326 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



alertness in putting it to active use. So efficient is 

 Gen. Gresser in this particular that about 15,000 per- 

 sons are sent away from St. Petersburg every year; 

 and under his drastic administration the tourist who 

 goes and peeps at Russia through Peter's window sees 

 a city that creates a pleasant and favorable impression 

 on his mind, and streets through which the Czar may 

 drive without a guard. 



From the chief of the Russian police to the humble 

 moujik of a squalid hamlet on the steppes is a long 

 jump, but suspicion seems as inherent in one as it is 

 the necessary qualification of the other. And through 

 every gradation of Russian society, official and unoffi- 

 cial, this baneful quality of the mind, thrusting 

 itself on the writer's notice, weigh heavily in the 

 balance against the better side of the national char- 

 acter. 



Russia is a land of surprising contradiction, in char- 

 acter as in institutions. The autocrat is obeyed by a 

 multitude of tiny republics (mirs), and in the average 

 Russian you find a truly paradoxical character in which 

 a warm, impulsive frankness links arms with an ever- 

 present suspicion. 



The figure that looms most prominently in my mind, 

 apart from the fountain-head of the whole fabric at St. 

 Petersburg, is, strange to say, perhaps, my equestrian 

 companion, Sascha. He, in fact, carries off the honors 

 and distinction of first attracting my attention to this 

 very pronounced element in the character of his coun- 

 trymen. Thrown in daily contact with him for several 

 weeks, I came to understand him thoroughly, and 

 through him got an "inside glimpse" of many things 



