(Strekoza, St. Petersburg, 1879)
(Some very unpleasant metaphors on display here.)
(Auction; bank offices)
This kind of plague is widely dispersed in Europe; there are not yet any remedies against it.
Left: “Oh! I’m terribly afraid of plague!”
“We ought to send you to some kind of Vetlianka [in the Astrakhan region, where the plague outbreak originated in 1878] like I have at home, it would be cleaner than the Astrakhan one…”
“How’s that?”
“It’s very simple: a wife is cholera, a mother-in-law is worse than plague! You’ll get along fine there.”
Center: “They sniffed us out… they don’t let us anywhere, just completely freeze us, where to live until spring!”
Right: Undertaker: “Eh, Fedor Adolfovich, just like when there was cholera, people are overwhelming me with orders, believe me, my heart is just overflowing.”
Pharmacist [of German heritage]: “Ja, ja, same with me, ja, ist a pity.”
Left: (Fresh groceries, imported goods) “We’ve just gotten in fresh, low-salt Astrakhan caviar and sweet Astrakhan grapes, now being sold at extremely low prices!”
Center: “It’s happened! Freeze the guests — now they’re freezing… Maybe now we can handle it.”
Right: “How are you not afraid of buying old things? Who knows how long until they spoil!”
“In a new frock coat you will sooner get sick [“get the plague”] dropping not ten, but forty-five rubles.”
Sic Transit Pestilentia 