“Skitalitz,” meaning “wanderer,” is the nom de plume of a very talented young author by the name of A. Petrov. He is about 36 years old and a native of Nijni-Novgorod. Students of Russian literature have generally thought “Skitalitz” to be a nom de plume of Leonid Andreiev, but that is incorrect. Nearly all his works have been published by the “Znaniye” Company, which is backed by Gorki, and which until lately was the standard of Russian literature. “Skitalitz” writes poetry as well as prose. His works have been translated into the chief European languages, English included.
THE LOVE OF A SCENE-PAINTER
BY “SKITALITZ”
Translated by Lizzie B. Gorin. Copyright, 1907,
by P. F. Collier & Son.
The scene-painter Kostovsky had gone on a spree just at a time when he should not have done so: preparations were afoot for the presentation of a spectacular play, the success of which wholly depended upon the beauty of the decorations. The posters were already scattered all over the city; it was necessary to hurry forward the different arrangements and to paint the new scenery, and now something happened that the stage-manager had feared all along: Kostovsky went on a spree.
This always occurred just at a time when he was indispensable. As if an evil spirit prompted him just at such time and the forbidden liquid became more tempting than ever, he felt an unconquerable longing to experience a feeling of guilt, to act against the will of every one, against his own interests, but certainly not against the promptings of the Evil One, who had, for the time being, wholly taken possession of him.
His impetuous nature, full of talent, could not exist, it seemed, without powerful impressions—and he found them only in carousing. The days of revelry were for him always full of interesting encounters and strange adventures peculiar only to himself. But as soon as he came to his senses and sobered up, he took to his work with a sort of furious energy: everything around him at such times was at a fever-heat of excitement and he himself was burning with the fire of inspiration. Only because he was a wonderful scene-painter, a genius of his craft, he was not discharged. He hurt the reputation of the company with his scandals, adventures, and careless, soiled dress, his whole plebeian appearance; but for all that, from under his brush came the most exquisite, artistically executed decorations, for which the public often called the “decorator” before the curtain, and about which the press remarked afterward.
Behind the scenes the members of the company kept aloof from Kostovsky, and no one wanted to be on intimate terms with him; the chorus-singers “drank,” too, but considered themselves of a higher breed than the workman-decorator, and did not want him in their society, and the chorus-girls and ballet-dancers treated him like some sexless being, kept aloof from him, and looked at him with a grimace of disgust. He, on his part, also took little interest in them.