office
Warehouse Inspector (pakgauzny nadzoritel)
warehouse inspector
also: пакгаузный надзиратель, pakgauzny nadziratel
A minor customs-house official responsible for overseeing a bonded warehouse (pakgauz) where imported goods were held; the first vignette's deflating punchline after the passenger is mistaken for a landowner or banker.
Reading notes
- In the Railway Carriage §9 I'm a warehouse inspector at the W— customs house
The first vignette's punchline: a minor customs official, not the landowner or banker his cigar-and-wine talk implied. The customs house is anonymized to 'W—', a period convention for withholding a specific real place name in a comic sketch.