Authors, Russian -- Biography; Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936; Russia -- Social life and customs
Some days after I entered the workshop, the banner-worker, a Cossack
of the Don, named Kapendiukhin, a handsome, mighty fellow, arrived in
a state of intoxication. With clenched teeth and his gentle, womanish
eyes blinking, he began to smash up everything with his iron fist,
without uttering a word. Of medium height and well built, he cast
himself on the workroom like a cat chasing rats in a cellar. The others
lost their presence of mind, and hid themselves away in the corners,
calling out to one another:
"Knock him down!"
The face-painter, Evgen Sitanov, was successful in stunning the
maddened creature by hitting him on the head with a small stool. The
Cossack subsided on the floor, and was immediately held down and tied
up with towels, which he began to bite and tear with the teeth of a
wild beast. This infuriated Evgen. He jumped on the table, and with his
hands pressed close to his sides, prepared to jump on the Cossack. Tall
and stout as he was, he would have inevitably crushed the breast-bone
of Kapendiukhin by his leap, but at that moment Larionovich appeared on
the scene in cap and overcoat, shook his finger at Sitanov, and said to
the workmen in a quiet and business-like tone:
"Carry him into the vestibule, and leave him there till he is sober."
They dragged the Cossack out of the workshop, set the chairs and tables
straight, and once again set to work, letting fall short remarks on the
strength of their comrade, prophesying that he would one day be killed
by some one in a quarrel.
"It would be a difficult matter to kill him," said Sitanov very calmly,
as if he were speaking of a business which he understood very well.
I looked at Larionovich, wondering perplexedly why these strong,
pugilistic people were so easily ruled by him. He showed every one
how he ought to work; even the best workmen listened willingly to his
advice; he taught Kapendiukhin more, and with more words, than the
others.
"You, Kapendiukhin, are what is called a painter--that is, you ought to
paint from life in the Italian manner. Painting in oils requires warm
colors, and you have introduced too much white, and made Our Lady's
eyes as cold as winter. The cheeks are painted red, like apples, and
the eyes do not seem to belong to them. And they are not put in right,
either; one is looking over the bridge of the nose, and the other has
moved to the temple; and the face has not come out pure and holy, but
crafty, wintry. You don't think about your work, Kapendiukhin."
The Cossack listened and made a wry face. Then smiling impudently with
his womanish eyes, he said in his pleasant voice, which was rather
hoarse with so much drinking:
"Ekh! I--va--a--n Larionovich, my father, that is not my trade. I was
born to be a musician, and they put me among monks."
"With zeal, any business may be mastered."
"No; what do you take me for? I ought to have been a coachman with a
team of gray horses, eh?" And protruding his Adam's apple, he drawled
despairingly:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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