FREDDIE—How long does the honeymoon last, dad?
Cobwigger—Until a fellow’s wife learns not to be afraid of him.
The Storm-Petrel
PROSE POEM BY MAXIM GORKY
TRANSLATED BY ABRAHAM CAHAN
[Note: The following prose poem by Maxim Gorky was written a few years ago in prophecy of the present crisis in Russia and was published only in Life, the leading literary magazine of St. Petersburg. In consequence the periodical was immediately suppressed. The editor and his entire staff voluntarily expatriated themselves and re-established the magazine in London, whence, during the few months of its existence in exile, thousands of copies were smuggled over the frontier for secret circulation.
Gorky was arrested for complicity in the strikers’ movement that resulted in the St. Petersburg massacre of January 22 last. The rumor that the Russian Government purposed to sentence him to death excited so much feeling, that the foremost literary men of Germany, England and the United States concerted in an appeal for clemency, on the ground that the life and work of a great writer belong not alone to his country but to the world.
Gorky has risen from the depths of poverty and ignorance to literary eminence as the interpreter of life among the masses. His first successful short stories appeared in the newspapers and attracted attention for their truth and vigor. Since 1893 he has made his literary position secure by the production of various novels and plays. He is now thirty-six years old.