The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1904-01-15
Russ1A,s cowED NOBILITY.
The Greatest OF Them Are Completely
ut the Mercy of the Police
Authorities. azS


Privileges! OF course we have our
privileges" Russian noble exclaimed
bitterly some time ago. Were / sent
to prison my food would cost the state
ten kopecks day, whereas if / were
peasant it would cost only five. That
is the sort of privileges we have, and
much good they do us. often have a
good laugh, now that l can read your
journals. you give such thrilling ac-i
counts of the oppression to which our
students and peasants are subjected,
and lavish on them such warm sympa-
thy; but it seems never even to occur
to you that we are in the same boat
as they-just as much oppressed, just
as much in need of sympathy. Some OF
you even go SO far as to depict US as
the oppressors, and tell what trouble
the car and his ministers have to pre-
vent our playing the tyrant. We play
the tyrant indeed, bound hand and foot
as we are, at the mercy Of every petty
off1ciali Do you know we may be
forced to leave our homes at a mo-
ment's notice any day, and go just
even though it be to Siberia? had
to obtain the permission of the police
before could leave Russia last week
and may be summoned back by them
At any moment. If refuse to go they
nay seize my wife and children. And
ret you talk of our privileges and re-
proach 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
Jared, for one of the most curious
features OF Russian society in these
after days is the .smoldering wrath
with which the nobility as class re-
gard the car, says the Philadelphia
Ledger. In other countries the mobiles
As rule stand nearer to- the sover-
sign than the rest of his subjects. and
are in closer personal relations with
him. In Russia. however. it is quite
otherwise. There the position that
elsewhere is held by the mobiles is held
by the tchinovnil1s. 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 ministers
began life very low indeed and are
married to wives who began it even
lower. 1t is the same with the gen.
darmerie and other police forces-one
of the highest and most dreaded Off
Gals among them is the son of a found
ling. And these people practically
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
car and his government Is undoubt-
eddy due 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
tchinovniks 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 and with
even better right. Not only are the
tcbinovniks installed in the place
which elsewhere is held by the mobiles.
but they WELD power over the mobiles
such as elsewhere is welded by no
one class over another.
That complaint, 1--WE are at the
mercy Of every petty police Official"
was not uttered idly; in Russia rich
and poor alike. even the great mobiles,
TIT 80 60 -, al ~
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 together
for few minutes in the streets thev
may, If the police choose, be led of
straight to prison. AS for their let.
tiers, the police have the legal right
should they care to use it, to open ano
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 decide
whether or not 1t is suitable reading
dressed.
once witnessed very significant
little scene in Russia In the house
where was staying ring was heard
at the hall door one night quite late,
and after a moments delay the butler
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 in that room. These people, 1t
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 dan
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