i$S THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



perilous questions of State politics and religion, were 

 not likely to be annoyed and harassed in their daily 

 life. When the Nihilists commenced to stir things up, 

 however, prior to the assassination of Alexander II, 

 and a particularly active crusade was inaugurated 

 against them, a full share of the repressive measures 

 fell on the people for whose liberation the desperate 

 knights of bomb and pistol professed to be working. 

 A force of near 6000 uriadniks was organized and 

 scattered throughout rural Russia, and given police 

 powers in the village communes ; and in Russia " police 

 powers " means well-nigh anything under the sun in 

 the shape of tyrannical and irresponsible interference 

 with the private citizen. 



Like all Russian officials, the uriadnik is underpaid, 

 and would find it very difficult indeed to keep up 

 appearances consistent with the importance of his 

 official position, if he had no other source of income 

 than his salary. The office of uriadnik is worth 200 

 rubles a year, or about $10 a month. Yet you see 

 these gentlemen sporting gold watches, and they ap- 

 pear, on the otherwise monotonous and colorless field 

 of Russian rural life, full-blown, well-nourished, even 

 gorgeous flowers. They have far more tyrannical 

 power over the peasantry than has the Turkish zaptieh 

 among the villages of Asia Minor. 



Though " paternal," the Russian government scarcely 

 seems, in any of its relations, part of the same family as 

 the people. In a constitutional country the police- 

 man, despite his uniform and baton, always gives the 

 impression of being in familiar touch with the people, 

 even those whose heads he may be on the point of 



