Chapter 22 22 Bazaar

The town is so small that it is almost invisible.It's called a city, but if it's like a city, the bad country is like a city.Even if you're crippled and walking with a cane, it only takes ten to fifteen minutes, or a little less, to walk all over the place, back and forth.All cabins are poor and old.You can buy any house for a fifteen-kopeck piece and pay in three installments.You can count the inhabitants of the town on your fingers: the mayor, the police officer, the priest, the teacher, the deacon, the people walking up and down the fire-proof lookout, the chanting, two or three citizens, two gendarmes , there seems to be nothing else, but there are many women, but then again, statisticians do not count women in most cases (statisticians know that hens are not poultry, foals is not a horse, and an officer's wife is not a wife).There were a lot of outsiders: the neighboring landowners, the owners of the villas, the lieutenant of the artillery company who spent the summer here temporarily, the deacon from the neighboring village with long hair, wearing a maroon cassock, and singing like a hippopotamus. Lah, wait.The weather is mediocre.It rains a little from time to time, which makes people who buy and sell things a little bit disappointed.The air is crisp.Here there is none of the smells of Moscow.Everywhere there was the smell of woods, lilies of the valley, and pine tar, and there seemed to be a slight smell of corrals.The spirit of mercantilism emanates from all alleys, crevices, and corners.No matter where you go, there are sheds everywhere.On both sides of the street, from the street to the end of the street, there are two rows of sales sheds.At the end of the avenue was a square, also crowded with stalls.Village women sell sunflower seeds in the church yard.Even the apples on the tree can't find a clearing to fall.Caravans, horses, cows, bull calves, suckling pigs, what a frightening number!Men are rare, but women are women! !Everywhere is full of women.

They were all wearing red dresses with black velveteen jackets.There were so many of them, and they were so densely packed, that once a fire broke out, the whole fire brigade could safely and boldly drive over their heads. Drunk people (alas!) are, for some reason, very few.The air was filled with incessant shouting, screaming, whistling, cracking, and the bleating of cattle and sheep.The noise was so noisy, it seemed that the second tower of Babylon was being built. ] Like. All the windows of the town's houses were open.Wherever one looked in, one could see samovars, teapots with missing spouts, and the red-nosed faces of the townspeople.Their acquaintances are standing outside the window, shopping in hand, complaining about the weather.The deacon in a maroon vestment, with straw in his hair, [Note: alluding to the fact that he was lying on a haystack just now to sleep. 】Shaking hands with everyone, speaking loudly so that everyone can hear: Hello!It is an honor to wish you a Happy Holidays!oh what? ! !

Males gather in groups around horses and cows.Business there is done in tens or even hundreds of rubles.Needless to say, the big merchant in the horse business is Gypsy. They swear and swear, and they keep saying that they are willing to lose their money.The transaction of horse trading is done with the help of long skirts, [Note: Refers to buyers and sellers stretching their hands under the long skirts, bargaining with the movement of their fingers, so as to avoid the eyes and ears of outsiders. It can be seen from this that anyone who does not have long skirts can neither sell horses nor buy horses.Most of the horses are for rough work and belong to ordinary breeds.

Women surrounded the sheds that sold all kinds of cloth and honey biscuits. The merciless hours have left sweet tooth-covered rust and green mold on the treacle biscuits.Buy your own honey biscuits, but please keep them out of your mouth, or you're in trouble!The same can be said about shriveled pears and candies.Those unfortunate donuts were covered with coarse matting and dust.But the women don't care.Anyway, the stomach is not a mirror. When the boys saw the shed selling toys, they surrounded it one after another. Even the flies saw the honey juice, and they might not be able to surround it so densely.There was no money around them. They stood there, staring at fake horses and fake soldiers and little tin pistols.As the saying goes: what is beyond reach.A brave boy picked up the bird flute, held it in his hand for a while, turned it around to look at it for a while, played it creakingly, and then put it back where it was, and wiped his nose with satisfaction.There isn't a shed like this that isn't packed with twenty or thirty kids.They stand there, often watching for two or three hours at a time, with great patience.No matter if you buy any Feyushka, Peter, Vasyutka a pistol or a fake lion with the face of a bull and a black stripe on its back, you will always fill him with infinite joy.

Little girls peered from behind the boys' elbows.Their attention was also drawn to ponies and dolls in gauze dresses.You'll also see kids mobbing ice cream vendors who sell really bad white sugar ice cream.Whoever has a small coin in his hand will eat from a small green cup for a long time, with relish, slowly, calmly, licking his lips and sucking his fingers, lest he miss this happy moment.He ate alone, but there were always twenty or so poor kids standing around, standing at attention and staring eagerly at the mouth of the lucky one.And that one, eat it and put on a pose Peter, give me a spoonful!A little girl wailed, staring at the lucky boy's right hand.

Get out of the way!said the lucky boy, squeezing the little green cup tighter in his hand. Peter!A boy, wearing his father's big hat, wailed, Lend me some! borrow what? White sugar ice cream, give me a little bit, he has a meal, will you give it?Just give me a spoonful.From now on, I will give you back five sheep kidnappers [Note: Children's game tools. 】. Get out of the way!said the lucky boy. Lucky finished his cup of ice cream and licked his lips for a long time, and he will never forget the white sugar ice cream for a long, long time. Ah, if only I had money! !Where are you five-copecks and fifteen-kopecks?There's nothing worse, more uncomfortable, or more annoying than walking around the city in your father's hat, seeing this, hearing that, touching this, smelling that, while not having a penny around you.But Feyushka or Yegorka can buy ice cream for a penny, or a small pistol that can be fired so loudly that everyone can hear it, or for a nickel What a happy pony!It is a small happiness, so small that it is almost invisible, but even this happiness cannot be obtained!

Grinning people, drunk people, people wandering in the market, all want to go to the play shed.There are two theaters.They are located in the middle of the square, next to each other, looking dingy.The shed was made of wooden sticks and damp, sticky, broken planks, covered with a layer of rags.Patches are pressed on the roof of the shed, and seams are seamed by seams.Very shabby.A few beams and a few boards were randomly erected to form a terrace outside the house, on which two or three clowns stood, making the audience standing below laugh.Those are the least demanding audiences.They laughed not because there was anything funny, but because they were right to laugh when they saw clowns.The clown winked, grimaced, made a fool of himself, but alas!All our Pushkin and non-Pushkin stage ancestors are outdated, done long, long ago.In former days their eminent men spread biting irony and overseas truth, but now their wits bewilder, and talent as poor as barracks and furniture.As you listen to it, you feel sick at the same time.What is performing in front of you is not a tramp, but a hungry wolf with two legs.It was hunger, and nothing else, that drove them to the Muse. They were starving!Hungry, tattered, haggard, sickly, emaciated, they squirm on the terrace, trying to make a silly face, so that there will be one more toothy grin in the place. People, thus getting an extra ten-kopeck piece, turned out not to be silly, but to make vulgar faces: a mixture of indifference and affectation, familiarity, and no expression of emotion. .

They winked, slapped, punched each other's backs, said obsequious things to the audience, imitated the accents of the people in the capital, and nothing else.You don't listen to them.Those entertainers are hungry and cold, and their words are not inspired, nor are they based on a pre-thought, purposeful outline.Their words mean nothing.They were coy when they spoke, and that was probably why the audience laughed. stand at attention! I am not Maria.Petrova, but Ivan.Fedoseyev. Here's an example of their wit.As the saying goes: Clowns and children sometimes tell the truth.However, it must be admitted that the clown has to be gifted so that he doesn't always talk nonsense, and sometimes he tells the truth to make respectable audiences watch and laugh.Audiences are forgiving, though.They've never seen a better show, and they always want to laugh. They've had bad honey biscuits, and they've got time to spare, and they're a little drunk, and all they need is a good laugh.You just give them a little prodding and they'll laugh.

There are two such playgrounds.These two have wonderful performances every quarter of an hour.There is a special program every evening, which is absolutely wonderful.Let me describe such a performance. The best performances always take place on the eve of the artist's departure from town, on the first Sunday after the market.The day before the show, the clowns were in town distributing playbills (copied by hand).They also sent me one.Here's what the play says: Performed in a certain city, this is the scriptures [Note: It should be the authorities, there are many typos and other mistakes in the following, and there are lack of punctuation marks, so I will not note them one by one. 】Approved to hold Shengda performance in a Guangzhou factory, including gymnastics and martial arts programs by Ni.grid.The public performances of Bo entertainment class include gymnastics, martial arts, satirical songs, ambiguity and so on.

(1) All kinds of tricks or tricks are astonishing and interesting. A total of 20 dexterous hands and feet. The program starred the buffoon Urobert. (2) Jumping, Jumping, and Thrilling Show in the Air is hosted by Dobert the Clown and Andreas the Toddler.Starring Ivan Sun. (3) The British Boneless Man is also known as Xiangjiaoming, whose limbs are soft and sharp like glue. (4) Sliding chicken song by Yi Wansun.Geroha children singing. (There are too many programs to carry) 9:00 p.m. ticket price seat First class fifty kopecks 2nd class forty kopecks Thirty kopecks for third class

Twenty kopecks for fourth class ordinary seat ten kopecks I have abridged the play report, but have not added a word. All local dignitaries (the whole family of the district police chief, the whole family of the mediating judge, doctors, teachers, etc., seventeen in total) were present at the above-mentioned performance.The local intelligentsia negotiated the price and bought a first-class ticket for only twenty-five kopeks. Tickets are sold by the troupe owner, a fairly typical character, himself.He is Grachefko and Dyukovko. 】The kind of class leader that is common in places like this.We paid, walked in, and took first class seats.The audience kept pouring in, and the arena was packed with people.The inside of the amusement park is very simple.A piece of worn-out calico, one arbor square, was a stage curtain and a stage set at the same time.In place of the chandelier, there are four candles.The entertainers worked tirelessly to perform the tasks of actors, ticket inspectors, and policemen.They are proficient in all kinds of jobs.The band is the best, sitting on the right bench.There are four musicians in total.One played the violin with a piercing voice, another played the accordion, a third played the cello (which has only three strings), and a fourth played the bongos.Most of the time they played the tune "Shooter", playing Hula casually, and playing with a bad accent. The bongos played superbly.He hit with his hands, with his elbows, with his knees, and even nearly with his heels.He obviously played with gusto, emotion and concentration.He played the drumhead with amazing dexterity, his fingers kept beating, and the tune he played could not even be understood by the violinist.It seemed that his hand was moving around a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. Before the performance began, a man in a peasant coat came in, crossed himself, and took a first-class seat.The clown walked up to him. Excuse me, take an ordinary seat, the clown demanded, this is first class. Get out of the way! Why are you sitting here motionless, like a bear?you go away.This is not your seat! People in pea coats were unmoved.He pulled his hat over his eyes and refused to give up his seat. The magic begins.The clown asks the audience for a hat.The audience refused to give it to him. Well, then even tricks won't work!The clown said, Gentlemen, who has a five-copeck piece? The man in the pea coat produced a five-copeck piece.After the clown performed the trick, he was about to return the coin, but he hid it in his sleeve as soon as he changed hands.The man in the pea coat was terrified. Hey, wait a minute!You, man, don't juggle!You give me the money! Anyone want to shave, gentlemen?cried the clown. Two boys stepped out of the crowd.He'd just covered them with dirty sheets and smeared their faces, sooty this one, paste that.There is no need to be polite to the audience! Are these people considered spectators?exclaimed the leader's wife, these are the goddamned fellows! After the magic show is calisthenics, with an inexplicable and thrilling show.Then there was a girl, a strong man, who dragged an unknown number of puds with her braids. 】Heavy things.In the middle of the show, something happened in the arena: a wall fell down.By the end, the whole place collapsed. On the whole, the performance leaves a bland impression.Buyers and sellers would not lose much if there were no fairgrounds in the fairs.The vagabond is no longer an artist.Now they are scamming money. There is a swing set next to the entertainer's playground.You pay a five-kopeck piece, and the swing lifts you above all the houses five times in a row, and lowers you down five times in a row.The ladies felt dizzy and sick, but the village girls felt flattered. Suum cuique! [Note: Latin; each has its own hobbies! 】