Who Is to Empty Your Chamber Pot?

 

Who Is To Empty Your Chamber Pot?

The young English writer Desmond MacCarthy came on a visit to the Tolstoy estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Upon his arrival the old man took him aside: “One thing you have to know. You must empty your own chamber pot. Asking the servants to do this is demeaning.” A few minutes later Tolstoy’s wife, Sofia Andreevna took him aside: “One thing of utmost importance. I must ask you, most strictly, not to empty your own chamber pot. We pay our lazy servants to work!” When nature called Mr. MacCarthy ended up sneaking off into the woods.

[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]