STOPPED BY THE POLICE. IQ7 



• • 



typical young Orthodox came blubbering into the 

 police office with wet eyes, which he had rubbed with 

 a pair of huge, greasy fists until they were redder than 

 his hair, and between pitiful "boo-hoos! ' and heart- 

 broken snuffles, told the officers that he had been play- 

 ing cards and lost eight rubles. 



His chum, another moujik in a sheepskin, came with 

 him to confirm his story. There was no complaint of 

 being cheated. He had simply come to the police as 

 a child, who had let an apple fall out of the window, 

 would go weeping to tell its mother. 



" Nitchevo ! ' said the officers, stroking his shaggy 

 red head in mock affection and patting him gently on 

 the sheepskin overcoat. "Nitchevo!" and the)' sent 

 him off to tell his tale of woe to some official at the 

 other end of the city. This officer would likewise 

 reply tenderly, " Nitchevo ! ' and send him to some one 

 else ; and this one again to yet another distant quarter 

 of Ekaterinoslav, to tell some one else. By the end 

 of the day the unfortunate moujik and his chum would 

 become weary of being sent hither and thither to no 

 purpose, and so give it up. What they expected to 

 gain by informing the police had probably never 

 occurred to them. 



At length the Chief of Police arrived. Behind him 

 came a couple of policemen, bringing a wretched look- 

 ing Jew, whom they said had set, or had tried to set, 

 fire to a building. The Chief ordered him to be shut 

 up three days in a dark cell without food or water. 

 Sascha interpreted the sentence to me, and added that 

 it served him right. The three days' sentence was, I 

 suppose, preliminary to his trial. 



