The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-20

and slammed him about in a terrific
manner, but it wasn't more than a
minute before five or six policemen were
at hand and both of us were under
arrest and being hurried away
we We're frst taken to a police station
ABOUT four blocks distant There we
We're searched, stripped of every article
Inat our clothing might be overhauleo
and held for about an hour. We were
not questioned at all, and if the official
IN charge understood anything we said
he did not betray the fact. Bidwen was
so provoked by the situation that he
fired whole broadside of Connecticut
oratory into the official. ending up by
threatening a suit for $780, 600 DANA ges,
but he might as we'll have saved his
breath By and by we were taken to
there ushered into the presence of the
chief of police. We were taken in singly
My turn came first. The chief consulted
a memorandum and began:
You arrived in St. Petersburg on the
9Th. You claimed to be an American
tourist. You received a letter from
Paris on the 10th and one from Ham
burg on the 18th You have spoken dis
prietor of the Park hotel. You were
very disrespectful toward the officer who
was ordered to follow you about AS
soon as your friend arrived you became
more defiant. You have insulted me
through one of my officers. Do you wish
to leave st. Petersburg by the evening
tra3n?"
I replied that I had come to visit the
city as tourist and had planned to re-
main for at least a month
Smiling in grim way, the chief touch
ed a bell, and two police officers appear
ed l was at once taken to the city
prison and placed in a cell. After the
first twerty-four hours 1 was allowed the
freedom of the corridor and could pur-
chase whatever I wanted in the line of
eatables- There were six other prisoners
in the same corridor, but as they were
all Russians we did not do much visiting
As 1 understood it all of them had tried
to cross the frontier to escape military
duty and were undergoing sentences OF
a year each. I was not permitted to write
a letter nor send a message, and when one
OF my fellow prisoners set out to teach
me the naneS of various articles in the
Russian language he was sternIy ordered
to desist. On the morning of the thirty
first day I was escorted to the railroad
depot by two police officers. Out of my
own money they bought me ticket for
the German frontier and both rode with
me for the first 800 miles.
What happened to Bidwell 1 learned
long afterward from his own mouth and
through the American press. He thought
it beneath the dignity of a free born
American citizen to bend the knee to the
autocrat of ST. Petersburg. The charge
against him was more serious. His bag
gage at the hotel had been overhauled
ana his samples of wire clOtheSlineS We're
at once spotted" a menace against
the peace of the car. He also had laid
violent hands on the sacred body of
police spy, and that proved him a des-
perate man if not a conspirator. He was
defiant when put on examination, and the
upshot was that he was taken to the for
tress of St. Peter TO be held for further
investigation. That simply meant to be
held at the pleasure of the chief of police.
No papers were ever served on him nor
was he ever takn into court. He was
put into dark, damp CELL confined to
prison fare and treated like criminal. 1t
was three months before he saw any
other face than the jailer's. Then a po-
lice official came to ask him if he would
agree to leave Russia and never return
in case of release.
Not by a long shotv' was his ready
reply. For every month you hold me in
here I'll demand $4,000 extra and if Uncle
Sam doesn't back my lawsuit every Bid
we'll in Connecticut will move out of the
country"
At the end of seven months he was set
at liberty. He started for the American
legation. but was intercepted and taken
to the depot and forced to enter a train
Two officers accompanied him to the
frontier and he received such a solemn
warning against attempting to recross the
line that he never tried it, He filed a
claim on reaching the United States, but
it was pigeonholed and heard of no more
Copyright, 1902, by c. B. Lewis.)