San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-17
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
Their Black Shadow Falls Athwart the
Hearthstone of Every One.

Hearthstone of Every One.
There is probably no country in the world
where the public power occupies a wider
field, plays more important part, or touches
the private personal life of the citizen at
more points than it does in Russia. In a
country like England or the United States,
where the people are the governing power,
the functions of the police.are simple and
clearly defined ), and are limited. for the most
part, to the prevention or the. detection of
crime and the maintenance of order in public
places In Russia, however, where the peo
pie are not the governing power but hold to
that power the relation of an infant ward to
a guardian, the police occupy very different
and much more important position.
The theory upon which the government Of
Russia proceeds is that the citizen not only is
incapable of taking part i'll the management
of the affairsof his country, his province or
his district, but is incompetent to manage
even the affairs of his own household and that,
from the time when he leaves his cradle and
begins the struggle of life down to the time
when bis weary gray head is finally laid
under THE sod, he must be guided directed
instructed, restrained repressed, regulated.
fenced in, fenced out, braced up kept down,
else thinks is best for him The natural out
come of this paternal theory of government
is the concentration Of all administrative
authority in the hands of few nigh officials,
and an enormous extension OF the police
power.
Matters that in other countries are left to
the discretion of the individual citizen, or to
the Judgment of small group of citizens,
are regulated in Russia by the minister OF. the
interior through the imperial police. If you
are Russian and wish to establish a news
paper, you must ash. they permission of the
minister of the interior If you wish to open
Sunday school, or any other sort of school,
whether in a neglected Stun of st. Peters
burg or in a native village in Kamchatka,
you must ask the permission of the minister
of public instruction. If you wish to give
concert or to get up tableaux for the benefit
of an orphan asylum, you must ask permits
sion of the nearest representative of the min
Stcr of the interior, then submit your pro
granme of exercises to a censor for approval
or revision, and finally hand over the pro
cecds Of the entertainment to the police, t.
lie embezzled or given to the orphan asylum.
as it may happen.
If you wish to sell newspapers on the street
you must get permission, be registered in the
books of the police, and wear a numbered
brass plate as big as a saucer around your
neck. If you wish to open a drug store,
printing office, photograph gallery, or
book store, you must get permission. If yOu
are a photographer and desire to change the
location of your place of business you mus;
get permission If you are a student and s.
to public library to consult Lyells ''Princi
ple~ of theology" or Spencer's Social Statics,
you will find that you cannot even look .;
such dangerous and incendiary volumes with
out special permission.
If you are physician you must get per
mission before you can practice, and then, i:
you do not wish to respond to calls in tho
night you must have permission to refuse t
go: furthermore, if you wish to prescribe
what are known in Russia as powerfully
acting" medicines you must have special per
mission or the druggist will not dare 20 fill.
your prescriptions
If you are a peasant and wish to build a
bath house on your premises, you must get
permission II you wish to thresh out your
grain in the evening by candle light, you
must get permission or bride the police. II
you wish to go more than fifteen miles away
from your home, you must get permission
If you are a foreign traveller you must get
permission to come into the empire, permits
sion to go out of it, permission to stay In il
longer than six months, and must notify the
police every time you change your boarding
place. Inc short, you cannot live, move OF
have your being in the Russian empire with
out permission. George KEENAN, in Century ,