STOPPED BY THE POLICE. 191 



the police and beg and pray to be allowed to do what 

 they wish." And this was said in a tone of exultation : 

 " It is we who have the whip hand in Russia, and we 

 mean to keep it, too ! " 



The police stations are the busiest places in Russia. 

 Through the instrumentality of the police the govern- 

 ment of the Czar attempts to regulate the goings in 

 and the comings out, and well-nigh every move, 

 motive, and concern of the whole vast population of 

 this broad empire, which extends from the German 

 frontier to the Pacific, and contains 120,000,000 souls. 

 This great organization of belted, booted, and sabered 

 policemen are the hands, eyes, and ears of the paternal 

 government of the White Czar. This paternal govern- 

 ment assumes that the people are children, who are 

 not to be permitted to take the initiative in anything 

 beyond the mere animal acts of eating, drinking, sleep- 

 ing, and working in the fields. 



By means of the elaborate passport system the police 

 are enabled to keep their hands on all this numerous 

 family, and to require them to apply at the police 

 stations whenever they wish to do anything or go any- 

 where, much as children apply to their parents. Hence 

 it comes that in the Russian police stations there is a 

 stream of people constantly coming and going. The 

 people are mulcted in fees on every imaginable pre- 

 text, and the amount of money that flows into the 

 treasury through the sluices of the police stations, in 

 the form of petty exactions, must be enormous. Half 

 as much more, probably, finds its way into the pockets 

 of the police officers in the form of bribes. 



Bribery is carried on in the Russian police offices in 



