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PART ISAN REVIEW
But those in the mino rity should .
True. T ake us, fo r instance . Th e w hole nati o n is puffing.
H ow (lbout we produce matches together w ith ciga rett es? Sandpaper on
this side of th e pack , and matches on that. O therwise you are all the time
looking fo r them . This w ill never occur to th e Swedes.
G rand . But we grow no tobacco here.
W ell , then , on e can glue them to Marlboros. By hand o r mechani ca lly.
What do you say, Gustav?
Yeah , but w here can we ge t so Ill any Marlboros?
True enough.
[They Ill/II/ch.]
Pi ty to lose such a market. Even if to targe t o nl y a min o ri ty.
N o t to menti o n that it wo uld be suppo rting democ racy.
Maybe we sho uld se ll th em handc uffs, Petrov ich . 'Ca use they li e idle
there, rusting.
1
Petrovich prodllces a pair
0 111
(?f
his pocker.1
In the first place, they are rust-res istant. And secondl y, how many of them
have w e got? W e w ere bu ying th em o n th e rati o of o ne-third of the
populati on. While the C hine se, in that Shanghai of th e irs alo ne, have
mo re people th an all togeth er here, includin g th e newbo rn s. And on the
wh ole , to se ll handcuffs is
to
suppo rt the majo rity, that is, tyrann y. The
W est wo n't like it.
You shoul d have thought of that ea rli er, Petrov ich .
But I was buying them at a discount! As a most favo red nati o n!
All the same. T hat's where our gold rese rve was sunk.
Yeah , and now we' re smarting fro lll it.
Sure. Making ends mee t.
W ell , wo uldn 't it be possible to sell
h a nd c uff~
to
th e maj o rity and, to the
min o rity, the keys?
That, Basil M odestov ich , is
to
suppo rt th e stat us quo. T he W est won't
like it.
Pity to lose such a market, tho ugh . . . N o t to menti o n , th e du ck is just
smashing.
