36 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-IX 



minister of the interior. Nothing could be more delusive 

 than his manner. He always seemed about to accede to the 

 ideas of his interlocutor, but he had one fundamental idea 

 of his own, and only one ; and that was, evidently, never 

 to do anything which he could possibly avoid. He always 

 seemed to me a sort of great jellyfish, looking as if he had 

 a mission to accomplish, but, on closer examination, prov 

 ing to be without consistency, and slippery. His theory 

 apparently was, t No act, no responsibility ; and through 

 out the Russian Empire this principle of action, or, rather, 

 of inaction, appears to be very widely diffused. 



I had one experience with this functionary, who, I am 

 happy to say, has since been relieved of his position and 

 shelved among the do-nothings of the Russian senate, 

 which showed me what he was. Two American ladies of 

 the best breeding and culture, and bearing the most satis 

 factory letters of introduction, had been staying in St. 

 Petersburg, and had met, at my table and elsewhere, some 

 of the most interesting people in Russian society. From 

 St. Petersburg they had gone to Moscow; and, after a 

 pleasant stay there, had left for Vienna by way of War 

 saw. Returning home late at night, about a week after 

 ward, I found an agonizing telegram from them, stating 

 that they had been stopped at the Austrian frontier and 

 sent back fifty miles to a dirty little Russian village ; that 

 their baggage had all gone on to Vienna ; that, there being 

 no banker in the little hamlet where they were, their letter 

 of credit was good for nothing ; that all this was due to the 

 want of the most trivial of formalities in a passport ; that 

 they had obtained all the vises supposed to be needed at 

 St. Petersburg and at Moscow; and that, though the 

 American consul at Warsaw had declared these to be suffi 

 cient to take them out of the empire, they had been stopped 

 by a petty Russian official because they had no vise from 

 the Warsaw police. 



Early next morning I went to the minister of the in 

 terior, presented the case to him, told him all about these 

 ladies, their high standing, the letters they had brought, 



