A broad, not very funny story about a train conductor, a salty customer, and a series of misunderstandings. The story begins with the conductor swearing off drink and ends with him taking a long drink to steady his nerves. So that gives a sense of the comedy of it.
This tale is a miss, in part because it seems to be satirizing two things at once: First, the indignities of rail travel, with ticket collectors wandering around the train making noise in the middle of the night, when the passengers are trying to sleep. But the second target is the entitled rich; wealthy passengers can force the train’s employees to do as they wish.
Satire really doesn’t work well when it’s punching two directions at once. Meanwhile, the lampooning of the hapless conductor feels like “punching down,” as they say these days.
But anyway, meh.
One tidbit of interest emerged from this story though, related to the apparent dysfunction of just about everything in 19th century Russia. A passenger angrily says that half the people on the train do not have tickets, and no one corrects that statement. I have to assume it’s true. Russia was (and probably still is) choked by red tape, and the response of many people is to disregard rules and fees altogether, rather than get bogged down in bureaucratic snowdrifts. So I imagine it was true: many, many people rode the trains for free.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
One tidbit of interest emerged from this story–related to the apparent dysfunction of just about everything in 19th century Russia. A passenger angrily says that half the people on the train do not have tickets, and no one corrects that statement. I have to assume it’s true. Russia was (and probably still is) choked by red tape, and the response of many people is to disregard rules and fees altogether, rather than get bogged down in bureaucratic snowdrifts. So I imagine it was true: many, many people rode the trains for free.
And indeed, in a rarely read sketch, “On the Train,” Chekhov reports that “ride-hoppers”–people who don’t buy a ticket but instead pay the conductor directly (in other words, pay a bribe)–get a 75% discount. “I always pay the conductor directly!” a man on the train mumbles. “The conductor needs money more than the railroad does!”
“On the Train” can be found in “The Undiscovered Chekhov,” translated by Peter Constantine.
A Chekhov Circus 