Two Rich Men
by
Translated From The Russian
By Isabel Hapgood
When men in my presence extol Rothschild, who out of his vast revenues allots whole thousands for the education of children, the cure of the sick, the care of the aged, I laud and melt in admiration.
But while I laud and melt I cannot refrain from recalling a poverty-stricken peasant’s family which received an orphaned niece into its wretched, tumble-down little hovel.
“If we take Katka,” said the peasant-woman; “we shall spend our last kopeks on her, and there will be nothing left wherewith to buy salt for our porridge.”
“But we will take her … and unsalted porridge,” replied the peasant-man, her husband.
Rothschild is a long way behind that peasant-man!
July, 1878.