About entertainment charity

Masquerade ball. Pleasure charity is becoming commonplace in our country. Concerts, performances, and ball-bazaars are constantly being organized, either for the benefit of underserved students or for the benefit of the starving. The poster usually shows: after the performance, dancing until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, confetti, streamers, flying mail. Since the spring of 1911, a new type of entertainment charity has appeared, the so-called “White Flower Festival”. The matter is set broadly; There are almost congresses of the founders of this new charitable entertainment. Locally, this holiday is quite fun. Messages like the following appear in the newspapers: “The organizers of the white flower festival ended their celebration with a grand dinner in the pavilion and café-chantant of the noble (?) meeting with speeches, toasts and shouts of “hurray”” (Bell, June 29, No. 1574, telegram from Chisinau). Very good! And they helped the consumptives, and they themselves had fun in the cafés! How easy it turns out to be to do a good deed! And sometimes charity can be even more interesting and fun. This charity is especially vividly and vividly described by one of the outstanding modern Italian writers. At the end of dinner, in one brilliant aristocratic circle of the Roman nobility, they remember the recently former charity bazaar (after all, fun things are usually remembered at the end of dinner!). This is an incredible scene. “By the way, Ferentino has already announced a new charity bazaar for Epiphany,” said Baron d’Isola. – You don’t know about this yet? “I’m one of the organizers,” said Elena Muti. “You, precious organizer,” said Don Filippo del Monte, a man of about forty, almost completely bald, the author of subtle epigrams. - At the May market, the people collected piles of gold. - Ah, the May market! Everyone there has gone crazy! - exclaimed the Marquise d'Ateleta. While the footman was pouring out the frozen champagne, she added: – Remember, Elena, our tables were next to each other! - Five gold for a sip, five gold for a piece! - Don Filippo del Monte began to shout, imitating the voice of a farce barker. Elena and the Marquise laughed. - Is it true! After all, you, Filippo, were inviting buyers! - said Donna Francesca. – What a pity that you weren’t at the market then, Andrea! For five gold coins you could eat some fruit that I had bitten before, and for another five gold coins Elena would give you champagne from her palm. - What a scandal! – said Baroness d’Isola with an expression of horror. - Oh, Mary! But didn’t you take gold for a cigarette you lit and was quite wet? - Donna Francesca remarked, still laughing. “And I saw even better,” added Don Filippo. “Leoneto Lanza received from Countess Luccoli, I don’t know for what price, a cigar, which she had previously held under her arm. - What a horror! – the little baroness interrupted comically again. “Every act of charity is sacred,” the marquise remarked instructively. “By biting off the fruit, I picked up about two hundred gold pieces.” - And you? – Andrea asked Elena, trying to laugh. – And you with your “body cup”? - I collected two hundred and seventy gold... The price of a sip of champagne came to ten louis, you understand? - said Elena. - And in the end, the crazy Galeazzo Sechinaro offered me five hundred lire for wiping my hands on his light brown beard... - And you agreed? - Andrea asked the Duchess. “I sacrificed my hands to charity,” she replied, “and collected an extra twenty-five louis d’or.” 1 Isn’t it true, reader, that’s a pretty good picture of a charity bazaar! What do you think of her? And here is how the Russian peasant Anton talks about entertainment charity. In 1856, a comedy in two acts was published, with a prologue, under the title: “Prince Lupovitsky, or Arrival in the Village.” The author is Konstantin Sergeevich Aksakov 2, this “Belinsky of Slavophilism.” Few people know this comedy now, but there is a lot of instructive stuff in it. Prince Lupovitsky lived in Paris and decided to “instill European enlightenment in the wild and uneducated Russian people,” to recreate this people “in terms of religious, moral, social and artistic.” Arriving in the village, the prince has a conversation with the headman. Here is an excerpt from this conversation. Lupovitsky: Now about something else. (Looks at the piece of paper) What, are you doing good? Headman: It happens, father, let’s serve. Lupovitsky: You give to the poor, that’s good; but not everyone serves? Headman: How, father, can you not give to a beggar? Well, if someone doesn’t want to, he’s doing something bad for himself. Lupovitsky: But it could happen that someone doesn’t serve? Tell me, can it happen? Headman: It may happen. Lupovitsky: Well, this is what I came up with. You will organize a charity round dance at your place. Headman: How, your Excellency? Lupovitsky: Charity round dance. Headman: What will it be? Lupovitsky: Here's what. When you have gathered for a round dance, everyone who wants to participate will give a penny or half a piece to the total amount for the poor; and then this money will be distributed to the poor, the real poor, by whomever I appoint. A? Fine? Headman: Your speeches are smart, father. Just this: we have a circle for the poor in church. Round dance, fun, why? Lupovitsky: And fun is so that they will be given more willingly; Another person, perhaps, would not have served it without this reason, but he will serve it for fun. Headman: Now, father, people are no longer here for God, but for their own amusement, they give to the beggar. Where will there be a good deed here? What is it for the soul? Lupovitsky: Let’s assume that there is no good deed; for the soul, as you put it, no; Yes, it's still useful. Elder: If, father, in such a holy matter, giving to a beggar will do nothing for the soul, then what good is there, what harm is there, and what. After all, when you see a beggar, you sigh and think that this is a beggar, brothers, and you will give; It's so much for the soul. What will it be? Gum, fun. What, they say, should you think about the poor brethren; know, have fun, and please yourself: here you have done a good deed. Lupovitsky: But it’s useful, my dear Anton, it’s useful! Headman: So, father, this benefit is harmful to our soul; So what's the point, the benefit? A good deed will be without good. Let me tell you, father: have you seen how we give alms? Those who accepted will cross themselves, those who submitted will cross themselves. Well, look, father, out the window. (He approaches, and Lupovitsky with him, to the window.) You see, the beggar approached the hut; you see, the beggar is baptized; you see, and in the hut they are baptized, thanking that the Lord has vouchsafed the gift to the beggar. Lupovitsky: Il n’est pas bete, cet homme. 3 Headman: Let me tell you: after all, God could enrich all the poor; He can send them benefits not our way; so why do they all go and ask? It’s not just money, father, they ask, but so that we may breathe a breath in our souls and give to the poor brethren, for God; that's it, father, that's it. Lupovitsky: You speak smartly. Headman: Like a man, father. Also, father, it is said: whoever gives to the poor gives to God; How can I, father, let loose my throat in a round dance and give it to God? And we call alms holy; and then what kind of holy alms will there be - dancing and clamoring for your own amusement? No, father, listen to my unreasonable speeches; don’t do this, you will tempt the people; this, father, is a bad thing. Let good be good, but don’t interfere with fun. Lupovitsky: Je suis battu, tout a fait. 4 Well, my Anton, you reason so cleverly... besides, I don’t intend to force you, therefore, do as you want. ...Anton, where did you study? Headman: Nowhere, father. Lupovitsky: Can you read and write? Headman: I can, father. Lupovitsky: What did you read? Elder: Church books, father. Lupovitsky: Ah!.. But, perhaps, Anton learned better from church books than the prince in Paris! Performances, balls, lotteries All year I've been making fun for the poor For the orphan and wretched brothers I worked for the lame, I dressed up for the naked, He became a merchant for the poor, For the burnt, the ruined To the unfortunate children without shelter Feeding pity from an early age, From market fruits and sweets. I went to paintings for the blind I sang cavatinas for the deaf, I rode down the mountains for cripples. After all, we are not barbarians, not Turks... Who is not happy to wipe away tears? Well, how not to dance the mazurkas, When does the younger brother suffer? In everything, progress is according to the will of heaven, People without shelter and without bread There will be more and more every day, And with a greater thirst for beautiful days I will go, keeping the sacred heat, Again, I’m all for the unfortunate: To the ball, to the reception, to the market. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). “A merciful man does good to his own soul” (Prov. 11:17). “He who is merciful will be blessed” (Prov. 22:9). “Be... loving and merciful to your brothers” (1 Pet. 3:8). Well, how can you help but dance the mazurkas? Hieromartyr Hilarion (Trinity) Gabriele d'Annuzo. Collected works. T.5. Pleasure. Lane E. Lotkovoy Publishing House Rosehip. St. Petersburg S55–57. Aksakov Konstantin Sergeevich (1817–1860) - writer, literary critic, publicist and historian. One of the founders of Slavophilism. Son of the famous writer S.T. Aksakov. Sschmch. Hilarion called K.S. Aksakov “the most ardent” of the Slavophiles and repeatedly quoted his poetry and prose, in particular the comedy “Prince Lupovitsky, or Arrival in the Village” (written in 1851, first published in the magazine “Russian Conversation” for 1856) He's not a fool, this man (fr.).