Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-03-24
THEY sAANoHMeo THE BUTLER
rhe Prisoner was Gone and 50 the Rus
sian Police Found q Substitute.

I
rhe Prisoner was Gone and 50 the Rus
Sian Police Pound a Substitute.
Nv friend Count Mitkiewicz and /
were walking along Sixth avenue
the other day when our attention
was called to couple Of policemen
who were marching a prisoner up
the street at a rapid rate. The lat
ter made things lively by bawling at
The top of his lungs; II didn't take
anything. l didn't; didn'tp'
s'Reminds me Of a story" observed
the count, and then he continued; ;
"You see, my father at the time of
which speak was a man of consid-
erable means and something Of bon
vivant. He had weakness for Eng
lish pale ale, and our butler, as he
valued bis position, never allowed the
stock to run out.
"It happened that my father had
invited a friend to dinner one day
and had instructed the butler to see
that everything was well and prop
erly served, and, above all not to
omit the pale ale. About an hour
before dinner the butler discovered
to his horror that the stock of ale
was exhausted. He did not dare to
send a servant for it, so he started
out in great hurry tosecure the ale
himself.
Unjust here tell you about Russian
budniks. These are something like
sentry boxes, and are stationed in
various parts Of st. Petersburg for
the accommodation of prisoners
charged with petty offenses. A man
caught stealing, for instance, is
locked up in one of these budniks
and held there until wanted. When
the court sits there is a general
roundup of the budniks, just as a let
ter carrier here empties the mail
boxes on his route,
"Wel, some fellow had stolen
thirty rubles He was caught and
hustled into a budnik. But thirty
rubles is a lot of money for a Russian
policeman, and when the thief offered
them to the guards who came to take
him to court the result was that the
fellow was allowed to make his
escape Now it happened that an in
spector of police who had seen the
arrest made asked the guards where
their prisoner was In the budnik,
they answered. OF course they were
sent after him forthwith. But there
was no prisoner and something had
to be done
"As the guards neared my fathers
house they espied the butler running
around the corner. Here was their
man. They gave chase and caught
him. The poor butler expostulated
and demonstrated, but to no purpose.
When brought before the magistrate
he became violent and received a
blow on the head that nearly knocked
him senseless. All three of the
guards, not knowing who he was,
swore that they had seen him com
NIT the theft. The poor fellow wasn't
allowed to say word in his own be
half. On the contrary, he was pun
meled about in such fashion that
he confessed to the theft, whatever
it was, to save further drubbing.
There was no pale ale for dinner
at my fathers house that day, and
no butler either. After waiting un.
til the next morning for the butler TO
turn up my father notified the po
lice The buffers disappearance re
mained a profound mystery for a
week, when my father happened to
visit the Jail. There in one of the
cells, and more dead than alive, he
discovered his missing house servant.
Explanations followed, the butler
was liberated and on the day follow
ing appeared as u witness against the
three guards, who, to the great salts.
faction of the butler, were sentenced
to long terms of imprisonment
New York Herald