1 88 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



In provincial Russia the ordinary civilian is expected 

 to cringe and cower like a whipped cur before every 

 petty officer of police, and the constitutional attitude 

 of the latter is one of overbearing insolence. Ekaterinos- 

 lav is one of the worst police-ridden holes in Russia, 

 owing to the mixed character of the population, and 

 the fact that the city aspires to the distinction of being 

 the chief intellectual center of South Russia. " Intel- 

 lectual centers ' being, in the opinion of the Czar's 

 government, synonymous with treason, political in- 

 trigue, and the like, the good people of Ekaterinoslav 

 have to put up with a more than ordinarily trouble- 

 some dose of police officers as an offset to their human 

 vanity in the indulgence of intellectual aspirations. 



The writer flatters himself that he very likely gave 

 the police officers of Ekaterinoslav the first faint con- 

 ception which had ever entered their queer minds that 

 a person in private clothes might, after all, possess a 

 few abstract rights, even in the presence of minions of 

 autocracy in uniform. 



Since none of them offered me a seat, I simply took 

 the nearest empty one. 



Such a remarkable occurrence as this had probably 

 never happened before in all the eventful history of 

 the police station of Ekaterinoslav. A civilian so 

 independent in the presence of police officers as to 

 take a seat ! This action produced a mild sensation 

 among the officers, and was rewarded with side looks 

 of consternation from half a dozen civilians who stood 

 huddled up near the door, hats in hand, the very pic- 

 ture of sheepish submission. 



This was decidedly amusing, and, leaning back com- 



