The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-09

our MONIES at a moments notice any
day, and so just where the police
choose TO send us. even though il be TO
Siberia? l had to obtain the permits
sion of the police before could leave
Russia last week. and I may be sum-
moned back by them at any moment.
IL | refuse to go they may seize my
wife and children. And yet you talk
Of our privileges and reproach us with
our lack of loyalty What does the
Car do for US that We should be loyal
TO him %
What this Russian said that day in
Paris many another of his kind would
say in Russia without scruple. if he
dared; for one of the most curious fea-
lures of Russian society in these lat
ter days is the smoldering wrath with
which the nobility as a class regard
their Car. In other countries the no.
bles as a rule stand nearer to the SOW
ereign than the rest of his subjects,
and are in closer personal relations
with him. In Russia, however, ii Is
quite otherwise. There the position that
elsewhere is held by the mobiles is held
by the Tchinovniks. or official class,
which is made up of folk of all sorts
and conditions. The imperial ministers
are, as often as not, quite self-made
men-two of the Cars present minis
tiers began life very low indeed, and
are married to wives who began it
even lower. 1t is the same with the
gendarmerie and other police force
one of the highest and most dreaded Of
ficials among them is the son of a
foundling. And these people practi-
cally monopolize power and Influence In
the state, to the detriment. of course,
of the nobility.
Much of the bitterness with which
the Russian mobiles regard both the
Gar and his government is due I'M
doubtedly to the fact that they feel
themselves in a false position owing to
the power which. as they maintain,
ought to be in their hands instead Of
in the hands of men who are for the
most part their social interiors. The
Tchinovinks practically stand between
them and their sovereign. for their
only means of approaching him Is
through them. This state of things
they naturally resent bitterly; still.
there is something else they resent
much more bitterly. and with even
better right. Not only are the Tchino-
yinkS installed in the place which else
where is held by the mobiles, but they
WELD there a power over the mobiles
such as elsewhere is welded by no one
class over another. That complaint.
I'VE are at the mercy of every petty
lOliCC OHlCltt1s was IlOl uttered lQlYs
in Russia rich and poor alike, even the
great mobiles, are. as a point of fact.
completely at the mercy of the police.
And they know it: it is brought home
to them indeed. at every turn. Why.
If any three of them stand talking to-
gether for few minutes in the streets
they may, if the police choose he led
off straight to prison. AS for their let
ters, the police have the legal right.
should they care to use it, to open and
read them one and all before they are
delivered. They have the legal right.
too, to sit in Judgment on any book
that, passes through the post and de-
eide whether or not it is suitable read
ing for the person to whom it is ad-
dressed.
/ once Witnessed a very significant
little scene in Russia In the house
where | was staying a ring was heard
at the hall door one night quite late,
and after a moments delay the but
Ter appeared, white and trembling in
every limb. He uttered only one word,
the Russian for a gendarme, and as
they heard it the same old look of
fear came into the eyes Of every man
and woman. These people. it must be
noted, were all ease-loving and law
abiding of the class. indeed. that
would as soon have thought of jump
ing into the Neva as of meddling with
politics. Politics in Russia spells dam
ger None, the less. the mere fact OF
there being a gendarme at the door
was evidently sore shock to their
nerves.
The Russian mobiles are certainly in
a most painful position; still, whether
the blame of this can justly be cast
either on the Gar or his ancestors is
another question. They themselves
have not a single doubt on the sub
ject; all their troubles date from the
day when Alexander the Second by
freeing the serfs, robbed them alike of
their prestige and their wealth, they
declare.
From that time they have been GO
ing steadily down in the world, they
say; and all through the fault of the
Car liberator, against whom they are
never weary of railing, for sweet rea-
sonablenesS is not one of their marked
characteristics, and they fail to see
why serfs should not always have re-
manned serfs. They forget, however
that they received compensation when
their serfs were taken from them; for
get, too, that if they chose. to waste
in rietous living the money they re-
ceived, the fault was their own not
the Cars.
being overwhelmed with debts, has
much to do with their loss of influence
is true enough, of course; but, after all,
their poverty and their debts In the
present are but the natural conSe-
quences of their reckless extravaganza
in the past. Besides. their loss of in
fuence is due to other causes as well
as to their poverty. If they have been
ousted from their proper position in
the empire by men socially their in
feriors it is in a measure at least,
because these men have more brains
than they have, are better educated,
more capable, and, above all, at once
more industrious and more alert. And
for this, at least no Car can reason
ably be held responsible. Were Mich
olaS the Second to- do tomorrow what
they are always elamoring for him to
do-make a clean sweep of his pres
ent advisers and high officials, and In
stall in their place members of the old
noble families-the- result would be
chaos in the state.