,this is the very thing1 and the first thing1 that we do4 ,and ,i took a simpler view of our life1 and perceived that an approach to the poor is not difficult to us through accidental causes1 but that we deliberately arrange our lives in such a fashion so that this approach may be rendered difficult4 ,not only this2 but1 on taking a survey of our life1 of the life of the wealthy1 ,i saw that every thing which is considered desirable in that life consists in1 or is inseparably bound up with1 the idea of getting as far away from the poor as possible4 ,in fact1 all the efforts of our well-endowed life1 beginning with our food1 dress1 houses1 our cleanliness1 and even down to our education1--every thing has for its chief object1 the separation of ourselves from the poor4 ,in procuring this seclusion of ourselves by impassable barriers1 we spend1 to put it mildly1 nine-tenths of our wealth4 ,the first thing that a man who was grown wealthy does is to stop eating out of one bowl1 and he sets up crockery1 and fits himself out with a kitchen and servants4 ,and he feeds his servants high1 too1 so that their mouths may not water over his dainty viands2 and he eats alone2 and as eating in solitude is wearisome1 he plans how he may improve his food and deck his table2 and the very manner of taking his food 7dinner7 becomes a matter for pride and vain glory with him1 and his manner of taking his food becomes for him a means of sequestering himself from other men4 ,a rich man cannot think of such a thing as inviting a poor man to his table4 ,a man must know how to conduct ladies to table1 how to bow1 to sit down1 to eat1 to rinse out the mouth2 and only rich people know all these things4 ,the same thing occurs in the matter of clothing4 ,if a rich man were to wear ordinary clothing1 simply for the purpose of protecting his body from the cold1--a short jacket1 a coat1 felt and leather boots1 an under-jacket1 trousers1 shirt1--he would require but very little1 and he would not be unable1 when he had two coats1 to give one of them to a man who had none4 ,but the rich man begins by procuring for himself clothing which consists entirely of separate pieces1 and which is fit only for separate occasions1 and which is1 therefore1 unsuited to the poor man4 ,he has frock-coats1 vests1 pea-jackets1 lacquered boots1 cloaks1 shoes with ,french heels1 garments that are chopped up into bits to conform with the fashion1 hunting-coats1 travelling-coats1 and so on1 which can only be used under conditions of existence far removed from poverty4 ,and his clothing also furnishes him with a means of keeping at a distance from the poor4 ,the same is the case1 and even more clearly1 with his dwelling4 ,in order that one may live alone in ten rooms1 it is indispensable that those who live ten in one room should not see it4 ,the richer a man is1 the more difficult is he of access2 the more porters there are between him and people who are not rich1 the more impossible is it to conduct a poor man over rugs1 and seat him in a satin chair4 ,the case is the same with the means of locomotion4 ,the peasant driving in a cart1 or a sledge1 must be a very ill-tempered man when he will not give a pedestrian a lift2 and there is both room for this and a possibility of doing it4 ,but the richer the equipage1 the farther is a man from all possibility of giving a seat to any person whatsoever4 ,it is even said plainly1 that the most stylish equipages are those meant to hold only one person4 ,it is precisely the same thing with the manner of life which is expressed by the word cleanliness4 ,cleanliness6 ,who is there that does not know people1 especially women1 who reckon this cleanliness in themselves as a great virtue8 and who is not acquainted with the devices of this cleanliness1 which know no bounds1 when it can command the labor of others8 ,which of the people who have become rich has not experienced in his own case1 with what difficulty he carefully trained himself to this cleanliness1 which only confirms the proverb1 8,little white hands love other people's work08 ,to-day cleanliness consists in changing your shirt once a day2 to-morrow1 in changing it twice a day4 ,to-day it means washing the face1 and neck1 and hands daily2 to-morrow1 the feet2 and day after to-morrow1 washing the whole body every day1 and1 in addition and in particular1 a rubbing-down4 ,to-day the table-cloth is to serve for two days1 to-morrow there must be one each day1 then two a day4 ,to-day the footman's hands must be clean2 to-morrow he must wear gloves1 and in his clean gloves he must present a letter on a clean salver4 ,and there are no limits to this cleanliness1 which is useless to everybody1 and objectless1 except for the purpose of separating oneself from others1 and of rendering impossible all intercourse with them1 when this cleanliness is attained by the labors of others4 ,moreover1 when ,i studied the subject1 ,i because convinced that even that which is commonly called education is the very same thing4 ,the tongue does not deceive2 it calls by its real name that which men understand under this name4 ,what the people call culture is fashionable clothing1 political conversation1 clean hands1--a certain sort of cleanliness4 ,of such a man1 it is said1 in contradistinction to others1 that he is an educated man4 ,in a little higher circle1 what they call education means the same thing as with the people2 only to the conditions of education are added playing on the pianoforte1 a knowledge of ,french1 the writing of ,russian without orthographical errors1 and a still greater degree of external cleanliness4 ,in a still more elevated sphere1 education means all this with the addition of the ,english language1 and a diploma from the highest educational institution4 ,but education is precisely the same thing in the first1 the second1 and the third case4 ,education consists of those forms and acquirements which are calculated to separate a man from his fellows4 ,and its object is identical with that of cleanliness1--to seclude us from the herd of poor1 in order that they1 the poor1 may not see how we feast4 ,but it is impossible to hide ourselves1 and they do see us4 ,and accordingly ,i have become convinced that the cause of the inability of us rich people to help the poor of the city lies in the impossibility of our establishing intercourse with them2 and that this impossibility of intercourse is caused by ourselves1 by the whole course of our lives1 by all the uses which we make of our wealth4 ,i have become convinced that between us1 the rich and the poor1 there rises a wall1 reared by ourselves out of that very cleanliness and education1 and constructed of our wealth2 and that in order to be in a condition to help the poor1 we must needs1 first of all1 destroy this wall2 and that in order to do this1 confrontation after ,siutaeff's method should be rendered possible1 and the poor distributed among us4 ,and from another starting-point also ,i came to the same conclusion to which the current of my discussions as to the causes of the poverty in towns had led me3 the cause was our wealth4 #ajh ,,chapter ,,xv4 ,i began to examine the matter from a third and wholly personal point of view4 ,among the phenomena which particularly impressed me1 during the period of my charitable activity1 there was yet another1 and a very strange one1 for which ,i could for a long time find no explanation4 ,it was this3 every time that ,i chanced1 either on the street on in the house1 to give some small coin to a poor man1 without saying any thing to him1 ,i saw1 or thought that ,i saw1 contentment and gratitude on the countenance of the poor man1 and ,i myself experienced in this form of benevolence an agreeable sensation4 ,i saw that ,i had done what the man wished and expected from me4 ,but if ,i stopped the poor man1 and sympathetically questioned him about his former and his present life1 ,i felt that it was no longer possible to give three or twenty kopeks1 and ,i began to fumble in my purse for money1 in doubt as to how much ,i ought to give1 and ,i always gave more2 and ,i always noticed that the poor man left me dissatisfied4 ,but if ,i entered into still closer intercourse with the poor man1 then my doubts as to how much to give increased also2 and1 no matter how much ,i gave1 the poor man grew ever more sullen and discontented4 ,as a general rule1 it always turned out thus1 that if ,i gave1 after conversation with a poor man1 three rubles or even more1 ,i almost always beheld gloom1 displeasure1 and even ill-will1 on the countenance of the poor man2 and ,i have even known it to happen1 that1 having received ten rubles1 he went off without so much as saying 8,thank you10 exactly as though ,i had insulted him4 ,and thereupon ,i felt awkward and ashamed1 and almost guilty4 ,but if ,i followed up a poor man for weeks and months and years1 and assisted him1 and explained my views to him1 and associated with him1 our relations became a torment1 and ,i perceived that the man despised me4 ,and ,i felt that he was in the right4 ,if ,i go out into the street1 and he1 standing in that street1 begs of me among the number of the other passers-by1 people who walk and ride past him1 and ,i give him money1 ,i then am to him a passer-by1 and a good1 kind passer-by1 who bestows on him that thread from which a shirt is made for the naked man2 he expects nothing more than the thread1 and if ,i give it he thanks me sincerely4 ,but if ,i stop him1 and talk with him as man with man1 ,i thereby show him that ,i desire to be something more than a mere passer-by4 ,if1 as often happens1 he weeps while relating to me his woes1 then he sees in me no longer a passer-by1 but that which ,i desire that he should see3 a good man4 ,but if ,i am a good man1 my goodness cannot pause at a twenty-kopek piece1 nor at ten rubles1 nor at ten thousand2 it is impossible to be a little bit of a good man4 ,let us suppose that ,i have given him a great deal1 that ,i have fitted him out1 dressed him1 set him on his feet so that the can live without outside assistance2 but for some reason or other1 though misfortune or his own weakness or vices1 he is again without that coat1 that linen1 and that money which ,i have given him2 he is again cold and hungry1 and he has come again to me1--how can ,i refuse him8 ,for if the cause of my action consisted in the attainment of a definite1 material end1 on giving him so many rubles or such and such a coat ,i might be at ease after having bestowed them4 ,but the cause of my action is not this3 the cause is1 that ,i want to be a good man1 that is to say1 ,i want to see myself in every other man4 ,every man understands goodness thus1 and in no other manner4 #aaa ,and therefore1 if he should drink away every thing that you had given him twenty times1 and if he should again be cold and hungry1 you cannot do otherwise than give him more1 if you are a good man2 you can never cease giving to him1 if you have more than he has4 ,and if you draw back1 you will thereby show that every thing that you have done1 you have done not because you are a good man1 but because you wished to appear a good man in his sight1 and in the sight of men4 ,and thus in the case with the men from whom ,i chanced to recede1 to whom ,i ceased to give1 and1 by this action1 denied good1 ,i experienced a torturing sense of shame4 ,what sort of shame was this8 ,this shame ,i had experienced in the ,lyapinsky house1 and both before and after that in the country1 when ,i happened to give money or any thing else to the poor1 and in my expeditions among the city poor4 ,a mortifying incident that occurred to me not long ago vividly reminded me of that shame1 and led me to an explanation of that shame which ,i had felt when bestowing money on the poor4 ,this happened in the country4 ,i wanted twenty kopeks to give to a poor pilgrim2 ,i sent my son to borrow them from some one2 he brought the pilgrim a twenty-kopek piece1 and told me that he had borrowed it from the cook4 ,a few days afterwards some more pilgrims arrived1 and again ,i was in want of a twenty-kopek piece4 ,i had a ruble2 ,i recollected that ,i was in debt to the cook1 and ,i went to the kitchen1 hoping to get some more small change from the cook4 ,i said3 8,i borrowed a twenty-kopek piece from you1 so here is a ruble40 ,i had not finished speaking1 when the cook called in his wife from another room3 8,take it1 ,parasha10 said he4 ,i1 supposing that she understood what ,i wanted1 handed her the ruble4 ,i must state that the cook had only lived with me a week1 and1 though ,i had seen his wife1 ,i had never spoken to her4 ,i was just on the point of saying to her that she was to give me some small coins1 when she bent swiftly down to my hand1 and tried to kiss it1 evidently imaging that ,i had given her the ruble4 ,i muttered something1 and quitted the kitchen4 ,i was ashamed1 ashamed to the verge of torture1 as ,i had not been for a long time4 ,i shrank together2 ,i was conscious that ,i was making grimaces1 and ,i groaned with shame as ,i fled from the kitchen4 ,this utterly unexpected1 and1 as it seemed to me1 utterly undeserved shame1 made a special impression on me1 because it was a long time since ,i had been mortified1 and because ,i1 as an old man1 had so lived1 it seemed to me1 that ,i had not merited this shame4 ,i was forcibly struck by this4 ,i told the members of my household about it1 ,i told my acquaintances1 and they all agreed that they should have felt the same4 ,and ,i began to reflect3 why had this caused me such shame8 ,to this1 something which had happened to me in ,moscow furnished me with an answer4 ,i meditated on that incident1 and the shame which ,i had experienced in the presence of the cook's wife was explained to me1 and all those sensations of mortification which ,i had undergone during the course of my ,moscow benevolence1 and which ,i now feel incessantly when ,i have occasion to give any one any thing except that petty alms to the poor and to pilgrims1 which ,i have become accustomed to bestow1 and which ,i consider a deed not of charity but of courtesy4 ,if a man asks you for a light1 you must strike a match for him1 if you have one4 ,if a man asks for three or for twenty kopeks1 or even for several rubles1 you must give them if you have them4 ,this is an act of courtesy and not of charity4 #aac ,this was the case in question3 ,i have already mentioned the two peasants with whom ,i was in the habit of sawing wood three yeans ago4 ,one ,saturday evening at dusk1 ,i was returning to the city in their company4 ,they were going to their employer to receive their wages4 ,as we were crossing the ,dragomilovsky bridge1 we met an old man4 ,he asked alms1 and ,i gave him twenty kopeks4 ,i gave1 and reflected on the good effect which my charity would have on ,semyon1 with whom ,i had been conversing on religious topics4 ,semyon1 the ,vladimir peasant1 who had a wife and two children in ,moscow1 halted also1 pulled round the skirt of his kaftan1 and got out his purse1 and from this slender purse he extracted1 after some fumbling1 three kopeks1 handed it to the old man1 and asked for two kopeks in change4 ,the old man exhibited in his hand two three-kopek pieces and one kopek4 ,semyon looked at them1 was about to take the kopek1 but thought better of it1 pulled off his hat1 crossed himself1 and walked on1 leaving the old man the three-kopek piece4 ,i was fully acquainted with ,semyon's financial condition4 ,he had no property at home at all4 ,the money which he had laid by on the day when he gave three kopeks amounted to six rubles and fifty kopeks4 ,accordingly1 six rubles and twenty kopeks was the sum of his savings4 ,my reserve fund was in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand4 ,i had a wife and children1 ,semyon had a wife and children4 ,he was younger than ,i1 and his children were fewer in number than mine2 but his children were small1 and two of mine were of an age to work1 so that our position1 with the exception of the savings1 was on an equality2 mine was somewhat the more favorable1 if any thing4 ,he gave three kopeks1 ,i gave twenty4 ,what did he really give1 and what did ,i really give8 ,what ought ,i to have given1 in order to do what ,semyon had done8 he had six hundred kopeks2 out of this he gave one1 and afterwards two4 ,i had six hundred thousand rubles4 ,in order to give what ,semyon had given1 ,i should have been obliged to give three thousand rubles1 and ask for two thousand in change1 and then leave the two thousand with the old man1 cross myself1 and go my way1 calmly conversing about life in the factories1 and the cost of liver in the ,smolensk market4 ,i thought of this at the time2 but it was only long afterwards that ,i was in a condition to draw from this incident that deduction which inevitably results from it4 ,this deduction is so uncommon and so singular1 apparently1 that1 in spite of its mathematical infallibility1 one requires time to grow used to it4 ,it does seem as though there must be some mistake1 but mistake there is none4 ,there is merely the fearful mist of error in which we live4 ,this deduction1 when ,i arrived at it1 and when ,i recognized its undoubted truth1 furnished me with an explanation of my shame in the presence of the cook's wife1 and of all the poor people to whom ,i had given and to whom ,i still give money4 ,what1 in point of fact1 is that money which ,i give to the poor1 and which the cook's wife thought ,i was giving to her8 ,in the majority of cases1 it is that portion of my substance which it is impossible even to express in figures to ,semyon and the cook's wife1--it is generally one millionth part or about that4 ,i give so little that the bestowal of any money is not and cannot be a deprivation to me2 it is only a pleasure in which ,i amuse myself when the whim seizes me4 ,and it was thus that the cook's wife understood it4 ,if ,i give to a man who steps in from the street one ruble or twenty kopeks1 why should not ,i give her a ruble also8 ,in the opinion of the cook's wife1 such a bestowal of money is precisely the same as the flinging of honey-cakes to the people by gentlemen2 it furnishes the people who have a great deal of superfluous cash with amusement4 ,i was mortified because the mistake made by the cook's wife demonstrated to me distinctly the view which she1 and all people who are not rich1 must take of me3 8,he is flinging away his folly1 i4e41 his unearned money40 ,as a matter of fact1 what is my money1 and whence did it come into my possession8 ,a portion of it ,i accumulated from the land which ,i received from my father4 ,a peasant sold his last sheep or cow in order to give the money to me4 ,another portion of my money is the money which ,i have received for my writings1 for my books4 ,if my books are hurtful1 ,i only lead astray those who purchase them1 and the money which ,i receive for them is ill-earned money2 but if my books are useful to people1 then the issue is still more disastrous4 ,i do not give them to people3 ,i say1 8,give me seventeen rubles1 and ,i will give them to you40 ,and as the peasant sells his last sheep1 in this case the poor student or teacher1 or any other poor man1 deprives himself of necessaries in order to give me this money4 ,and so ,i have accumulated a great deal of money in that way1 and what do ,i do with it8 ,i take that money to the city1 and bestow it on the poor1 only when they fulfil my caprices1 and come hither to the city to clean my sidewalk1 lamps1 and shoes2 to work for me in factories4 ,and in return for this money1 ,i force from them every thing that ,i can2 that is to say1 ,i try to give them as little as possible1 and to receive as much as possible from them4 ,and all at once ,i begin1 quite unexpectedly1 to bestow this money as a simple gift1 on these same poor persons1 not on all1 but on those to whom ,i take a fancy4 ,why should not every poor person expect that it is quite possible that the luck may fall to him of being one of those with whom ,i shall amuse myself by distributing my superfluous money8 ,and so all look upon me as the cook's wife did4 ,and ,i had gone so far astray that this taking of thousands from the poor with one hand1 and this flinging of kopeks with the other1 to those to whom the whim moved me to give1 ,i called good4 ,no wonder that ,i felt ashamed4 #aaf ,yes1 before doing good it was needful for me to stand outside of evil1 in such conditions that ,i might cease to do evil4 ,but my whole life is evil4 ,i may give away a hundred thousand rubles1 and still ,i shall not be in a position to do good because ,i shall still have five hundred thousand left4 ,only when ,i have nothing shall ,i be in a position to do the least particle of good1 even as much as the prostitute did which she nursed the sick women and her child for three days4 ,and that seemed so little to me6 ,and ,i dared to think of good myself6 ,that which1 on the first occasion1 told me1 at the sight of the cold and hungry in the ,lyapinsky house1 that ,i was to blame for this1 and that to live as ,i live is impossible1 and impossible1 and impossible1--that alone was true4 ,what1 then1 was ,i to do8 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 ,it was hard for me to come to this confession1 but when ,i had come to it ,i was shocked at the error in which ,i had been living4 ,i stood up to my ears in the mud1 and yet ,i wanted to drag others out of this mud4 ,what is it that ,i wish in reality8 ,i wish to do good to others4 ,i wish to do it so that other people may not be cold and hungry1 so that others may live as it is natural for people to live4 ,i wish this1 and ,i see that in consequence of the violence1 extortions1 and various tricks in which ,i take part1 people who toil are deprived of necessaries1 and people who do not toil1 in whose ranks ,i also belong1 enjoy in superabundance the toil of other people4 ,i see that this enjoyment of the labors of others is so arranged1 that the more rascally and complicated the trickery which is employed by the man himself1 or which has been employed by the person from whom he obtained his inheritance1 the more does he enjoy of the labors of others1 and the less does he contribute of his own labor4 ,first come the ,shtiglitzy1 ,dervizy1 ,morozovy1 the ,demidoffs1 the ,yusapoffs2 then great bankers1 merchants1 officials1 landed proprietors1 among whom ,i also belong2 then the poor--very small traders1 dramshop-keepers1 usurers1 district judges1 overseers1 teachers1 sacristans1 clerks2 then house-porters1 lackeys1 coachmen1 watch-carriers1 cab-drivers1 peddlers2 and last of all1 the laboring classes--factory-hands and peasants1 whose numbers bear the relation to the first named of ten to one4 ,i see that the life of nine-tenths of the working classes demands1 by reason of its nature1 application and toil1 as does every natural life2 but that1 in consequence of the sharp practices which take from these people what is indispensable1 and place them in such oppressive conditions1 this life becomes more difficult every year1 and more filled with deprivations2 but our life1 the life of the non-laboring classes1 thanks to the co-operation of the arts and sciences which are directed to this object1 becomes more filled with superfluities1 more attractive and careful1 with every year4 ,i see1 that1 in our day1 the life of the workingman1 and1 in particular1 the life of old men1 of women1 and of children of the working population1 is perishing directly from their food1 which is utterly inadequate to their fatiguing labor2 and that this life of theirs is not free from care as to its very first requirements2 and that1 alongside of this1 the life of the non-laboring classes1 to which ,i belong1 is filled more and more1 every year1 with superfluities and luxury1 and becomes more and more free from anxiety1 and has finally reached such a point of freedom from care1 in the case of its fortunate members1 of whom ,i am one1 as was only dreamed of in olden times in fairy-tales1--the state of the owner of the purse with the inexhaustible ruble1 that is1 a condition in which a man is not only utterly released from the law of labor1 but in which he possesses the possibility of enjoying1 without toil1 all the blessings of life1 and of transferring to his children1 or to any one whom he may see fit1 this purse with the inexhaustible ruble4 ,i see that the products of the people's toil are more and more transformed from the mass of the working classes to those who do not work2 that the pyramid of the social edifice seems to be reconstructed in such fashion that the foundation stones are carried to the apex1 and the swiftness of this transfer is increasing in a sort of geometrical ratio4 ,i see that the result of this is something like that which would take place in an ant-heap if the community of ants were to lose their sense of the common law1 if some ants were to begin to draw the products of labor from the bottom to the top of the heap1 and should constantly contract the foundations and broaden the apex1 and should thereby also force the remaining ants to betake themselves from the bottom to the summit4 ,i see that the ideal of the ,fortunatus' purse has made its way among the people1 in the place of the ideal of a toilsome life4 ,rich people1 myself among the number1 get possession of the inexhaustible ruble by various devices1 and for the purpose of enjoying it we go to the city1 to the place where nothing is produced and where every thing is swallowed up4 ,the industrious poor man1 who is robbed in order that the rich may possess this inexhaustible ruble1 yearns for the city in his train2 and there he also takes to sharp practices1 and either acquires for himself a position in which he can work little and receive much1 thereby rendering still more oppressive the situation of the laboring classes1 or1 not having attained to such a position1 he goes to ruin1 and falls into the ranks of those cold and hungry inhabitants of the night-lodging houses1 which are being swelled with such remarkable rapidity4 ,i belong to the class of those people1 who1 by divers tricks1 take from the toiling masses the necessaries of life1 and who have acquired for themselves these inexhaustible rubles1 and who lead these unfortunates astray4 ,i desire to aid people1 and therefore it is clear that1 first of all1 ,i must cease to rob them as ,i am doing4 ,but ,i1 by the most complicated1 and cunning1 and evil practices1 which have been heaped up for centuries1 have acquired for myself the position of an owner of the inexhaustible ruble1 that is to say1 one in which1 never working myself1 ,i can make hundreds and thousands of people toil for me--which also ,i do2 and ,i imagine that ,i pity people1 and ,i wish to assist them4 ,i sit on a man's neck1 ,i weigh him down1 and ,i demand that he shall carry me2 and without descending from his shoulders ,i assure myself and others that ,i am very sorry for him1 and that ,i desire to ameliorate his condition by all possible means1 only not by getting off of him4 ,surely this is simple enough4 ,if ,i want to help the poor1 that is1 to make the poor no longer poor1 ,i must not produce poor people4 ,and ,i give1 at my own selection1 to poor men who have gone astray from the path of life1 a ruble1 or ten rubles1 or a hundred2 and ,i grasp hundreds from people who have not yet left the path1 and thereby ,i render them poor also1 and demoralize them to boot4 ,this is very simple2 but it was horribly hard for me to understand this fully without compromises and reservations1 which might serve to justify my position2 but it sufficed for me to confess my guilt1 and every thing which had before seemed to me strange and complicated1 and lacking in cleanness1 became perfectly comprehensible and simple4 ,but the chief point was1 that my way of life1 arising from this interpretation1 became simple1 clear and pleasant1 instead of perplexed1 inexplicable and full of torture as before4 #abb;a ,who am ,i1 that ,i should desire to help others8 ,i desire to help people2 and ,i1 rising at twelve o'clock after a game of vint #abb;b with four candles1 weak1 exhausted1 demanding the aid of hundreds of people1--,i go to the aid of whom8 ,of people who rise at five o'clock1 who sleep on planks1 who nourish themselves on bread and cabbage1 who know how to plough1 to reap1 to wield the axe1 to chop1 to harness1 to sew1--of people who in strength and endurance1 and skill and abstemiousness1 are a hundred times superior to me1--and ,i go to their succor6 ,what except shame could ,i feel1 when ,i entered into communion with these people8 ,the very weakest of them1 a drunkard1 an inhabitant of the ,rzhanoff house1 the one whom they call 8the idler10 is a hundred-fold more industrious than ,i2 his balance1 so to speak1 that is to say1 the relation of what he takes from people and that which they give him1 stands on a thousand times better footing than my balance1 if ,i take into consideration what ,i take from people and what ,i give to them4 #abb;c ,and these are the people to whose assistance ,i go4 ,i go to help the poor4 ,but who is the poor man8 ,there is no one poorer than myself4 ,i am a thoroughly enervated1 good-for-nothing parasite1 who can only exist under the most special conditions1 who can only exist when thousands of people toil at the preservation of this life which is utterly useless to every one4 ,and ,i1 that plant-louse1 which devours the foliage of trees1 wish to help the tree in its growth and health1 and ,i wish to heal it4 ,i have passed my whole life in this manner3 ,i eat1 ,i talk and ,i listen2 ,i eat1 ,i write or read1 that is to say1 ,i talk and listen again2 ,i eat1 ,i play1 ,i eat1 again ,i talk and listen1 ,i eat1 and again ,i go to bed2 and so each day ,i can do nothing else1 and ,i understand how to do nothing else4 ,and in order that ,i may be able to do this1 it is necessary that the porter1 the peasant1 the cook1 male or female1 the footman1 the coachman1 and the laundress1 should toil from morning till night2 ,i will not refer to the labors of the people which are necessary in order that coachman1 cooks1 male and female1 footman1 and the rest should have those implements and articles with which1 and over which1 they toil for my sake2 axes1 tubs1 brushes1 household utensils1 furniture1 wax1 blacking1 kerosene1 hay1 wood1 and beef4 ,and all these people work hard all day long and every day1 so that ,i may be able to talk and eat and sleep4 ,and ,i1 this cripple of a man1 have imagined that ,i could help others1 and those the very people who support me6 ,it is not remarkable that ,i could not help any one1 and that ,i felt ashamed2 but the remarkable point is that such an absurd idea could have occurred to me4 ,the woman who served the sick old man1 helped him2 the mistress of the house1 who cut a slice from the bread which she had won from the soil1 helped the beggar2 ,semyon1 who gave three kopeks which he had earned1 helped the beggar1 because those three kopeks actually represented his labor3 but ,i served no one1 ,i toiled for no one1 and ,i was well aware that my money did not represent my labor4 ,,chapter ,,xvii4 #abd ,into the delusion that ,i could help others ,i was led by the fact that ,i fancied that my money was of the same sort as ,semyon's4 ,but this was not the case4 ,a general idea prevails1 that money represents wealth2 but wealth is the product of labor2 and1 therefore1 money represents labor4 ,but this idea is as just as that every governmental regulation is the result of a compact 7contrat social74 ,every one likes to think that money is only a medium of exchange for labor4 ,i have made shoes1 you have raised grain1 he has reared sheep3 here1 in order that we may the more readily effect an exchange1 we will institute money1 which represents a corresponding quantity of labor1 and1 by means of it1 we will barter our shoes for a breast of lamb and ten pounds of flour4 ,we will exchange our products through the medium of money1 and the money of each one of us represents our labor4 ,this is perfectly true1 but true only so long as1 in the community where this exchange is effected1 the violence of one man over the rest has not made its appearance2 not only violence over the labors of others1 as happens in wars and slavery1 but where he exercises no violence for the protection of the products of their labor from others4 ,this will be true only in a community whose members fully carry out the ,christian law1 in a community where men give to him who asks1 and where he who takes is not asked to make restitution4 ,but just so soon as any violence whatever is used in the community1 the significance of money for its possessor loses its significance as a representative of labor1 and acquires the significance of a right founded1 not on labor1 but on violence4 ,as soon as there is war1 and one man has taken any thing from any other man1 money can no longer be always the representative of labor2 money received by a warrior for the spoils of war1 which he sells1 even if he is the commander of the warriors1 is in no way a product of labor1 and possesses an entirely different meaning from money received for work on shoes4 ,as soon as there are slave-owners and slaves1 as there always have been throughout the whole world1 it is utterly impossible to say that money represents labor4 ,women have woven linen1 sold it1 and received money2 serfs have woven for their master1 and the master has sold them and received the money4 ,the money is identical in both cases2 but in the one case it is the product of labor1 in the other the product of violence4 ,in exactly the same way1 a stranger or my own father has given me money2 and my father1 when he gave me that money1 knew1 and ,i know1 and everybody knows1 that no one can take this money away from me2 but if it should occur to any one to take it away from me1 or even not to hand it over at the date when it was promised1 the law would intervene on my behalf1 and would compel the delivery to me of the money2 and1 again1 it is evident that this money can in no wise be called the equivalent of labor1 on a level with the money received by ,semyon for chopping wood4 ,so that in any community where there is any thing that in any manner whatever controls the labor of others1 or where violence hedges in1 by means of money1 its possessions from others1 there money is no longer invariably the representative of labor4 ,in such a community1 it is sometimes the representative of labor1 and sometimes of violence4 ,thus it would be where only one act of violence from one man against others1 in the midst of perfectly free relations1 should have made its appearance2 but now1 when centuries of the most varied deeds of violence have passed for accumulations of money1 when these deeds of violence are incessant1 and merely alter their forms2 when1 as every one admits1 money accumulated itself represents violence2 when money1 as a representative of direct labor1 forms but a very small portion of the money which is derived from every sort of violence1--to say nowadays that money represents the labor of the person who possesses it1 is a self-evident error or a deliberate lie4 ,it may be said1 that thus it should be2 it may be said1 that this is desirable2 but by no means can it be said1 that thus it is4 ,money represents labor4 ,yes4 ,money does represent labor2 but whose8 ,in our society only in the very rarest1 rarest of instances1 does money represent the labor of its possessor1 but it nearly always represents the labor of other people1 the past or future labor of men2 it is a representative of the obligation of others to labor1 which has been established by force4 ,money1 in its most accurate and at the same the simple application1 is the conventional stamp which confers a right1 or1 more correctly1 a possibility1 of taking advantage of the labors of other people4 ,in its ideal significance1 money should confer this right1 or this possibility1 only when it serves as the equivalent of labor1 and such money might be in a community in which no violence existed4 ,but just as soon as violence1 that is to say1 the possibility of profiting by the labors of others without toil of one's own1 exists in a community1 then that profiting by the labors of other men is also expressed by money1 without any distinction of the persons on whom that violence is exercised4 ,the landed proprietor has imposed upon his serfs natural debts1 a certain quantity of linen1 grain1 and cattle1 or a corresponding amount of money4 ,one household has procured the cattle1 but has paid money in lieu of linen4 ,the proprietor takes the money to a certain amount only1 because he knows that for that money they will make him the same quantity of linen1 7generally he takes a little more1 in order to be sure that they will make it for the same amount72 and this money1 evidently1 represents for the proprietor the obligation of other people to toil4 ,the peasant gives the money as an obligation1 to he knows not whom1 but to people1 and there are many of them1 who undertake for this money to make so much linen4 ,but the people who undertake to make the linen1 do so because they have not succeeded in raising sheep1 and in place of the sheep1 they must pay money2 but the peasant who takes money for his sheep takes it because he must pay for grain which did not bear well this year4 ,the same thing goes on throughout this realm1 and throughout the whole world4 ,a man sells the product of his labor1 past1 present or to come1 sometimes his food1 and generally not because money constitutes for him a convenient means of exchange4 ,he could have effected the barter without money1 but he does so because money is exacted from him by violence as a lien on his labor4 ,when the sovereign of ,egypt exacted labor from his slaves1 the slaves gave all their labor1 but only their past and present labor1 their future labor they could not give4 ,but with the dissemination of money tokens1 and the credit which had its rise in them1 it became possible to sell one's future toil for money4 ,money1 with co-existent violence in the community1 only represents the possibility of a new form of impersonal slavery1 which has taken the place of personal slavery4 ,the slave-owner has a right to the labor of ,piotr1 ,ivan1 and ,sidor4 ,but the owner of money1 in a place where money is demanded from all1 has a right to the toil of all those nameless people who are in need of money4 ,money has set aside all the oppressive features of slavery1 under which an owner knows his right to ,ivan1 and with them it has set aside all humane relations between the owner and the slave1 which mitigated the burden of personal thraldom4 ,i will not allude to the fact1 that such a condition of things is1 possibly1 necessary for the development of mankind1 for progress1 and so forth1--that ,i do not contest4 ,i have merely tried to elucidate to myself the idea of money1 and that universal error into which ,i fell when ,i accepted money as the representative of labor4 ,i became convinced1 after experience1 that money is not the representative of labor1 but1 in the majority of cases1 the representative of violence1 or of especially complicated sharp practices founded on violence4 ,money1 in our day1 has completely lost that significance which it is very desirable that it should possess1 as the representative of one's own labor2 such a significance it has only as an exception1 but1 as a general rule1 it has been converted into a right or a possibility of profiting by the toil of others4 ,the dissemination of money1 of credit1 and of all sorts of money tokens1 confirms this significance of money ever more and more4 ,money is a new form of slavery1 which differs from the old form of slavery only in its impersonality1 its annihilation of all humane relations with the slave4 ,money--money1 is a value which is always equal to itself1 and is always considered legal and righteous1 and whose use is regarded as not immoral1 just as the right of slavery was regarded4 ,in my young days1 the game of loto was introduced into the clubs4 ,everybody rushed to play it1 and1 as it was said1 many ruined themselves1 rendered their families miserable1 lost other people's money1 and government funds1 and committed suicide2 and the game was prohibited1 and it remains prohibited to this day4 ,i remember to have seen old and unsentimental gamblers1 who told me that this game was particularly pleasing because you did not see from whom you were winning1 as is the case in other games2 a lackey brought1 not money1 but chips2 each man lost a little stake1 and his disappointment was not visible 4 4 4 ,it is the same with roulette1 which is everywhere prohibited1 and not without reason4 ,it is the same with money4 ,i possess a magic1 inexhaustible ruble2 ,i cut off my coupons1 and have retired from all the business of the world4 ,whom do ,i injure1--,i1 the most inoffensive and kindest of men8 ,but this is nothing more than playing at loto or roulette1 where ,i do not see the man who shoots himself1 because of his losses1 after procuring for me those coupons which ,i cut off from the bonds so accurately with a strictly right-angled corner4 ,i have done nothing1 ,i do nothing1 and ,i shall do nothing1 except cut off those coupons2 and ,i firmly believe that money is the representative of labor6 ,surely1 this is amazing6 ,and people talk of madmen1 after that6 ,why1 what degree of lunacy can be more frightful than this8 ,a sensible1 educated1 in all other respects sane man lives in a senseless manner1 and soothes himself for not uttering the word which it is indispensably necessary that he should utter1 with the idea that there is some sense in his conclusions1 and he considers himself a just man4 ,coupons--the representatives of toil6 ,toil6 ,yes1 but of whose toil8 ,evidently not of the man who owns them1 but of him who labors4 ,slavery is far from being suppressed4 ,it has been suppressed in ,rome and in ,america1 and among us3 but only certain laws have been abrogated2 only the word1 not the thing1 has been put down4 ,slavery is the freeing of ourselves alone from the toil which is necessary for the satisfaction of our demands1 by the transfer of this toil to others2 and wherever there exists a man who does not work1 not because others work lovingly for him1 but where he possesses the power of not working1 and forces others to work for him1 there slavery exists4 ,there too1 where1 as in all ,european societies1 there are people who make use of the labor of thousands of men1 and regard this as their right1--there slavery exists in its broadest measure4 ,and money is the same thing as slavery4 ,its object and its consequences are the same4 ,its object is--that one may rid one's self of the first born of all laws1 as a profoundly thoughtful writer from the ranks of the people has expressed it2 from the natural law of life1 as we have called it2 from the law of personal labor for the satisfaction of our own wants4 ,and the results of money are the same as the results of slavery1 for the proprietor2 the creation1 the invention of new and ever new and never-ending demands1 which can never be satisfied2 the enervation of poverty1 vice1 and for the slaves1 the persecution of man and their degradation to the level of the beasts4 ,money is a new and terrible form of slavery1 and equally demoralizing with the ancient form of slavery for both slave and slave-owner2 only much worse1 because it frees the slave and the slave-owner from their personal1 humane relations4 ,,chapter ,,xviii4 ,i am always surprised by the oft-repeated words3 8,yes1 this is so in theory1 but how is it in practice80 ,just as though theory were fine words1 requisite for conversation1 but not for the purpose of having all practice1 that is1 all activity1 indispensably founded on them4 ,there must be a fearful number of stupid theories current in the world1 that such an extraordinary idea should have become prevalent4 ,theory is what a man thinks on a subject1 but its practice is what he does4 ,how can a man think it necessary to do so and so1 and then do the contrary8 ,if the theory of baking bread is1 that it must first be mixed1 and then set to rise1 no one except a lunatic1 knowing this theory1 would do the reverse4 ,but it has become the fashion with us to say1 that 8this is so in theory1 but how about the practice80 ,in the matter which interests me now1 that has been confirmed which ,i have always thought1--that practice infallibly flows from theory1 and not that it justifies it1 but it cannot possibly be otherwise1 for if ,i have understood the thing of which ,i have been thinking1 then ,i cannot carry out this thing otherwise than as ,i have understood it4 ,i wanted to help the unfortunate only because ,i had money1 and ,i shared the general belief that money was the representative of labor1 or1 on the whole1 something legal and good4 ,but1 having begun to give away this money1 ,i saw1 when ,i gave the bills which ,i had accumulated from poor people1 that ,i was doing precisely that which was done by some landed proprietors who made some of their serfs wait on others4 ,i saw that every use of money1 whether for making purchases1 or for giving away without an equivalent to another1 is handing over a note for extortion from the poor1 or its transfer to another man for extortion from the poor4 ,i saw that money in itself was not only not good1 but evidently evil1 and that it deprives us of our highest good1--labor1 and thereby of the enjoyment of our labor1 and that that blessing ,i was not in a position to confer on any one1 because ,i was myself deprived of it3 ,i do not work1 and ,i take no pleasure in making use of the labor of others4 ,it would appear that there is something peculiar in this abstract argument as to the nature of money4 ,but this argument which ,i have made not for the sake of argument1 but for the solution of the problem of my life1 of my sufferings1 was for me an answer to my question3 ,what is to be done8 ,as soon as ,i grasped the meaning of riches1 and of money1 it not only became clear and indisputable to me1 what ,i ought to do1 but also clear and indisputable what others ought to do1 because they would infallibly do it4 ,i had only actually come to understand what ,i had known for a long time previously1 the theory which was given to men from the very earliest times1 both by ,buddha1 and ,isaiah1 and ,lao-,tze1 and ,socrates1 and in a peculiarly clear and indisputable manner by ,jesus ,christ and his forerunner1 ,john the ,baptist4 ,john the ,baptist1 in answer to the question of the people1--,what were they to do8 replied simply1 briefly1 and clearly3 8,he that hath two coats1 let him impart to him that hath none2 and he that hath meat1 let him do likewise0 7,luke iii4 #aj1 #aa74 ,in a similar manner1 but with even greater clearness1 and on many occasions1 ,christ spoke4 ,he said3 8,blessed are the poor1 and woe to the rich40 ,he said that it is impossible to serve ,god and mammon4 ,he forbade his disciples to take not only money1 but also two garments4 ,he said to the rich young man1 that he could not enter into the kingdom of heaven because he was rich1 and that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle1 than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of ,god4 ,he said that he who should not leave every thing1 houses and children and lands1 and follow him1 could not be his disciple4 ,he told the parable of the rich man who did nothing bad1 like our own rich men1 but who only arrayed himself in costly garments1 and ate and drank daintily1 and who lost his soul thereby2 and of poor ,lazarus1 who had done nothing good1 but who was saved merely because he was poor4 ,this theory was sufficiently familiar to me1 but the false teachings of the world had so obscured it that it had become for me a theory in the sense which people are fond of attributing to that term1 that is to say1 empty words4 ,but as soon as ,i had succeeded in destroying in my consciousness the sophisms of worldly teaching1 theory conformed to practice1 and the truth with regard to my life and to the life of the people about me became its conclusion4 ,i understood that man1 besides life for his own personal good1 is unavoidably bound to serve the good of others also2 that1 if we take an illustration from the animal kingdom1--as some people are fond of doing1 defending violence and conflict by the conflict for existence in the animal kingdom1--the illustration must be taken from gregarious animals1 like bees2 that consequently man1 not to mention the love to his neighbor incumbent on him1 is called upon1 both by reason and by his nature1 to serve other people and the common good of humanity4 ,i comprehended that the natural law of man is that according to which only he can fulfil destiny1 and therefore be happy4 ,i understood that this law has been and is broken hereby1--that people get rid of labor by force 7like the robber bees71 make use of the toil of others1 directing this toil1 not to the common weal1 but to the private satisfaction of swift-growing desires2 and1 precisely as in the case of the robber bees1 they perish in consequence4 ,i understood that the original form of this disinclination for the law is the brutal violence against weaker individuals1 against women1 wars and imprisonments1 whose sequel is slavery1 and also the present reign of money4 ,i understood that money is the impersonal and concealed enslavement of the poor4 ,and1 once having perceived the significance of money as slavery1 ,i could not but hate it1 nor refrain from doing all in my power to free myself from it4 #ace ,when ,i was a slave-owner1 and comprehended the immorality of my position1 ,i tried to escape from it4 ,my escape consisted in this1 that ,i1 regarding it as immoral1 tried to exercise my rights as slave-owner as little as possible1 but to live1 and to allow other people to live1 as though that right did not exist4 ,and ,i cannot refrain from doing the same thing now in reference to the present form of slavery1--exercising my right to the labor of others as little as possible1 i4e41 hiring and purchasing as little as possible4 ,the root of every slavery is the use of the labor of others2 and hence1 the compelling others to it is founded indifferently on my right to the slave1 or on my possession of money which is indispensable to him4 ,if ,i really do not approve1 and if ,i regard as an evil1 the employment of the labor of others1 then ,i shall use neither my right nor my money for that purpose2 ,i shall not compel others to toil for me1 but ,i shall endeavor to free them from the labor which they have performed for me1 as far as possible1 either by doing without this labor or by performing it for myself4 ,and this very simple and unavoidable deduction enters into all the details of my life1 effects a total change in it1 and at one blow releases me from those moral sufferings which ,i have undergone at the sight of the sufferings and the vice of the people1 and instantly annihilates all three causes of my inability to aid the poor1 which ,i had encountered while seeking the cause of my lack of success4 ,the first cause was the herding of the people in towns1 and the absorption there of the wealth of the country4 ,all that a man needs is to understand how every hiring or purchase is a handle to extortion from the poor1 and that therefore he must abstain from them1 and must try to fulfil his own requirements2 and not a single man will then quit the country1 where all wants can be satisfied without money1 for the city1 where it is necessary to buy every thing3 and in the country he will be in a position to help the needy1 as has been my own experience and the experience of every one else4 ,the second cause is the estrangement of the rich from the poor4 ,a man needs but to refrain from buying1 from hiring1 and1 disdaining no sort of work1 to satisfy his requirements himself1 and the former estrangement will immediately be annihilated1 and the man1 having rejected luxury and the services of others1 will amalgamate with the mass of the working people1 and1 standing shoulder to shoulder with the working people1 he can help them4 ,the third cause was shame1 founded on a consciousness of immorality in my owning that money with which ,i desired to help people4 ,all that is required is3 to understand the significance of money as impersonal slavery1 which it has acquired among us1 in order to escape for the future from falling into the error according to which money1 though evil in itself1 can be an instrument of good1 and in order to refrain from acquiring money2 and to rid one's self of it in order to be in a position to do good to people1 that is1 to bestow on them one's labor1 and not the labor of another4 ,,chapter ,,xix4 ,i saw that money is the cause of suffering and vice among the people1 and that1 if ,i desired to help people1 the first thing that was required of me was not to create those unfortunates whom ,i wished to assist4 ,i came to the conclusion that the man who does not love vice and the suffering of the people should not make use of money1 thus presenting an inducement to extortion from the poor1 by forcing them to work for him2 and that1 in order not to make use of the toil of others1 he must demand as little from others as possible1 and work as much as possible himself4 #ach ,by dint of a long course of reasoning1 ,i came to this inevitable conclusion1 which was drawn thousands of years ago by the ,chinese in the saying1 8,if there is one idle man1 there is another dying with hunger to offset him40 ,then what are we to do8 ,john the ,baptist gave the answer to this very question two thousand years ago4 ,and when the people asked him1 8,what are we to do80 he said1 8,let him that hath two garments impart to him that hath none1 and let him that hath meat do the same40 ,what is the meaning of giving away one garment out of two1 and half of one's food8 ,it means giving to others every superfluity1 and thenceforth taking nothing superfluous from people4 ,this expedient1 which furnishes such perfect satisfaction to the moral feelings1 kept my eyes fast bound1 and binds all our eyes2 and we do not see it1 but gaze aside4 ,this is precisely like a personage on the stage1 who had entered a long time since1 and all the spectators see him1 and it is obvious that the actors cannot help seeing him1 but the point on the stage lies in the acting characters pretending not to see him1 and in suffering from his absence4 #aci ,thus we1 in our efforts to recover from our social diseases1 search in all quarters1 governmental and anti-governmental1 and in scientific and in philanthropic superstitions2 and we do not see what is perfectly visible to every eye4 ,for the man who really suffers from the sufferings of the people who surround us1 there exists the very plainest1 simplest1 and easiest means2 the only possible one for the cure of the evil about us1 and for the acquisition of a consciousness of the legitimacy of his life2 the one given by ,john the ,baptist1 and confirmed by ,christ3 not to have more than one garment1 and not to have money4 ,and not to have any money1 means1 not to employ the labor of others1 and hence1 first of all1 to do with our own hands every thing that we can possibly do4 ,this is so clear and simple6 ,but it is clear and simple when the requirements are simple4 ,i live in the country4 ,i lie on the oven1 and ,i order my debtor1 my neighbor1 to chop wood and light my fire4 ,it is very clear that ,i am lazy1 and that ,i tear my neighbor away from his affairs1 and ,i shall feel mortified1 and ,i shall find it tiresome to lie still all the time2 and ,i shall go and split my wood for myself4 ,but the delusion of slavery of all descriptions lies so far back1 so much of artificial exaction has sprung up upon it1 so many people1 accustomed in different degrees to these habits1 are interwoven with each other1 enervated people1 spoiled for generations1 and such complicated delusions and justifications for their luxury and idleness have been devised by people1 that it is far from being so easy for a man who stands at the summit of the ladder of idle people to understand his sin1 as it is for the peasant who has made his neighbor build his fire4 ,it is terribly difficult for people at the top of this ladder to understand what is required of them4 ,their heads are turned by the height of this ladder of lies1 upon which they find themselves when a place on the ground is offered to them1 to which they must descend in order to begin to live1 not yet well1 but no longer cruelly1 inhumanly2 for this reason1 this clear and simple truth appears strange to these people4 ,for the man with ten servants1 liveries1 coachmen1 cooks1 pictures1 pianofortes1 that will infallibly appear strange1 and even ridiculous1 which is the simplest1 the first act of--,i will not say every good man--but of every man who is not wicked3 to cut his own wood with which his food is cooked1 and with which he warms himself2 to himself clean those boots with which he has heedlessly stepped in the mire2 to himself fetch that water with which he preserves his cleanliness1 and to carry out that dirty water in which he has washed himself4 #adj ,but1 besides the remoteness of people from the truth1 there is another cause which prevents people from seeing the obligation for them of the simplest and most natural personal1 physical labor for themselves3 this is the complication1 the inextricability of the conditions1 the advantage of all the people who are bound together among themselves by money1 in which the rich man lives3 8,my luxurious life feeds people4 ,what would become of my old valet if ,i were to discharge him8 ,what6 we must all do every thing necessary1--make our clothes and hew wood8 4 4 4 ,and how about the division of labor80 ,this morning ,i stepped out into the corridor where the fires were being built4 ,a peasant was making a fire in the stove which warms my son's room4 ,i went in2 the latter was asleep4 ,it was eleven o'clock in the morning4 ,to-day is a holiday3 there is some excuse1 there are no lessons4 ,the smooth-skinned1 eighteen-year-old youth1 with a beard1 who had eaten his fill on the preceding evening1 sleeps until eleven o'clock4 ,but the peasant of his age had been up at dawn1 and had got through a quantity of work1 and was attending to his tenth stove1 while the former slept4 8,the peasant shall not make the fire in his stove to warm that smooth1 lazy body of his60 ,i thought4 ,but ,i immediately recollected that this stove also warmed the room of the housekeeper1 a woman forty years of age1 who1 on the evening before1 had been making preparations up to three o'clock in the morning for the supper which my son had eaten1 and that she had cleared the table1 and risen at seven1 nevertheless4 ,the peasant was building the fire for her also4 ,and under her name the lazybones was warming himself4 ,it is true that the interests of all are interwoven2 but1 even without any prolonged reckoning1 the conscience of each man will say on whose side lies labor1 and on whose idleness4 ,but although conscience says this1 the account-book1 the cash-book1 says it still more clearly4 ,the more money any one spends1 the more idle he is1 that is to say1 the more he makes others work for him4 ,the less he spends1 the more he works4 #adb;a ,but trade1 but public undertakings1 and1 finally1 the most terrible of words1 culture1 the development of sciences1 and the arts1--what of them8 ,if ,i live ,i will make answer to those points1 and in detail2 and until such answer ,i will narrate the following4 #adb;b ,,chapter ,,xx4 ,,life ,,in ,,the ,,city4 ,last year1 in ,march1 ,i was returning home late at night4 ,as ,i turned from the ,zubova into ,khamovnitchesky ,lane1 ,i saw some black spots on the snow of the ,dyevitchy ,pole 7field74 ,something was moving about in one place4 ,i should not have paid any attention to this1 if the policeman who was standing at the end of the street had not shouted in the direction of the black spots1-- 8,vasily6 why don't you bring her in80 8,she won't come60 answered a voice1 and then the spot moved towards the policeman4 ,i halted and asked the police-officer1 8,what is it80 ,he said1--8,they are taking a girl from the ,rzhanoff house to the station-house2 and she is hanging back1 she won't walk40 ,a house-porter in a sheepskin coat was leading her4 ,she was walking forward1 and he was pushing her from behind4 ,all of us1 ,i and the porter and the policeman1 were dressed in winter clothes1 but she had nothing on over her dress4 ,in the darkness ,i could make out only her brown dress1 and the kerchiefs on her head and neck4 ,she was short in stature1 as is often the case with the prematurely born1 with small feet1 and a comparatively broad and awkward figure4 8,we're waiting for you1 you carrion4 ,get along1 what do you mean by it8 ,i'll give it to you60 shouted the policeman4 ,he was evidently tired1 and he had had too much of her4 ,she advanced a few paces1 and again halted4 ,the little old porter1 a good-natured fellow 7,i know him71 tugged at her hand4 8,here1 ,i'll teach you to stop6 ,on with you60 he repeated1 as though in anger4 ,she staggered1 and began to talk in a discordant voice4 ,at every sound there was a false note1 both hoarse and whining4 8,come now1 you're shoving again4 ,i'll get there some time60 ,she stopped and then went on4 ,i followed them4 8,you'll freeze10 said the porters 8,the likes of us don't freeze3 ,i'm hot40 ,she tried to jest1 but her words sounded like scolding4 ,she halted again under the lantern which stands not far from our house1 and leaned against1 almost hung over1 the fence1 and began to fumble for something among her skirts1 with benumbed and awkward hands4 ,again they shouted at her1 but she muttered something and did something4 ,in one hand she held a cigarette bent into a bow1 in the other a match4 ,i paused behind her2 ,i was ashamed to pass her1 and ,i was ashamed to stand and look on4 ,but ,i made up my mind1 and stepped forward4 ,her shoulder was lying against the fence1 and against the fence it was that she vainly struck the match and flung it away4 ,i looked in her face4 ,she was really a person prematurely born2 but1 as it seemed to me1 already an old woman4 ,i credited her with thirty years4 ,a dirty hue of face2 small1 dull1 tipsy eyes2 a button-like nose2 curved moist lips with drooping corners1 and a short wisp of harsh hair escaping from beneath her kerchief2 a long flat figure1 stumpy hands and feet4 ,i paused opposite her4 ,she stared at me1 and burst into a laugh1 as though she knew all that was going on in my mind4 ,i felt that it was necessary to say something to her4 ,i wanted to show her that ,i pitied her4 8,are your parents alive80 ,i inquired4 ,she laughed hoarsely1 with an expression which said1 8he's making up queer things to ask40 8,my mother is10 said she4 8,but what do you want80 8,and how old are you80 8,sixteen10 said she1 answering promptly to a question which was evidently customary4 8,come1 march1 you'll freeze1 you'll perish entirely10 shouted the policeman2 and she swayed away from the fence1 and1 staggering along1 she went down ,khamovnitchesky ,lane to the police-station2 and ,i turned to the wicket1 and entered the house1 and inquired whether my daughters had returned4 ,i was told that they had been to an evening party1 had had a very merry time1 had come home1 and were in bed4 ,next morning ,i wanted to go to the station-house to learn what had been done with this unfortunate woman1 and ,i was preparing to go out very early1 when there came to see me one of those unlucky noblemen1 who1 through weakness1 have dropped from the gentlemanly life to which they are accustomed1 and who alternately rise and fall4 ,i had been acquainted with this man for three years4 ,in the course of those three years1 this man had several times made way with every thing that he had1 and even with all his clothes2 the same thing had just happened again1 and he was passing the nights temporarily in the ,rzhanoff house1 in the night-lodging section1 and he had come to me for the day4 ,he met me as ,i was going out1 at the entrance1 and without listening to me he began to tell me what had taken place in the ,rzhanoff house the night before4 ,he began his narrative1 and did not half finish it2 all at once 7he is an old man who has seen men under all sorts of aspects7 he burst out sobbing1 and flooded has countenance with tears1 and when he had become silent1 turned has face to the wall4 ,this is what he told me4 ,every thing that he related to me was absolutely true4 ,i authenticated his story on the spot1 and learned fresh particulars which ,i will relate separately4 ,in that night-lodging house1 on the lower floor1 in ,no4 #cb1 in which my friend had spent the night1 among the various1 ever-changing lodgers1 men and women1 who came together there for five kopeks1 there was a laundress1 a woman thirty years of age1 light-haired1 peaceable and pretty1 but sickly4 ,the mistress of the quarters had a boatman lover4 ,in the summer her lover kept a boat1 and in the winter they lived by letting accommodations to night-lodgers3 three kopeks without a pillow1 five kopeks with a pillow4 ,the laundress had lived there for several months1 and was a quiet woman2 but latterly they had not liked her1 because she coughed and prevented the women from sleeping4 ,an old half-crazy woman eighty years old1 in particular1 also a regular lodger in these quarters1 hated the laundress1 and imbittered the latter's life because she prevented her sleeping1 and cleared her throat all night like a sheep4 ,the laundress held her peace2 she was in debt for her lodgings1 and was conscious of her guilt1 and therefore she was bound to be quiet4 ,she began to go more and more rarely to her work1 as her strength failed her1 and therefore she could not pay her landlady2 and for the last week she had not been out to work at all1 and had only poisoned the existence of every one1 especially of the old woman1 who also did not go out1 with her cough4 ,four days before this1 the landlady had given the laundress notice to leave the quarters3 the latter was already sixty kopeks in debt1 and she neither paid them1 nor did the landlady foresee any possibility of getting them2 and all the bunks were occupied1 and the women all complained of the laundress's cough4 ,when the landlady gave the laundress notice1 and told her that she must leave the lodgings if she did not pay up1 the old woman rejoiced and thrust the laundress out of doors4 ,the laundress departed1 but returned in an hour1 and the landlady had not the heart to put her out again4 ,and the second and the third day1 she did not turn her out4 8,where am ,i to go80 said the laundress4 ,but on the third day1 the landlady's lover1 a ,moscow man1 who knew the regulations and how to manage1 sent for the police4 ,a policeman with sword and pistol on a red cord came to the lodgings1 and with courteous words he led the laundress into the street4 ,it was a clear1 sunny1 but freezing ,march day4 ,the gutters were flowing1 the house-porters were picking at the ice4 ,the cabman's sleigh jolted over the icy snow1 and screeched over the stones4 ,the laundress walked up the street on the sunny side1 went to the church1 and seated herself at the entrance1 still on the sunny side4 ,but when the sun began to sink behind the houses1 the puddles began to be skimmed over with a glass of frost1 and the laundress grew cold and wretched4 ,she rose1 and dragged herself 4 4 4 whither8 ,home1 to the only home where she had lived so long4 ,while she was on her way1 resting at times1 dusk descended4 ,she approached the gates1 turned in1 slipped1 groaned and fell4 ,one man came up1 and then another4 8,she must be drunk40 ,another man came up1 and stumbled over the laundress1 and said to the potter3 8,what drunken woman is this wallowing at your gate8 ,i came near breaking my head over her2 take her away1 won't you80 ,the porter came4 ,the laundress was dead4 ,this is what my friend told me4 ,it may be thought that ,i have wilfully mixed up facts1--,i encounter a prostitute of fifteen1 and the story of this laundress4 ,but let no one imagine this2 it is exactly what happened in the course of one night 7only ,i do not remember which7 in ,march1 #ahhd4 ,and so1 after hearing my friend's tale1 ,i went to the station-house1 with the intention of proceeding thence to the ,rzhanoff house to inquire more minutely into the history of the laundress4 ,the weather was very beautiful and sunny2 and again1 through the stars of the night-frost1 water was to be seen trickling in the shade1 and in the glare of the sun on ,khamovnitchesky square every thing was melting1 and the water was streaming4 ,the river emitted a humming noise4 ,the trees of the ,neskutchny garden looked blue across the river2 the reddish-brown sparrows1 invisible in winter1 attracted attention by their sprightliness2 people also seemed desirous of being merry1 but all of them had too many cares4 ,the sound of the bells was audible1 and at the foundation of these mingling sounds1 the sounds of shots could be heard from the barracks1 the whistle of rifle-balls and their crack against the target4 ,i entered the station-house4 ,in the station some armed policemen conducted me to their chief4 ,he was similarly armed with sword and pistol1 and he was engaged in taking some measures with regard to a tattered1 trembling old man1 who was standing before him1 and who could not answer the questions put to him1 on account of his feebleness4 ,having finished his business with the old man1 he turned to me4 ,i inquired about the girl of the night before4 ,at first he listened to me attentively1 but afterwards he began to smile1 at my ignorance of the regulations1 in consequence of which she had been taken to the station-house2 and particularly at my surprise at her youth4 8,why1 there are plenty of them of twelve1 thirteen1 or fourteen years of age10 he said cheerfully4 ,but in answer to my question about the girl whom ,i had seen on the preceding evening1 he explained to me that she must have been sent to the committee 7so it appeared74 ,to my question where she had passed the night1 he replied in an undecided manner4 ,he did not recall the one to whom ,i referred4 ,there were so many of them every day4 ,in ,no4 #cb of the ,rzhanoff house ,i found the sacristan already reading prayers over the dead woman4 ,they had taken her to the bunk which she had formerly occupied2 and the lodgers1 all miserable beings1 had collected money for the masses for her soul1 a coffin and a shroud1 and the old women had dressed her and laid her out4 ,the sacristan was reading something in the gloom2 a woman in a long wadded cloak was standing there with a wax candle2 and a man 7a gentleman1 ,i must state7 in a clean coat with a lamb's-skin collar1 polished overshoes1 and a starched shirt1 was holding one like it4 ,this was her brother4 ,they had hunted him up4 ,i went past the dead woman to the landlady's nook1 and questioned her about the whole business4 ,she was alarmed at my queries2 she was evidently afraid that she would be blamed for something2 but afterwards she began to talk freely1 and told me every thing4 ,as ,i passed back1 ,i glanced at the dead woman4 ,all dead people are handsome1 but this dead woman was particularly beautiful and touching in her coffin2 her pure1 pale face1 with closed swollen eyes1 sunken cheeks1 and soft reddish hair above the lofty brow1--a weary and kind and not a sad but a surprised face4 ,and in fact1 if the living do not see1 the dead are surprised4 ,on the same day that ,i wrote the above1 there was a great ball in ,moscow4 ,that night ,i left the house at nine o'clock4 ,i live in a locality which is surrounded by factories1 and ,i left the house after the factory-whistles had sounded1 releasing the people for a day of freedom after a week of unremitting toil4 ,factory-hands overtook me1 and ,i overtook others of them1 directing their steps to the drinking-shops and taverns4 ,many were already intoxicated1 many were women4 ,every morning at five o'clock we can hear one whistle1 a second1 a third1 a tenth1 and so forth1 and so forth4 ,that means that the toil of women1 children1 and of old men has begun4 ,at eight o'clock another whistle1 which signifies a breathing-spell of half an hour4 ,at twelve1 a third3 this means an hour for dinner4 ,and a fourth at eight1 which denotes the end of the day4 ,by an odd coincidence1 all three of the factories which are situated near me produce only articles which are in demand for balls4 ,in one factory1 the nearest1 only stockings are made2 in another opposite1 silken fabrics2 in the third1 perfumes and pomades4 ,it is possible to listen to these whistles1 and connect no other idea with them than as denoting the time3 8,there's the whistle already1 it is time to go to walk40 ,but one can also connect with those whistles that which they signify in reality2 that first whistle1 at five o'clock1 means that people1 often all without exception1 both men and women1 sleeping in a damp cellar1 must rise1 and hasten to that building buzzing with machines1 and must take their places at their work1 whose end and use for themselves they do not see1 and thus toil1 often in heat and a stifling atmosphere1 in the midst of dirt1 and with the very briefest breathing-spells1 an hour1 two hours1 three hours1 twelve1 and even more hours in succession4 ,they fall into a doze1 and again they rise4 ,and this1 for them1 senseless work1 to which they are driven only by necessity1 is continued over and over again4 ,and thus one week succeeds another with the breaks of holidays2 and ,i see these work-people released on one of these holidays4 ,they emerge into the street4 ,everywhere there are drinking-shops1 taverns1 and loose girls4 ,and they1 in their drunken state1 drag by the hand each other1 and girls like the one whom ,i saw taken to the station-house2 they drag with them cabmen1 and they ride and they walk from one tavern to another2 and they curse and stagger1 and say they themselves know not what4 ,i had previously seen such unsteady gait on the part of factory-hands1 and had turned aside in disgust1 and had been on the point of rebuking them2 but ever since ,i have been in the habit of hearing those whistles every day1 and understand their meaning1 ,i am only amazed that they1 all the men1 do not come to the condition of the 8golden squad10 of which ,moscow is full1 #aeb;a and the women to the state of the one whom ,i had seen near my house4 #aeb;b ,thus ,i walked along1 and scrutinized these factory-hands1 as long as they roamed the streets1 which was until eleven o'clock4 ,then their movements began to calm down4 ,some drunken men remained here and there1 and here and there ,i encountered men who were being taken to the station-house4 ,and then carriages began to make their appearance on all sides1 directing their course toward one point4 ,on the box sits a coachman1 sometimes in a sheepskin coat2 and a footman1 a dandy1 with a cockade4 ,well-fed horses in saddle-cloths fly through the frost at the rate of twenty versts an hour2 in the carriages sit ladies muffled in round cloaks1 and carefully tending their flowers and head-dresses4 ,every thing from the horse-trappings1 the carriages1 the gutta-percha wheels1 the cloth of the coachman's coat1 to the stockings1 shoes1 flowers1 velvet1 gloves1 and perfumes1--every thing is made by those people1 some of whom often roll drunk into their dens or sleeping-rooms1 and some stay with disreputable women in the night-lodging houses1 while still others are put in jail4 ,thus past them in all their work1 and over them all1 ride the frequenters of balls2 and it never enters their heads1 that there is any connection between these balls to which they make ready to go1 and these drunkards at whom their coachman shouts so roughly4 ,these people enjoy themselves at the ball with the utmost composure of spirit1 and assurance that they are doing nothing wrong1 but something very good4 ,enjoy themselves6 ,enjoy themselves from eleven o'clock until six in the morning1 in the very dead of night1 at the very hour when people are tossing and turning with empty stomachs in the night-lodging houses1 and while some are dying1 as did the laundress4 ,their enjoyment consists in this1--that the women and young girls1 having bared their necks and arms1 and applied bustles behind1 place themselves in a situation in which no uncorrupted woman or maiden would care to display herself to a man1 on any consideration in the world2 and in this half-naked condition1 with their uncovered bosoms exposed to view1 with arms bare to the shoulder1 with a bustle behind and tightly swathed hips1 under the most brilliant light1 women and maidens1 whose chief virtue has always been modesty1 exhibit themselves in the midst of strange men1 who are also clad in improperly tight-fitting garments2 and to the sound of maddening music1 they embrace and whirl4 ,old women1 often as naked as the young ones1 sit and look on1 and eat and drink savory things2 old men do the same4 ,it is not to be wondered at that this should take place at night1 when all the common people are asleep1 so that no one may see them4 ,but this is not done with the object of concealment3 it seems to them that there is nothing to conceal2 that it is a very good thing2 that by this merry-making1 in which the labor of thousands of toiling people is destroyed1 they not only do not injure any one1 but that by this very act they furnish the poor with the means of subsistence4 ,possibly it is very merry at balls4 ,but how does this come about8 ,when we see that there is a man in the community1 in our midst1 who has had no food1 or who is freezing1 we regret our mirth1 and we cannot be cheerful until he is fed and warmed1 not to mention the impossibility of imagining people who can indulge in such mirth as causes suffering to others4 ,the mirth of wicked little boys1 who pitch a dog's tail in a split stick1 and make merry over it1 is repulsive and incomprehensible to us4 ,in the same manner here1 in these diversions of ours1 blindness has fallen upon us1 and we do not see the split stick with which we have pitched all those people who suffer for our amusement4 ,we live as though there were no connection between the dying laundress1 the prostitute of fourteen1 and our own life2 and yet the connection between them strikes us in the face4 ,we may say3 8,but we personally have not pinched any tail in a stick20 but we have no right1 to deny that had the tail not been pitched1 our merry-making would not have taken place4 ,we do not see what connection exists between the laundress and our luxury2 but that is not because no such connection does exist1 but because we have placed a screen in front of us1 so that we may not see4 ,if there were no screen1 we should see that which it is impossible not to see4 #aed ,surely all the women who attended that ball in dresses worth a hundred and fifty rubles each were born not in a ballroom1 or at ,madame ,minanguoit's2 but they have lived in the country1 and have seen the peasants2 they know their own nurse and maid1 whose father and brother are poor1 for whom the earning of a hundred and fifty rubles for a cottage is the object of a long1 laborious life4 ,each woman knows this4 ,how could she enjoy herself1 when she knew that she wore on her bared body at that ball the cottage which is the dream of her good maid's father and brother8 ,but let us suppose that she could not make this reflection2 but since velvet and silk and flowers and lace and dresses do not grow of themselves1 but are made by people1 it would seem that she could not help knowing what sort of people make all these things1 and under what conditions1 and why they do it4 ,she cannot fail to know that the seamstress1 with whom she has already quarrelled1 did not make her dress in the least out of love for her2 therefore1 she cannot help knowing that all these things were made for her as a matter of necessity1 that her laces1 flowers1 and velvet have been made in the same way as her dress4 ,but possibly they are in such darkness that they do not consider this4 ,one thing she cannot fail to know1--that five or six elderly and respectable1 often sick1 lackeys and maids have had no sleep1 and have been put to trouble on her account4 ,she has seen their weary1 gloomy faces4 ,she could not help knowing this also1 that the cold that night reached twenty-eight degrees below zero1 #aee and that the old coachman sat all night long in that temperature on his box4 ,but ,i know that they really do not see this4 ,and if they1 these young women and girls1 do not see this1 on account of the hypnotic state superinduced in them by balls1 it is impossible to condemn them4 ,they1 poor things1 have done what is considered right by their elders2 but how are their elders to explain away this their cruelty to the people8 ,the elders always offer the explanation3 8,i compel no one4 ,i purchase my things2 ,i hire my men1 my maid-servants1 and my coachman4 ,there is nothing wrong in buying and hiring4 ,i force no one's inclination3 ,i hire1 and what harm is there in that80 ,i recently went to see an acquaintance4 ,as ,i passed through one of the rooms1 ,i was surprised to see two women seated at a table1 as ,i knew that my friend was a bachelor4 ,a thin1 yellow1 old-fashioned woman1 thirty years of age1 in a dress that had been carelessly thrown on1 was doing something with her hands and fingers on the table1 with great speed1 trembling nervously the while1 as though in a fit4 ,opposite her sat a young girl1 who was also engaged in something1 and who trembled in the same manner4 ,both women appeared to be afflicted with ,st4 ,vitus' dance4 ,i stepped nearer to them1 and looked to see what they were doing4 ,they raised their eyes to me1 but went on with their work with the same intentness4 ,in front of them lay scattered tobacco and paper cases4 ,they were making cigarettes4 ,the woman rubbed the tobacco between her hands1 pushed it into the machine1 slipped on the cover1 thrust the tobacco through1 then tossed it to the girl4 ,the girl twisted the paper1 and1 making it fast1 threw it aside1 and took up another4 ,all thus was done with such swiftness1 with such intentness1 as it is impossible to describe to a man who has never seen it done4 ,i expressed my surprise at their quickness4 8,i have been doing nothing else for fourteen years10 said the woman4 8,is it hard80 8,yes3 it pains my chest1 and makes my breathing hard40 ,it was not necessary for her to add this1 however4 ,a look at the girl sufficed4 ,she had worked at this for three years1 but any one who had not seen her at this occupation would have said that here was a strong organism which was beginning to break down4 ,my friend1 a kind and liberal man1 hires these women to fill his cigarettes at two rubles fifty kopeks the thousand4 ,he has money1 and he spends it for work4 ,what harm is there in that8 ,my friend rises at twelve o'clock4 ,he passes the evening1 from six until two1 at cards1 or at the piano4 ,he eats and drinks savory things2 others do all his work for him4 ,he has devised a new source of pleasure1--smoking4 ,he has taken up smoking within my memory4 ,here is a woman1 and here is a girl1 who can barely support themselves by turning themselves into machines1 and they pass their whole lives inhaling tobacco1 and thereby running their health4 ,he has money which he never earned1 and he prefers to play at whist to making his own cigarettes4 ,he gives these women money on condition that they shall continue to live in the same wretched manner in which they are now living1 that is to say1 by making his cigarettes4 ,i love cleanliness1 and ,i give money only on the condition that the laundress shall wash the shirt which ,i change twice a day2 and that shirt has destroyed the laundress's last remaining strength1 and she has died4 ,what is there wrong about that8 ,people who buy and hire will continue to force other people to make velvet and confections1 and will purchase them1 without me2 and no matter what ,i may do1 they will hire cigarettes made and shirts washed4 ,then why should ,i deprive myself of velvet and confections and cigarettes and clean shirts1 if things are definitively settled thus8 ,this is the argument which ,i often1 almost always1 hear4 ,this is the very argument which makes the mob which is destroying something1 lose its senses4 ,this is the very argument by which dogs are guided when one of them has flung himself on another dog1 and overthrown him1 and the rest of the pack rush up also1 and tear their comrade in pieces4 ,other people have begun it1 and have wrought mischief2 then why should not ,i take advantage of it8 ,well1 what will happen if ,i wear a soiled shirt1 and make my own cigarettes8 ,will that make it easier for anybody else8 ask people who would like to justify their course4 ,if it were not so far from the truth1 it would be a shame to answer such a question1 but we have become so entangled that this question seems very natural to us2 and hence1 although it is a shame1 it is necessary to reply to it4 ,what difference will it make if ,i wear one shirt a week1 and make may own cigarettes1 or do not smoke at all8 ,this difference1 that some laundress and some cigarette-maker will exert their strength less1 and that what ,i have spent for washing and for the making of cigarettes ,i can give to that very laundress1 or even to other laundresses and toilers who are worn out with their labor1 and who1 instead of laboring beyond their strength1 will then be able to rest1 and drink tea4 ,but to this ,i hear an objection4 7,it is so mortifying to rich and luxurious people to understand their position47 ,to this they say3 8,if ,i go about in a dirty shirt1 and give up smoking1 and hand over this money to the poor1 the poor will still be deprived of every thing1 and that drop in the sea of yours will help not at all40 ,such an objection it is a shame to answer4 ,it is such a common retort4 #aeh ,if ,i had gone among savages1 and they had regaled me with cutlets which struck me as savory1 and if ,i should learn on the following day that these savory cutlets had been made from a prisoner whom they had slain for the sake of the savory cutlets1 if ,i do not admit that it is a good thing to eat men1 then1 no matter how dainty the cutlets1 no matter how universal the practice of eating men may be among my fellows1 however insignificant the advantage to prisoners1 prepared for consumption1 may be my refusal to eat of the cutlets1 ,i will not and ,i can not eat any more of them4 ,i may1 possibly1 eat human flesh1 when hunger compels me to it2 but ,i will not make a feast1 and ,i will not take part in feasts1 of human flesh1 and ,i will not seek out such feasts1 and pride myself on my share in them4 ,,life ,,in ,,the ,,country4 ,but what is to be done8 ,surely it is not we who have done this8 ,and if not we1 who then8 ,we say3 8,we have not done this1 this has done itself20 as the children say1 when they break any thing1 that it broke itself4 ,we say1 that1 so long as there is a city already in existence1 we1 by living in it1 support the people1 by purchasing their labor and services4 ,but this is not so4 ,and this is why4 ,we only need to look ourselves1 at the way we have in the country1 and at the manner in which we support people there4 ,the winter passes in town4 ,easter ,week passes4 ,on the boulevards1 in the gardens in the parks1 on the river1 there is music4 ,there are theatres1 water-trips1 walks1 all sorts of illuminations and fireworks4 ,but in the country there is something even better1--there are better air1 trees and meadows1 and the flowers are fresher4 ,one should go thither where all these things have unfolded and blossomed forth4 ,and the majority of wealthy people do go to the country to breathe the superior air1 to survey these superior forests and meadows4 ,and there the wealthy settle down in the country1 and the gray peasants1 who nourish themselves on bread and onions1 who toil eighteen hours a day1 who get no sound sleep by night1 and who are clad in blouses4 ,here no one has led these people astray4 ,there have been no factories nor industrial establishments1 and there are none of those idle hands1 of which there are so many in the city4 ,here the whole population never succeeds1 all summer long1 in completing all their tasks in season2 and not only are there no idle hands1 but a vast quantity of property is ruined for the lack of hands1 and a throng of people1 children1 old men1 and women1 will perish through overstraining their powers in work which is beyond their strength4 ,how do the rich order their lives there8 ,in this fashion3-- ,if there is an old-fashioned house1 built under the serf rgime1 that house is repaired and embellished2 if there is none1 then a new one is erected1 of two or three stories4 ,the rooms1 of which there are from twelve to twenty1 and even more1 are all six arshins in height4 #afa;a ,wood floors are laid down4 ,the windows consist of one sheet of glass4 ,there are rich rugs and costly furniture4 ,the roads around the house are macadamized1 the ground is levelled1 flower-beds are laid out1 croquet-grounds are prepared1 swinging-rings for gymnastics are erected1 reflecting globes1 often orangeries1 and hotbeds1 and lofty stables always with complicated scroll-work on the gables and ridges4 ,and here1 in the country1 an honest educated official1 or noble family dwells4 ,all the members of the family and their guests have assembled in the middle of ,june1 because up to ,june1 that is to say1 up to the beginning of mowing-time1 they have been studying and undergoing examinations2 and they live there until ,september1 that is to say1 until harvest and sowing-time4 ,the members of this family 7as is the case with nearly every one in that circle7 have lived in the country from the beginning of the press of work1 the suffering time1 not until the end of the season of toil 7for in ,september sowing is still in progress1 as well as the digging of potatoes71 but until the strain of work has relaxed a little4 ,during the whole of their residence in the country1 all around them and beside them1 that summer toil of the peasantry has been going on1 of whose fatigues1 no matter how much we may have heard1 no matter how much we may have heard about it1 no matter how much we may have gazed upon it1 we can form no idea1 unless we have had personal experience of it4 ,and the members of this family1 about ten in number1 live exactly as they do in the city4 ,at ,st4 ,peter's ,day1 #afa;b a strict fast1 when the people's food consists of kvas1 bread1 and onions1 the mowing begins4 ,the business which is effected in mowing is one of the most important in the commune4 ,nearly every year1 through the lack of hands and time1 the hay crop may be lost by rain2 and more or less strain of toil decides the question1 as to whether twenty or more per cent of hay is to be added to the wealth of the people1 or whether it is to rot or die where it stands4 ,and additional hay means additional meat for the old1 and additional milk for the children4 ,thus1 in general and in particular1 the question of bread for each one of the mowers1 and of milk for himself and his children1 in the ensuing winter1 is then decided4 ,every one of the toilers1 both male and female1 knows this2 even the children know that this is an important matter1 and that it is necessary to strain every nerve to carry the jug of kvas to their father in the meadow at his mowing1 and1 shifting the heavy pitcher from hand to hand1 to run barefooted as rapidly as possible1 two versts from the village1 in order to get there in season for dinner1 and so that their fathers may not scold them4 ,every one knows1 that1 from the mowing season until the hay is got in1 there will be no break in the work1 and that there will be no time to breathe4 ,and there is not the mowing alone4 ,every one of them has other affairs to attend to besides the mowing3 the ground must be turned up and harrowed2 and the women have linen and bread and washing to attend to2 and the peasants have to go to the mill1 and to town1 and there are communal matters to attend to1 and legal matters before the judge and the commissary of police2 and the wagons to see to1 and the horses to feed at night3 and all1 old and young1 and sickly1 labor to the last extent of their powers4 ,the peasants toil so1 that on every occasion1 the mowers1 before the end of the third stint1 whether weak1 young1 or old1 can hardly walk as they totter past the last rows1 and only with difficulty are they able to rise after the breathing-spell2 and the women1 often pregnant1 or nursing infants1 work in the same way4 ,the toil is intense and incessant4 ,all work to the extreme bounds of their strength1 and expend in this toil1 not only the entire stock of their scanty nourishment1 but all their previous stock4 ,all of them--and they are not fat to begin with--grow gaunt after the 8suffering0 season4 ,here a little association is working at the mowing2 three peasants1--one an old man1 the second his nephew1 a young married man1 and a shoemaker1 a thin1 sinewy man4 ,this hay-harvest will decide the fate of all of them for the winter4 ,they have been laboring incessantly for two weeks1 without rest4 ,the rain has delayed their work4 ,after the rain1 when the hay has dried1 they have decided to stack it1 and1 in order to accomplish this as speedily as possible1 that two women for each of them shall follow their scythes4 ,on the part of the old man go his wife1 a woman of fifty1 who has become unfit for work1 having borne eleven children1 who is deaf1 but still a tolerably stout worker2 and a thirteen-year-old daughter1 who is short of stature1 but a strong and clever girl4 ,on the part of his nephew go his wife1 a woman as strong and well-grown as a sturdy peasant1 and his daughter-in-law1 a soldier's wife1 who is about to become a mother4 ,on the part of the shoemaker go his wife1 a stout laborer1 and her aged mother1 who has reached her eightieth year1 and who generally goes begging4 ,they all stand in line1 and labor from morning till night1 in the full fervor of the ,june sun4 ,it is steaming hot1 and rain threatens4 ,every hour of work is precious4 ,it is a pity to tear one's self from work to fetch water or kvas4 ,a tiny boy1 the old woman's grandson1 brings them water4 ,the old woman1 evidently only anxious lest she shall be driven away from her work1 will not let the rake out of her hand1 though it is evident that she can barely move1 and only with difficulty4 ,the little boy1 all bent over1 and stepping gently1 with his tiny bare feet1 drags along a jug of water1 shifting it from hand to hand1 for it is heavier than he4 ,the young girl flings over her shoulder a load of hay which is also heavier than herself1 advances a few steps1 halts1 and drops it1 without the strength to carry it4 ,the old woman of fifty rakes away without stopping1 and with her kerchief awry she drags the hay1 breathing heavily and tottering4 ,the old woman of eighty only rakes the hay1 but even this is beyond her strength2 she slowly drags along her feet1 shod with bast shoes1 and1 frowning1 she gazes gloomily before her1 like a seriously ill or dying person4 ,the old man has intentionally sent her farther away than the rest1 to rake near the cocks of hay1 so that she may not keep in line with the others2 but she does not fall in with this arrangement1 and she toils on as long as the others do1 with the same death-like1 gloomy countenance4 ,the sun is already setting behind the forest2 but the cocks are not yet all heaped together1 and much still remains to do4 ,all feel that it is time to stop1 but no one speaks1 waiting until the others shall say it4 ,finally the shoemaker1 conscious that his strength is exhausted1 proposes to the old man1 to leave the cocks until the morrow2 and the old man consents1 and the women instantly run for the garments1 jugs1 pitchforks2 and the old woman immediately sits down just where she has been standings and then lies back with the same death-like look1 staring straight in front of her4 ,but the women are going2 and she rises with a groan1 and drags herself after them4 ,and this will go on in ,july also1 when the peasants1 without obtaining sufficient sleep1 reap the oats by night1 lest it should fall1 and the women rise gloomily to thresh out the straw for the bands to tie the sheaves2 when this old woman1 already utterly cramped by the labor of mowing1 and the woman with child1 and the young children1 injure themselves overworking and over-drinking2 and when neither hands1 nor horses1 nor carts will suffice to bring to the ricks that grain with which all men are nourished1 and millions of poods #afe of which are daily required in ,russia to keep people from perishing4 ,and we live as though there were no connection between the dying laundress1 the prostitute of fourteen years1 the toilsome manufacture of cigarettes by women1 the strained1 intolerable1 insufficiently fed toil of old women and children around us2 we live as though there were no connection between this and our own lives4 ,it seems to us1 that suffering stands apart by itself1 and our life apart by itself4 ,we read the description of the life of the ,romans1 and we marvel at the inhumanity of those soulless ,luculli1 who satiated themselves on viands and wines while the populace were dying with hunger4 ,we shake our heads1 and we marvel at the savagery of our grandfathers1 who were serf-owners1 supporters of household orchestras and theatres1 and of whole villages devoted to the care of their gardens2 and we wonder1 from the heights of our grandeur1 at their inhumanity4 ,we read the words of ,isa4 v4 #h3 8,woe unto them that join house to house1 that lay field to field1 till there be no place1 that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth6 7#aa47 ,woe unto them that rise up early in the morning1 that they may follow strong drink2 that continue until night1 till wine inflame them6 7#ab47 ,and the harp and the viol1 and tabret and pipe1 and wine are in their feasts2 but they regard not the work of the ,lord1 neither consider the operation of his hands4 7#ah47 ,woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity1 and sin as it were with a cart-rope4 7#bj47 ,woe unto then that call evil good1 and good evil2 that put darkness for light1 and light for darkness2 that put bitter for sweet1 and sweet for bitter6 7#ba47 ,woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes1 and prudent in their own sight--7#bb47 ,woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine1 and men of strength to mingle strong drink40 ,we read these words1 and it seems to us that this has no reference to us4 ,we read in the ,gospels 7,matt4 iii4 #aj73 8,and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees3 therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire40 ,and we are fully convinced that the good tree which bringeth forth good fruit is ourselves2 and that these words are not spoken to us1 but to some other and wicked people4 ,we read the words of ,isa4 vi4 #aj3 8,make the heart of this people fat1 and make their ears heavy1 and shut their eyes2 lest they see with their eyes1 and hear with their ears1 and understand with their heart1 and convert and be healed4 7#aa47 ,then said ,i3 ,lord1 how long8 ,and he answered1 ,until the cities be wasted without inhabitant1 and the houses without man1 and the land be utterly desolate40 ,we read1 and are fully convinced that this marvellous deed is not performed on us1 but on some other people4 ,and because we see nothing it is1 that this marvellous deed is performed1 and has been performed1 on us4 ,we hear not1 we see not1 and we understand not with our heart4 ,how has this happened8 ,whether that ,god1 or that natural law by virtue of which men exist in the world1 has acted well or ill1 yet the position of men in the world1 ever since we have known it1 has been such1 that naked people1 without any hair on their bodies1 without lairs in which they could shelter themselves1 without food which they could find in the fields1--like ,robinson #afg on his island1--have all been reduced to the necessity of constantly and unweariedly contending with nature in order to cover their bodies1 to make themselves clothing1 to construct a roof over their heads1 and to earn their bread1 that two or three times a day they may satisfy their hunger and the hunger of their helpless children and of their old people who cannot work4 ,wherever1 at whatever time1 in whatever numbers we may have observed people1 whether in ,europe1 in ,america1 in ,china1 or in ,russia1 whether we regard all humanity1 or any small portion of it1 in ancient times1 in a nomad state1 or in our own times1 with steam-engines and sewing-machines1 perfected agriculture1 and electric lighting1 we behold always one and the same thing1--that man1 toiling intensely and incessantly1 is not able to earn for himself and his little ones and his old people clothing1 shelter1 and food2 and that a considerable portion of mankind1 as in former times1 so at the present day1 perish through insufficiency of the necessaries of life1 and intolerable toil in the effort to obtain them4 ,wherever we have1 if we draw a circle round us of a hundred thousand1 a thousand1 or ten versts1 or of one verst1 and examine into the lives of the people comprehended within the limits of our circle1 we shall see within that circle prematurely-born children1 old men1 old women1 women in labor1 sick and weak persons1 who toil beyond their strength1 and who have not sufficient food and rest for life1 and who therefore die before their time4 ,we shall see people in the flower of their age actually slain by dangerous and injurious work4 ,we see that people have been struggling1 ever since the world has endured1 with fearful effort1 privation1 and suffering1 against this universal want1 and that they cannot overcome it 4 4 4 #afh ,footnotes #ba;a ,the fine1 tall members of a regiment1 selected and placed together to form a showy squad4 #ba;b ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition printed in ,russia1 in the set of ,count ,tolsto's works4 #bd;a ,raumur4 #bd;b ,a drink made of water1 honey1 and laurel or salvia leaves1 which is drunk as tea1 especially by the poorer classes4 #bh ,omitted by the censor from the authorized edition published in ,russia in the set of count ,tolstoi's works4 ,the omission is indicated thus 4 4 4 #ci ,kalatch1 a kind of roll3 baranki1 cracknels of fine flour4 #ei ,an arshin is twenty-eight inches4 #fj ,a myeshchanin1 or citizen1 who pays only poll-tax and not a guild tax4 #fb ,omitted in authorized edition4 #ff ,omitted by the censor in the authorized edition4 #id ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #if ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #ii ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #ajh ,omitted by the ,censor from the authorized edition4 #aaa ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #aac ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition #aaf ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #abb;a ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #abb;b ,a very complicated sort of whist4 #abb;c ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #abd ,the whole of this chapter is omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition1 and is there represented by the following sentence3 8,and ,i felt that in money1 in money itself1 in the possession of it1 there was something immoral2 and ,i asked myself1 ,what is money80 #ace ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #ach ,omitted by the ,censor in the authorized edition4 #aci ,the above passage is omitted in the authorized edition1 and the following is added3 8,i came to the simple and natural conclusion1 that1 if ,i pity the tortured horse upon which ,i am riding1 the first thing for me to do is to alight1 and to walk on my own feet40 #adj ,omitted in the authorized edition4 #adb;a ,omitted in the authorized edition4 #adb;b ,omitted in the authorized edition4 #aeb;a 8,into a worse state10 in the authorized edition4 #aeb;b ,omitted in the authorized edition4 #aed ,omitted in the authorized edition4 #aee ,raumur4 #aeh ,in the ,moscow edition 7authorized by the ,censor71 the concluding paragraph is replaced by the following3--8,they say3 ,the action of a single man is but a drop in the sea4 ,a drop in the sea6 8,there is an ,indian legend relating how a man dropped a pearl into the sea1 and in order to recover it he took a bucket1 and began to bail out1 and to pour the water on the shore4 ,thus he toiled without intermission1 and on the seventh day the spirit of the sea grew alarmed lest the man should dip the sea dry1 and so he brought him his pearl4 ,if our social evil of persecuting man were the sea1 then that pearl which we have lost is equivalent to devoting our lives to bailing out the sea of that evil4 ,the prince of this world will take fright1 he will succumb more promptly than did the spirit of the sea2 but this social evil is not the sea1 but a foul cesspool1 which we assiduously fill with our own uncleanness4 ,all that is required is for us to come to our senses1 and to comprehend what we are doing2 to fall out of love with our own uncleanness1--in order that that imaginary sea should dry away1 and that we should come into possession of that priceless pearl1--fraternal1 humane life40 #afa;a ,an arshin is twenty-eight inches4 #afa;b ,the fast extends from the #eth to the #cjth of ,june1 ,o4,s4 7,june #bg to ,july #ab1 ,n4,s47 #afe ,a pood is thirty-six pounds4 #afg ,robinson ,crusoe4 #afh ,here something has been omitted by the ,censor1 which ,i am unable to supply4--,,trans4