STOPPED BY THE POLICE. 189 



fortably in the chair, I now cocked my feet up on a 

 wooden bench about two feet high. This, though a 

 popular American attitude, was, of course, under the 

 circumstances, wrong. But I was now merely acting 

 a part for the purpose of giving these gentlemen an 

 exaggerated idea of the relative positions of policemen 

 and civilians in America, which I wanted them to 

 understand to be opposite to their relations in Ekateri- 

 noslav. 



The last attitude caused them to redden up to the 

 very roots of their hair, and there really seemed a 

 danger that one or two of them might even go off into 

 apoplectic fits. To them I was as much of a phenom- 

 enon as a sheep who should venture among wolves 

 without exhibiting fear. Had I suddenly thrown of! 

 my civilian garb, and in familiar Russian revealed 

 myself to them as Gen. Rusezki, of the Petersburg 

 Division of the Third Section Secret Police, who had 

 dropped in on them in the guise of an American 

 traveler, they would have comprehended me at once, 

 independent attitude and all. But since nothing of 

 the sort took place, one of the officers summoned 

 Sascha into an adjoining room and proceeded to ques- 

 tion him in regard to my extremely queer behavior. 



Was this gentleman aware that he was in the pres- 

 ence of police officers ? 



" Yes," said Sascha, " he knows you are police offi- 

 cers, but he is an American, and in America it is the 

 police who humble themselves before the people, and 

 not the people before the police." 



This was Sascha's exaggerated interpretation of 

 what had been told him some days before as to the 



