RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS 105 



in Russia must have a passport, without which no one can 

 stop for rrrore than one night at a strange house, or even at 

 an hotel. Consequently, when an arrest is made, the passport 

 is secured and its owner also. The Russian Government is 

 very merciful, in that it has abolished capital punishment. 

 If it wants to kill a man, it does so by accident, as for 

 instance by sending a troop of Cossacks charging through 

 a lot of factory hands on strike. As regards doing away 

 with the death penalty, I agree with Alphonse Karr, " que 

 MM. les assassins commencent cCabord par ne plus assassiner" 

 By all means string up murderers ; but the hiring of a man 

 to kill a woman is a foul disgrace to any country, civilised 

 or barbarous. 



During the winter in Petersburg, a large trade is done 

 in flowers that are sent all the way from Nice and other 

 Southern places. The flower shops, which are the most 

 beautiful I have ever seen, are the only ones that make any 

 great display in their windows. The others, as we may see 

 in Fig. 46, are not very imposing. The importance of 

 Russian newspaper enterprise may be judged from the fact 

 that the offices of the Ncvoe Vremya, which is one of the 

 leading newspapers, are in a few small rooms over the 

 shops shown in this illustration. The Censor takes care 

 that the newspapers give expression to Government opinion, 

 not public opinion. Hence, there is little interest taken in 

 the inspired utterances, and the sale of papers is not brisk. 

 The extreme sensitiveness to criticism displayed by Russians 

 amazes me. They dearly love to jeer at others who are 

 not of their exact way of thinking; but they bitterly resent 

 the slightest chaff directed on themselves. The mildest 

 joke against Russian policy made by Punch, which no 

 member of an English infants' sch< ol would be silly enough 

 to take seriously, gets ruthlessly blacked out by the Censorian 

 Department, before the postman is allowed to deliver the 



