“For instance, having set up some philanthropic society for the poor and having contributed considerable sums to it, we lose no time in commemorating such a praiseworthy event by throwing a dinner for all the leading dignitaries of the town, thereby expending, of course, half the sums that have been contributed. With what remains, a magnificent apartment is immediately rented for the committee, with heating and watchmen, after which all that is left for the poor is five and a half roubles, and even then, not all the members of the committee can agree on how to distribute the sum, and each pushes for some female relation of his.”
Nikolay Gogol, “Dead Souls”, 1842.
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