Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-26

.NM Nj x Y earth, a nation alb
YAK + sorbingy interesting
W. ~ and easily accessible,
Il and yet at the same
time land of which
we Americans know
prac tically nothing. l speak of the great
| SaV empire-Russia.
The treatment by the Russian govern
| ment of a certain part of it's people, whose
total number is not over. one-quarter of
1 per cent of the whole population, has
| been graphically pictured to us. OF the
! treatment by the Russian government of
all the rest Of its people, the other a9?4
per cent, hardly word has been said The
| difficulty of getting into Russia and the
| suspicion with which foreigners are re-
| ceived have been made much of. But the
| ease with which one can travel in Russia
| and the hospitality of the Russian govern
| ment and its people have not been revealed
| to us. And l believe that % any inteli-
gent American word about the real Rus
STA, about the every day relations of the
| Russian government with its people and
its visitors cannot but be Of interest.
All my life l had heard of the dreaded
| police force of Russia. l had read that
the poor people in the cars land, the
| farmers, factory hands, cab drivers and
| others. were constantly oppressed and
| abused by the police l was told when l
started for Russia, that all foreigners were
| looked upon with suspicion, and that l
| wouli be sure to come in contact with The
police IN very short while. This last pre-
diction came true. | had not been u week
| in Russia before l had an experience with
| these omnipotent and tyrannicaI police
| Experience With the Police.
One morning in st. Petersburg 1 started
| to drive to the Bazaar and called for
| droschky. In response, two droschkies
~ III,
was doing the customary hagglng with
| the drivers. Somehow a misunderstanding
arose. Both eezvawsh tchiks claimed me-
and turned on each other with fierce tor
rent of inVective. l stood helpless not
knowing what to do. In a moment to my
horror, saw policeman approaching.
Might not have unconsciously broken
some memorable law or CITY ordinance?
But, strange to say, as the policeman
drew near, l saw that his leisureIy manner
meant not dignity but Indifference Tho
| Two eeZvawschtchiks greeted him with a
shower of excited ordinations. He be.
gan talking back, and soon it was evident
that he. too, had become involved in the
misunderstanding. A genuine three handed
row ensued. And. to my intense amaze
ment, those two drivers stood there on the
Nevsky Prospect, almost under the shadow
or the royal palace, and actually shook
their fists in that policemans face, And
when the latter started to lead one of the
droschkes off the street crossing tho
V,
spatched the reins from him, turned bis
| vehicle around and came back exactly
where he was before, and began abusing
the policeman again.! And can you mag
inc what that policeman did? He Simply
stood there, and talked back.
, After awhile. when all three had talked
| themselves out of breath. they placidly
separated and each went his own wav as
| if nothing had happened. / got in q third
| droschky. whose driver had been serenely
sleeping through the whole row, and drove
quietly away, the policeman having never
even looked at me!
| This was my Introduction to the Russian
police; and in my subsequent travels
through the cars land / learned how
| Enthusiastically 1t represented the rea-
| lions of the government with it's people
and with foreigners.
Pleasant for Strangers
Instead of everything being made dis
agreeable for visitors, the very reverse Is
true. Strangers who do not speak Russian
are looked after almost if they were
charges of the government. AT the request
| OF their minister. the railway department
Will reserve. compartments on the trains
tor them, Telegraph ahead for sleeping
berths. give them general letters of intro
ductioa. and, in fact, do everything 1t is
possible to do.
Instead .of trying to conceal the condi-
tions that exist III Russia, the government
| tries to reveal them as plainly and fully as
possible. For instance, during the progress
| of the exposition at Mini Novgorod in 1896
the government gave to all foreign news
paper correspondents free passes, good for
frSt-claSS passage over all the railroads in
the empire. On such a pass l Travelled not
only through European Russia bu. also
through Sill eria-peaceful, contented, mis-
r. presented Siberia.
AS for police surveillance Of foreigners I
found absolutely none of it. Ny trip of
1000 miles was made without letters Of In
PRODUCTION or any other documents of any
sort, except my passport, and it really told
nothing about me of value. l was in places
where probably but two or three Ameri-
cans had ever been before and I carried
camera, took photographs freely and in
Vestigated everything l saw. Yet no per-
son, either official or private, apparently
ever regarded me with anything but SIM
pie curiosity.
But what are the governments relations
with nihilists? you will ask. Briefly, the
situation seems to be this: The "nihilists'
proper are opposed to all law, order and
right. Today there are probably few, ie
any, real nihilists in Russia. But there are
ard have been IevolutioniStS, and these
rcvolutionists have included many terror
lists, men who claim. as stated in one of
their official papers, that they are morally
justified In making use of all attainable
methods of PROCEDURE that is, that there
tify. =
Against TerfOrists.
Against these terrorists the severest
| measures have necessarily had to be taken
by the government. And there is no doubt
that this severity has at times been in
recently directed against liberal-minded
| people who were not terrorists, just as in
this country men have been hanged for
murders they never committed.
AS to the treatment Of the Siberian eX-
lies l may here say only this much: All of
the bad features ofIthis system have been
described in detail, while many of the good
points maze never even, been mentioned
And of the bad features, at least one-half
OF three-quarters are due to the naturally
dirty and bestial conditions under which
the Russian peasant habtualy and volun-
tariiy lives. These conditions will be appar-
| ept to any one who Will associate init
| mateiy with the peasants.
But by far the most important feature of
the nihilist and revolutionary movement
| in Russia is it's comparative insgnificance.
And the most striking thing in the arbi-
| trary treatment by the government Of po
| iitfeal prisoners is the absurdly small num-
Der of such prisoners. Mr.. KEENAN, has
given us a very vivid picture Of the condi-
ton OF the Siberian exies. But it is pic
ture that, according to Mr.. Kennan's own
l hg1lraS alu inf mi tayfr 1ot