20 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



to the Russian authorities, who sentenced him to a 

 long term of years in Siberia. 



At this juncture Pavel Axelrod approached my hus- 

 band. He told him that they had worked out a clever 

 way of fooling the customs officials, if only he would 

 be willing to undertake the serious mission. My hus- 

 band readily consented. 



This was the plan: We had a great many German 

 and French scientific books. The bindings of these, 

 consisting of sheets of paper subjected to heavy pres- 

 sure and cloth-covered, were torn off. The revolution- 

 ary pamphlets were then pressed together, covered 

 with binders' cloth, and the books re-bound. As the 

 forbidden literature was printed on the very finest 

 tissue paper, whole editions were thus smuggled into 

 Russia. 



When we arrived at Odessa the customs officials 

 looked into our baggage and began to examine the 

 trunks full of books. They could not read French or 

 German, however, so they informed us that the boxes 

 with our clothes could be sent forward, but that the 

 trunks containing books would have to remain until 

 they had been thoroughly searched. My husband 

 would be notified, they said, when they had finished 

 examining them. 



The five following days were long and nerve-wrack- 

 ing, as may be imagined ; but finally the notice from the 

 Customs House came. Once more the authorities had 

 been fooled by the shrewdness of the revolutionists I 



