What Shall We Do Then? On the Moscow Census

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Excerpt from What Shall We Do Then? On the Moscow Census: Collected ArticlesI had passed all my life in the country. When, in the year 1881, I moved to Moscow, I was struck by the pov erty of the city: I knew what the poverty of the village was, but that of the city was new and incomprehensible to me. In Moscow it is impossible to walk through a street without meeting mendicants, of a particular type, such as do not resemble those one sees in the country. These beggars are not mendicants with a wallet and with Christ's name, such as village beggars are imagined to be, but beggars without a wallet and without Christ's name. The beggars of Moscow do not carry a wallet and beg no alms. As a rule, when they meet you or allow you to pass them, they try to catch your eyes, and they beg or not, according to your glance.I know one such beggar from the gentry. The old man walks Slowly, putting his weight on each foot. When he meets you, he puts his weight on one foot and acts as though he were bowing to you. If you stop, he takes hold of his cockaded cap, bows to you, and begs you for an alms, if you do not stop, he pretends just to have such a gait, and passes on, bowing with a leaning on his other foot. He is a real, trained Moscow beggar. At first I did not know why the Moscow beggars did not beg outright, but later I came to understand it, though I did not understand their condition.One day, as I was walking through Afanasev Lane, I saw a policeman putting a tattered peasant, who was pudgy with the dropsy, into a cab. I asked him why he was doing this.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.