Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-29
HARD ON THE RUSSIAN STUDENT.
Spies st His Elbow Even while He is Drinkin,
Beer in tIprmany

| HARD ON THE RUSSIAN STUDENT.
Spies st His Elbow Even while He is Drinking
Beer In Germany.
All Russian students at the German
universities are carfully watched by the
spies of the Gear, says Leipsic letter to-
| the New York Sun. These spies receive
liberal salaries from the Russian govern
ment in order that they may not be de-
barred by lack of mony from associating
with young Russian noblemen. They
mlngle as much as possible with all for
| eign university students. They register
generally, as do the majority of their
countrymep, in the department. of law.
They attend all the drinking bouts co
which they can get invitations, and note
with care what their countrymen say
about politics and the government of the
Gear. They play billiards and drink
coffee in the same cafes with the other
Russian students. They make many
acquaintances in the university, as they
| spend their government funds literally
| and their real mission is, unsupported by
| their fellow students.
They have considerable difficulty, how
| ever, in gaining admission to the ex-
elusive social circle of their countrymen.
The Russian spy is usually man of
humble birth and name. Most of the
other Russians at his university are
nOblemen of the most stiff-necked and
| conservative type. As they are all
wealthy and free with their money, they
are not so accessible to a display of
wealth as the ordinary Continental noble
man. Therefore only in EXCEPTIONAL cases
| is the spy able to buy his way into this
noble circle.
Usually he picks up his information as
to the politics and political connections
of his fellow countrymen from unwilling
German go-beSweens. And even these
orlmbs of hearsay are secured only with
considerable pains, for all Russian STU
dents at German universities know there
is sp5 among them, though his identity
is unknown. They often say, even when
such abstract political subjects as con.
stitutionSl liberty are preached to them
in public places, "N-a-a-a, my friend,
but the walls have ears"
But, like most jolly good students at
German universities, the Russians often
| take drop too much in public beer Gel,
lars, and then the spy gets a chance to
earn his wages. In a social way the
young Russian nobleman is an uncom-
promising aristoorat. In politics, espe-
ciaily after ne has passed a year or two
abroad, he is full of radicalism. This
latent radicalism is just what is apt to-
get him into peck of trouble when he
becomes garrulous over his wine. The
omri present spy overhears the young
nobleman's expression of radical politi-
cal prejudice, reports it to headquarters
at st. Petersburg, whence it is comma
nicsted TO officials on The Russo-German
border, and when the imprudent young
nobleman starts home with his bran
new Phi. ID. and foreign airs he is snap
ped up on the border by government
officers, who escort him to st. Peterson
His fate then depends, of course, upon
the enormity of his crime. If he hGs
called the Gear "meal sack" he is liable
to dose of Siberia. Smaller offenses,
like com plants of the ahsolutism of the
Petersburg court, are punished with
year or two in Siberia.
OF course the one important remark in
question is not always the excuse for
this punishment. The spy can generally
get together good lot of more or less
relevant evidence at his university to
| prove that the young Russian nobleman
| was not rloyal Russian or was guilty of
general cussidness."
In 1881 young Herr Micalowski of Nor
| ocW bouuiCo III Poiob
One evening iu the Boerssn keller res
! 6aurant he and his friends discussed the
last financial crisis through which the
| Russisn ovsrnment had passed. Young
Micalowski said: "The whole concern
| (the Russian government would go to the
devil shortly if the financial methods we:e-
Mt reformed" Eighteen months later as
he crossed the Russian border on his way
home, an official arrested hm. Wren
Micalowski demurred, the official quoted
| to him above derogatory remark concern
ing the Russian government, adding: "You
| said it in the Leipsic BoersoD keller on
| November 10, 1881" Young Micalowski
eventually got short sentence for ST.
| IBERIA.
| Less than three years ago a Russian
spy got very drunk at a students kneipe
| in Jena and confessed his business. He
was thrown out of the room by the stu
dents and two days later was driven out
of town. Generally, however, the spies
do their work quietly and unsupported,
and Russian student of liberal political
tendencies must keep his mouth pretSY
tight shut if he wishes TO escape winter
or two in Siberia upon his return to
| Russia.