1896. My neighbor V. N. S. told me that his uncle Fet-Shenshin, the famous poet, when driving through the Mokhovaia Street, would invariably let down the window of his carriage and spit at the University. He would expectorate and spit: Bah! His coachman got so used to this that every time he drove past the University, he would stop.
In January I was in Petersburg and stayed
with Souvorin. I often saw Potapenko. Met Korolenko. I often went to the Maly Theatre. As Alexander [Chekhov's brother] came downstairs one day, B. V. G. simultaneously came out of the editorial office of the Novoye Vremya and said to me indignantly: "Why do you set the old man (i. e. Souvorin) against Burenin?" I have never spoken ill of the contributors to the Novoye Vremya in Souvorin's presence, although I have the deepest disrespect for the majority of them.
In February, passing through Moscow, I
went to see L. N. Tolstoi. He was irritated, made stinging remarks about
the decadents and for an hour and a half argued
with B. Tchitcherin, who, I thought, talked
nonsense all the time. Tatyana and Mary
[Tolstoi's daughters] laid out a patience; they both wished, and asked me to pick a card out; I picked out the ace of spades separately for each of them, and that annoyed them. By accident there were two aces of spades in the pack. Both of them are extraordinarily sympathetic, and their attitude to their father is touching. The countess denounced the painter Ge all the evening. She too was irritated.
May 5. The sexton Ivan Nicolayevitch
brought my portrait, which he has painted
from a photograph. In the evening V. N. S. brought his friend N. He is director of the Foreign Department. . . editor of a magazine. . . and doctor of medicine. He gives the impression of being an unusually stupid person and a reptile. He said: "There's nothing more pernicious on earth than a rascally liberal paper," and told us that, apparently, the peasants whom he doctors, having got his advice and medicine free of charge, ask him for a tip. He and S. speak of the peasants with exasperation and loathing.
June 1 . I was at the Vagankov Cemetery
and saw the graves there of the victims of the
Khodinka. [During the coronation of
Nicholas II in Moscow hundreds of people
were crushed to death in the Khodinka
Fields.] I. Pavlovsky, the Paris correspondent of the Novoye Vremya, came with
me to Melikhovo.
August 4. Opening of the school in Talezh. The peasants of Talezh, Bershov, Doubechnia and Sholkovo presented me with four loaves, an icon and two silver salt-cellars. The Sholkovo peasant Postnov made a speech.
N. stayed with me from the 15th to the
18th August. He has been forbidden [by
the authorities] to publish anything: he
speaks contemptuously now of the younger
G., who said to the new Chief of the Central
Press Bureau that he was not going to sacrifice his weekly Nedelya for N.'s sake and that "We have always anticipated the wishes of the Censorship." In fine weather N. walks in goloshes, and carries an umbrella, so as not to die of sunstroke; he is afraid to wash in cold water, and complains of palpitations of the heart. From me he went on to L. N. Tolstoi.
I left Taganrog on August 24. In Rostov
I had supper with a school-friend, L. Volkenstein, the barrister, who has already a house in town and a villa in Kislovodsk [in the Caucasus]. I was in Nakhichevan—what a change! All the streets are lit by electric light. In Kislovodsk, at the funeral of General Safonov, I met A. I. Tchouprov [a famous economist], later I met A. N. Vesselovsky [litterateur] in the park. On the 28th I went on a hunting party with Baron Steingel, passed the night in Bermamut. It was cold with a violent wind.
2 September in Novorissisk. Steamer
Alexander II. On the 3rd I arrived at
Feodossia and stopped with Souvorin. I
saw I. K. Aivasovsky [famous painter] who
said to me : "You no longer come to see me, an old man." In his opinion I ought to have paid him a visit. On the 16th in Kharkov, I was in the theatre at the performance of "The Dangers of Intelligence." 17th at home: wonderful weather.
Vladimir Sloviov [famous philosopher]
told me that he always carried an oak-gall in
his trouser pocket,—in his opinion, it is a radical cure for piles.
October 17. Performance of my "Seagull" at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. It was
not a success.
29th. I was at a meeting of the Zemstvo Council at Sezpukhovo.
On the 10th November I had a letter from
A. F. Koni who says he liked my "Seagull" very much.