Maxim Gorki | Page 5

and the Legends of the Saints in their leisure hours
in a corner of the deck, with the boundless steppes of the Volga before
them, lapped by the music of the waves that plashed against the sides of
the vessel. In addition, the boy read all that fell into his hands. Along
with the true classics he fed his mind upon the works of unknown
authors and the play-books hawked about by travelling pedlars.
All this aroused a passionate, overpowering thirst for art and
knowledge in Gorki when he was about fifteen. Without a notion of
how he was to be clothed and fed during his student life he betook
himself to Kasan to study. His rash hopes soon foundered. He had, as
he expressed it, no money to buy knowledge. And instead of attending
the Schools he went into a biscuit-factory. The three roubles (then 5s.),
which was his monthly salary, earned him a scanty living by an
eighteen-hour day. Gorki soon gave up this task, which was too
exhausting for him. He lived about on the river and in the harbour,
working at casual jobs as a sawyer or porter. At this time he had no
roof, and was forced to live in the society of the derelicts. What Gorki
must have suffered in this company, during his struggle for the bare
means of subsistence, may be imagined--he sounded the lowest depths
of human life, and fell into the blackest abysses.

With the best will, and with all his energies, he was unable to attain any
prospect of brighter days, and sank deeper and deeper into the existence
of the castaway.
In his twentieth year he gave up the struggle. Life seemed to him
devoid of value, and he attempted suicide. The ball from the revolver
entered his lung without killing him, and the surgeon managed to
extract it. Gorki was ill for some time after this event, and when he
recovered set about finding new work.
He became a fruit-vendor, as before reading all kinds of scientific and
literary works with avidity. But this profession brought him no farther
than the rest. He then went to Karazin as signalman and operative in the
railway works.
However, he made no long stay on the railway. In 1890 he was obliged
to present himself at Nijni Novgorod, his native place, for the military
conscription. He was not, however, enrolled on account of the wound
that remained from his attempt at suicide.
In Nijni Novgorod he became acquainted with certain members of the
educated classes. At first he wandered up and down selling beer and
kvass--filling the cups of all who wished to drink. . . . But he was
driven to fare forth again, and again took up the life of a vagrant and a
toper. In Odessa he found occupation in the harbour and the salt-works.
Then he wandered through Besserabia, the Crimea, the Kuban, and
eventually reached the Caucasus. At Tiflis he worked in the railway
sheds. Here he once more foregathered with educated people,
particularly with some young Armenians. His personality and already
remarkable mental equipment secured him their friendship. A derelict
student, whom he afterwards described under the name of Alexander
Kaluschny, taught him to write and cypher. He gave keen attention to
the physical states of an insane friend, who was full of the Regeneration
of Mankind, and entered his observations in his note-book. Gorki
possesses a vast number of these note-books, in which he has written
down his impressions. At this period he was also studying the great
poets, Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron. Most of all he admired Manfred,
who dominated the Elements and Ahriman. Everything out of the

common inspired him.
[Illustration: Tramps--the seated figure is the original of Luka (After a
sketch by Gorki)]
It was at this time that he began to do literary work, in the utmost
secrecy. His story, "Makar Chudra," appeared in 1893 in the Caucasian
journal Kavkas, but he was as yet unable to make his living by
intellectual pursuits, and was still compelled to be Jack-of-all-trades. It
occurred to him to muster a travelling company. He strapped up a small
bundle and sallied forth. By April he had enlisted others of like mind.
A woman and five men presented themselves. The troup increased on
the way . . . but Gorki had to dree his weird alone, and returned to Nijni
Novgorod.
A fortunate accident brought him into relation with the lawyer Lanin, a
true friend to modern literature, who was not slow to appreciate the
talent that had found its way to his bureau, and occupied himself most
generously with the education of the young writer.
Gorki now wrote his first long story. Various friends of literature soon
began to take notice of him. They sent him