Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-28
RUSSIAN MOUSE TRAPS"
When Sprung by the Police They
Catch Every Creature That Enters.


George KEENAN,, in the Century.
Although the peculiar form Of police
ambuscade known as the mouse trap has
had it's highest development and its
widest application in Russia, 1t did not
originate in that country. nor did 1t re-
ceive there its strikingly appropriate ap-
pellation.
1t was imported from France a century
or more ago, and the name that 1t bears
was given to it by Alexandra Dumas in
1920. The distinguished French story
teller described 1t in 1.-THE Three Mus
keteers" as follows:
1.-THE invention Of the mouse trap does
not date from our days. AS soon as so
cieties in process of formation created
police the police in their turn invented
mouse traps. AS our readers may not be
familiar with the slang Of the Rue de
we applied this term for the first time to
the thing, we may be allowed perhaps to
explain to them what mouse trap is
when in a house of any kind a person
suspected OF crime Is arrested the arres.
is kept secret; four or five men are placed
in ambuscade in the first apartment, the
door Is opened to all who knock. 1t Is
then closed after them and they are ar
rested, SO that at the end OF two or three
days the police have in their power all
the persons who are accustomed to visit
the place. And that Is a mouse trap.
Dumas does not explain that the trap
is set and the first arrest made at late
hour Of the night, generally between l
and o'clock am, so that the mice will
not become aware of 1t and avoid the
dangerous locality. You may call upon a
| politically untrustworthy" friend in tho
evening, drink tea with him, discuss the
state of the country and go home at mid
night without having seen or heard any
thing to excite suspicion or suggest peril,
but If you return to the same house or
| apartment early the next morning you
are liable to fall into mouse trap.
The trap, moreover, catches and holds
every person who enters it, regardless OF
nationality, dress, social position or OFF,
cial rank. Russian revolutionists are &C
Gust omed to assume all sorts of DISCUSSES.
| from the blue frock coat and wrinkled top
boots of the gendarmerie to the sword.
epaulets and golden cords of the general
staff. And II the car himself. in the
uniform of the Preobrazhenski Guards,
should visit incognito a house in which q
trap had been set he would be arrested
promptly and sent to the nearest precinct
station house for Identification.
No discretionary power Of any kind Is
given to the police officers in charge. The
mice caught may not look at all like the
mice for which the trap was set; but even
II they appear to be ermine or lizards or
small blind kittens they must go to the
station house for examination and judy
ment.
In every large Russian city the police
keep an alphabetical list of all persons
who are believed to be in sympathy with
the revolutionary movement or who for
one reason or another are regarded as
politically untrustworthy. Such persons
are liable to be arrested on suspicion at
any time and are almost sure to be taken
into custody after the assassination Of
high official when there is no clue to the
assassin and the police hope to get a
clue by a dragnet system of arrest and
investigation.
At such times a hundred arrests or
more are often made In a single night,
and in the houses or apartments OF per-
haps half the prisoners mouse traps are
set to catch all corners. The police In
charge of the traps are strictly enjoined
to sent to the nearest precinct station
house every person caught. no matter
what he may look like and no matter
what plausible account he may give OF
himself. Revolutionists and terrOrists
often wear uniforms and a man who de-
clares that he Is a colonel of gendarmes
or even a general Of division may really
be a dangerous conspirator in disguise.
The instructions given to the trap tend
ers are always implicitly obeyed. and
they sometimes bring about results of an
extraordinary and wholly Unforeseen
character.