The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-29
The RUSSIAN POLICE.
THEIR SYSTEM OF SEARCHING THE
HOUSES OF SUSPECTS.
The Night Time Observation-Disclosures Eff
fected by Strategy or FOrce-NO Ctti-
zen Sscure-ReasOns for the
Zeal of the Police.
william westan in San Francisco Chronicle.I

searches have been made by night-deeds
Of this sort loving darkness rather than
light But it would be wrong to infer
therefr0m that Russian families enjoy alb
solute immunity from these unwelcome
Yisita.iOns during the day. The police
often make searches in the daytime, when
they are least expected, when people are
the least prepared to receive, and, posi-
bly,, to deceive them. They like to take
their victims by surprise, and they know
that a man whom they want generally
leaves his friends house towards mid
night and repairs to some undiscoverable
hiding place A secret meeting will
adjourn rather than continue its de-
alterations until a late and therefore
dangerous hour. So the police, by ap-
pearing unexpectedly, may make rich
prizes, and they do not restrict their visits
to any particular time. On the other
hand, there are good reasons why they
should make them mostly at night In
the first place nocturnal searches cause less
scandal than daylight visits. All that the
neighbOrs know next morning is that
somebody has disappeared. At l or 2 a.
m, moreover, the police are pretty sure
to find people at home and to take them
more or less by surprise. Hence the
watches of the night, when, in other
countries, the sanctity of the home en-
joys the special protection of the law, is,
of all others, the time when the subjects
of the car enjoy the least security and
are exposed to the gravest perils.
During the periods of white terror, s"
which generally follow attempts made
against the authorities or detected plots,
when searches by the hundred are made
right and left, there is hardly family be-
longing to the educated classes who, on
retiring to rest do not tremble at the
thought that before morning they may be
reused from their sleep by the despot's
emissaries. AT one of these periods (after
the Solovieff affair, the ordinary Jail be-
ing so crowded with prisoners seriously
compromised that there was no room for
the many persons who were merely sus-
,pected, without a shadow of evidence
the latter had to be confined in the com
mon room of Litovsky castle They
lived together and were rather gay, as is
always the case when prisoners meet
and they can talk openly and freely.
Before going TO bed, as one who was
there has told me, they would say to each
other, "Ah, we shall sleep sOundly to-
night, for here we are in safety" A grim
pleasantly, of which none but those who
have lived under the cars can understand
the full significance.
Deceiving people by a falsehood or a
strategem in order to make them open q
door without mistrust is a common pro
wanted to arrest Donluovkin, an officer
quartered in a suburb of ST. Petersburg,
they caused the chief of his battalion to
say that he had an important communion
ton to make to him on the business of the
regiment. The police of Odessa, desiring
on one occasion to make an arrest, raised
cry of "tirel" at the door of their vic
tim, who, rushing out in all haste, only
half clad, fell into their hands and was
carried off without ceremoDv
But when searches are so frequent that
everybody expects them, the police. as a
rule, reserve their articles for special cases
For as an engineer may be hoisted with his
own petard, so may an artifce be turned
against its contrivers. That of telegram
brought by dvornik in the dead of night
Is becoming somewhat stale, and when an
alarm of fire or other calamity is given
you scent great deal greater danger and |
burn your papers and other |
wise prepare yourself for an imminent DO
lice visitation. Your arrangements com |
pleted you open the door and play the |
part of an ingenious innocent The police |
can not we'll punish you for not making /
haste to receive an apOcryphal dispatch or !
escape an imaginary fire. Knowing this,
they mostly prefer to knock loud enough |
10 awaken the dead. crying at the same |
time: THE police! the police Open the |
1oOT, or we will break it in !"
n or IS he threat vain one The Rus |
sian police make no scruple about house |
an art in which they are as ac-
as professional burglars. They |
sometimes begin in this way when they /
an do so without making a noise. At |
he seizure of the clandeStine printing |
,fiCe of The Tcherney Perdid the gend, |
.rmes, either by lifting the doors from
heir hinges. as the official report said, or
y using skeleton keys, as ran the rumor.
Ook the inmates by surprise and arrested
II as they lay in bed. Violence and bru-
atty were always in Russia the con
omitants OF domiciliary searches and ar
ests and with the increase of severity in
be treatment of political criminals gener-
lily, the violence has become greater and
be brutality more ruthless.
What causes, it may be asked. are held
efficient to justify the defenders of order
q making these nocturnal visitations and |
so cruelty the repose of peace
al citizens? The question is one that oc-
uTs naturally to an American, but if put
D Russian he would merely shrug his
noulders and smile at the simplicity of
ne observation. "Could anything be
lore absurd" he would probably ex-
aim, for in Russia it is question of the
eal OF the police, never of the rights of
le subject Russia. is in a condition of
thermal warfare, and the police
eng the right arm of one of the
elligerent parties. does not protect, it
ghts. Wherever the enemy is they
lust be ready to attack him; any place |
here he is supposed to lie they must be-
t. An officer of police who hesitates to
AXE search without formal authority,
: make an arrest without warrant,
Tould be looked upon as not worth his |
1t, an ldler who wanted to receive fat !
~ without giving anything in return. A
ember of the force who desires to win
romotion. or even to keep his place, can
ot afford to be scrupulouS He must be
keen, as vigilant and as ready as a
euth-hound on the guest At the least |
On. or the merest suspicion of a scent,
, must join in the chase and seize the
larry when he can.
Where the Odors Arise.