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PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Joseph Roth was born in 1894 into a Jewish family living in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and now split between Poland and Ukraine. He became a successful journalist and travelled widely, eventually becoming best known for his novels The Radetzky March (also in Penguin Modern Classics), The Emperor’s Tomb and The Legend of the Holy Drinker. He died in Paris in 1939.

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Once upon a time in the District of Zlotogrod there lived an Inspector of Weights and Measures whose name was Anselm Eibenschütz. His duty consisted of checking the weights and measures of the tradesmen in the entire district. So, at specified intervals, Eibenschütz went from shop to shop and investigated the yardsticks and the scales and the weights. He was accompanied by a sergeant of gendarmerie in full panoply. Thus the State made manifest its intention to use arms, if necessary, to punish cheats, in accordance with the commandment proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures, which considers a cheat to be the same as a thief …

As for Zlotogrod, it was a pretty extensive district. It included four largish villages, two important market centres and finally the little town of Zlotogrod itself.

For his official business the Inspector used an official, one-horse, two-wheeled gig, together with a grey horse for whose upkeep Eibenschütz was personally responsible.