In Moscow it is impossible to pass a street without meeting beggars of a peculiar3 kind, quite unlike those in the country, who go about there, as the saying is, “with a bag and the name of Christ.”
The Moscow beggars neither carry a bag nor ask for alms. In most cases when they meet you, they try to catch your eye, and then act according to the expression of your face.
I know of one such, a bankrupt gentleman. He is an old man who advances slowly, limping painfully with each leg. When he meets you, he limps, and makes a
bow. If you stop, he takes off his cap, ornamented4 with a cockade, bows again, and begs. If you do not stop, he pretends to be only lame5, and continues limping along.
That is a specimen6 of a genuine Moscow beggar, an experienced one.
At first I did not know why such mendicants did not ask openly; but afterwards I learned why, without understanding the reason.
One day I saw a policeman push a ragged7 peasant swollen8 with dropsy, into a cab. I asked what he had been doing, and the policeman replied,—
“Begging.”
“Is begging, then, forbidden?”
“So it seems,” he answered. As the man was being driven away, I took another cab, and followed. I wished to find out whether begging was really forbidden, and if so, why? I could not at all understand how it was possible to forbid one man asking something from another; and, moreover, I had my doubts whether it could be illegal in a city where it flourished to such an extent.
I entered the police-station where the pauper2 had been taken, and asked an official armed with sword and pistol, and seated at a table, what he had been arrested for.
The man looked up at me sharply, and said, “What business is that of yours?”
However, feeling the necessity of some explanation, he added, “The authorities order such fellows to be arrested, so I suppose it is necessary.”
I went away. The policeman who had brought the man was sitting in the window of the ante-room, studying his note-book. I said to him,—
“Is it really true that poor people are not allowed to ask for alms in Christ's name?”
The man started, as if waking up from a sleep, stared at me, then relapsed again into a state of stolid9 indifference10, and, reseating himself on the window-sill, said,—
“The authorities require it, so you see it is necessary.”
As he became again absorbed in his note-book, I went down the steps towards my cab.
“Well! have they locked him up?” asked the cabman. He had evidently become interested in the matter.
“They have,” I answered. He shook his head.
“Is begging forbidden in Moscow, then?” I asked.
“I can't tell you,” he said.
“But how can a man be locked up,” I said, “for begging in the name of Christ?”
“Nowadays things have changed, and you see it is forbidden,” he answered.
Since then, I have often seen policemen taking paupers11 to the police-station and thence to the work-house. Indeed, I once met a whole crowd of these poor creatures, about thirty, escorted before and behind by policemen. I asked what they had been doing.
“Begging,” was the reply.
It appears that, according to law, begging is forbidden in Moscow, notwithstanding the great number of beggars one meets there in every street, notwithstanding the rows of them near the churches during service-time, and especially at funerals. But why are some caught and locked up, while others are let alone? This I have not been able to find out. Either there are lawful12 and unlawful beggars amongst them, or else there are so many that it is impossible to catch them all; or, perhaps, though some are taken up, others fill their places.
There is a great variety of such beggars in Moscow. There are those who live by begging. There are also entirely13 honest destitute14 people who have somehow chanced to reach Moscow and are really in extreme need.
Amongst the latter are men and women evidently from the country. I have often met these. Some of them, who had fallen ill and afterwards recovered and left the hospital, could now find no means, either of feeding themselves, or of getting away from Moscow; some of them, besides, had taken to drink (this was probably the case with the man with dropsy whom I met); some were in good health, but had been burned out of house and home, or else were very old, or were widowed or deserted15 women with children; and some others had sound health, and were quite capable of working.
These robust16 people especially interested me,—the more so, because, since my arrival in Moscow, I had contracted the habit of going to the Sparrow Hills for the sake of exercise, and working there with two peasants who sawed wood. These men were exactly like the beggars whom I often met in the streets. One, called Peter, was an ex-soldier from Kaluga; the other, Simon, was from Vladímir. They possessed17 nothing save the clothes on their backs: and they earned, by working very hard, from forty to forty-five kopeks (8d. to 9d.) a day; out of this they both put a little aside,—the Kaluga soldier, to buy a fur coat; the Vladímir peasant, to get money enough to return to his home in the country.
Meeting in the streets similar men, I was therefore
particularly interested in them, and could not understand why some begged whilst others worked.
Whenever I met a beggar of this description, I used to ask him how it was that he had come to such a state. Once I met a strong, healthy-looking peasant who asked alms. I questioned him as to who he was, and whence he had come.
He told me he had come from Kaluga, in search of work. He had at first found some, such as sawing old timber into fire-wood; but after he and his companion had finished that job, though they had continually looked for it, they had not found any more work, his mate had left him, and he himself had passed a fortnight in the utmost need, and having sold all he had to get food, now had not enough even to buy the necessary tools for sawing.
I gave him money to get a saw, and told him where to go for work. I had previously18 arranged with Peter and Simon that they should accept a new fellow-worker, and find him a mate.
“Be sure you come! There is plenty of work to be done,” I said on parting.
“You can reckon on me,” he answered. “Do you think there is any pleasure in knocking about, begging, if I can work?”
The man solemnly promised that he would come; and he seemed honest, and really meaning to work.
Next day, on coming to my friends, Peter and Simon, I asked them whether the man had arrived. They said he had not; and, indeed, he never came at all. In this way I was frequently deceived.
I have also been deceived by those who said that they only wanted a little money to buy a ticket to return home, and whom I met in the streets again a few days later. Many of them I came to know well, and they knew me; though occasionally having forgotten me, they would repeat the same false tale; but sometimes they would turn away on recognizing me.
In this way I discovered, that, even in this class of men, there are many rogues19.
Still, these poor rogues were also very much to be pitied: they were all ragged and hungry; they were of the sort who die of cold in the streets, or hang themselves to escape life, as the papers frequently tell us.
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1
pauperism
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| n.有被救济的资格，贫困 | |
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pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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3
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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4
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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7
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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8
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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9
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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10
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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11
paupers
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| n.穷人( pauper的名词复数 )；贫民；贫穷 | |
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12
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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13
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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14
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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15
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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16
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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17
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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18
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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19
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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