To Al. P. Chekhov, 28 January 1887. Moscow.

1 A short, comic note of 28 January 1887 from Chekhov in Moscow to his elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, then living in Petersburg. Chekhov complains that an earlier letter sent to Alexander’s old address on the Kavalergardskaya went unanswered, and mock-threateningly demands he settle a small bill by money order.

2 The letter is built almost entirely of family in-jokes and asides: a jab at Alexander’s reliability with money and periodicals (Chekhov tells him not to bother taking delivery of the newspaper Novoye Vremya, for which Chekhov himself was by then a regular and increasingly prized contributor, joking that Alexander would pocket it), a deliberately misspelled scrap of mock-peremptory instruction, a one-line update on their brother Nikolai, and a signature, "Dr. Chekhov," using the medical degree Chekhov had held since 1884. Its brevity and teasing tone are typical of the brothers’ correspondence.