TRAMP [chewing] That's quite correct. It's the cause of it all; I mean all the catastrophes of life proceed from alcoholic liquors.
TARÁS. It seems to have bowled you over too!
TRAMP. No, not exactly that, though I have suffered from that too. The career of my life might have been different but for the drink.
TARÁS. Now, to my thinking, if you drink reasonably, there's no manner of harm in it.
TRAMP. But I say that it is so strong that it may completely ruin a man.
MARTHA. That's what I say: you worry and do your best, and the only comfort you get is to be scolded and beaten like a dog.
TRAMP. And that's not all. There are some people, persons I mean, that are quite deprived of their reason through it and commit entirely inappropriate actions. While he does not drink, give him anything you like and he won't take what is not his; but when drunk, he grabs whatever comes handy. Many a time one gets beaten and put in prison. As long as I don't drink, all goes honestly and honourably, but as soon as I drink, I mean as soon as that same person drinks, he at once begins grabbing whatever comes his way.
AKULÍNA. And I think it's all in oneself.
TRAMP. Of course it's in oneself as long as one is well, but this is a kind of disease.
TARÁS. A nice kind of disease. A good hiding would soon cure that disease. Well, goodbye for the present. [Exit].
MARTHA [wipes her hands and turns to go].
AKULÍNA [sees that the Tramp has finished his bread] Martha, I say, Martha! Cut him another piece.
MARTHA. Bother him, I must get the samovár to boil. [Exit].
Akulína rises, goes to the table, cuts a chunk of bread and gives it to the Tramp.
TRAMP.Merci, I have acquired a great appetite.
AKULÍNA. Are you a workman?
TRAMP. Who? I? I was a mechanic.
AKULÍNA. And what wages did you get?
TRAMP. I used to get fifty, and even seventy roubles, a month.
AKULÍNA. That's a good lot! Then how have you come down so low?
TRAMP. Come down! I'm not the only one. I've come down because the times are such that it is impossible for an honest man to live.
MARTHA [brings in the samovár] Oh Lord! it's certain sure he'll come home drunk. I feel it in my heart.
AKULÍNA. I'm afraid he must really have gone on the spree.
MARTHA. There it is. One struggles and struggles and kneads and bakes and cooks and spins and weaves and tends the cattle; everything on one's own shoulders. [The baby in the cradle cries] Paráshka, rock the boy. Oh dear, what a life it is for us women. And when he is drunk, nothing is right!.. If one only says a word he doesn't like …
AKULÍNA [making the tea] And this is the last of the tea. Did you tell him to get some?
MARTHA. Of course. He said he would, but he'll have forgotten all about his home!.. [She puts the samovár on the table].
The Tramp moves away.
AKULÍNA. Why do you leave the table? We are going to drink tea.
TRAMP. I tender my gratitude for the hearty hospitality. [Throws away the cheap cigar3 he was smoking and comes to the table].
MARTHA. And what sort do you belong to? Peasants, or some other?
TRAMP. Well, I'm not of the peasant class, nor of the aristocracy. I'm of the double-edged class.
MARTHA. What's that? [hands him a cup of tea].
TRAMP. Merci. Why this; that my father was a Polish Count, and besides him I had many others; and I also had two mothers. In general my biography presents many difficulties.
MARTHA. Have another cup? Well, did you get any learning?
TRAMP. My learning has also been very uncircumstantial. Not my mother, but my godmother apprenticed me to a blacksmith. That blacksmith was my first perdagogue; and his perdagogy consisted in this – that he did not beat his anvil as often as he beat my unfortunate head. Nevertheless, however much he hit me, he could not deprive me of talent. Then I went to a locksmith's, and there I was appreciated, and became foreman. I made acquaintance with educated people, and belonged to a political faction. I was able to master intellectual literature; and my life might have been elevated for I possessed immense talent.
AKULÍNA. Of course.
TRAMP. But here came an upset. The despotic yoke oppressing the life of the people! I got into prison; I mean, I suffered the incarceration of freedom.