RUSSIAN STATESMEN-1892-1894 37 



the people they had met, assured him that nothing could 

 be further from possibility than the slightest tendency on 

 their part toward any interference with the Russian Gov 

 ernment, and asked him to send a telegram authorizing 

 their departure. He was most profuse in his declarations 

 of his willingness to help. Nothing in the world, appa 

 rently, would give him more pleasure ; and, though there 

 was a kind of atmosphere enveloping his talk which I did 

 not quite like, I believed that the proper order would be 

 given. But precious time went on, and again came tele 

 grams from the ladies that nothing was done. Again I 

 went to the minister to urge the matter upon his attention ; 

 again he assumed the same jellyfish condition, pleasing but 

 evasive. Then I realized the situation ; went at once to the 

 prefect of St. Petersburg, General von Wahl, although it 

 was not strictly within his domain ; and he, a man of char 

 acter and vigor, took the necessary measures and the la 

 dies were released. 



Like so many other persons whom I have known who 

 came into Russia and were delighted with it during their 

 whole stay, these ladies returned to America most bitter 

 haters of the empire and of everything within it. 



As to Von Wahl, who seeme.d to me one of the very best 

 Russian officials I met, he has since met reward for his 

 qualities : from the Czar a transfer to a provincial gov 

 ernorship, and from the anarchists a bullet which, though 

 intended to kill him, only wounded him. 



Many were the sufferers from this feature in Russian 

 administration this shirking of labor and responsibility. 

 Among these was a gentleman belonging to one of the 

 most honored Russian families, who was greatly de 

 voted to fruit-culture, and sought to bring the products of 

 his large estates in the south of Russia into Moscow 

 and St. Petersburg. He told me that he had tried again 

 and again, but the officials shrugged their shoulders and 

 would not take the trouble ; that finally he had induced 

 them to give him a freight-car and to bring a load of 

 fruit to St. Petersburg as soon as possible; but, though 



