Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-05-23
POLICE OF RUSSIA
The Trick They Work to Gather
In Political Suspects.
CAUGHT IN TIE MOUSETRAP.

Whom, After Secret Arrest, the Snare
Is Set It Holds All Who Enter, Re-
, gardIess Ct Nationality. Dress, Social
Position or Official Rank.
Although the peculiar form of police
ambuscade known as mousetrap has
had its highest development and its
widest application in Russia, writes
George KEENAN, In the Century. it did
not originate in that country, nor did
1t receive there it's strikingly appro-
pirate appellation.
1t was imported from France a cen
fury or more ago. and the name that
it bears was given to it by Alexandra
Dumas in 1929. The distinguished
French story teller described it in 1.-The
Three Musketeers" as follows:
1.-THE invention Of the mousetrap does
Vot date from our days. AS soon as
societies In process Of formation Gre
ated police the police in their turn
invented mousetraps. AS our readers
may not be familiar with the slang of
the Rue de Jerusalem and as it Is fif
teen years since we applied this term
for the first time to the thing. we may
be allowed perhaps to explain to them
what mousetrap is.
when in house Of any kind per
son suspected Of crime is arrested the
arrest 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 arrested so that at the
end Of two or three days the police
have in their power all the persons
who are accrS+n",ed to visit the place
And that is mousetrap"
is set aud the first arrest made at
late hour of the night. generally be-
tween and 3 o'clock a. M. so that the
mice will not become aware of it and
avoid the dangerous locality. You may
call upon 'politically untrustworthy"
friend in the evening. drink tea with
him. discuss the state Of the country
and go home at midnight without hay
ing seen or heard anything 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 Il mousetrap.
The trap, moreover. catches and holds
every person who enters it regardless
of nationality, dress, social position or
official rank Russian rcyolut!onlsts
are accustomed to assume all sorts of
DISCUSSES, from the blue frock coat and
wrinkled top boots of the Sendarmerle
to the sword, epaulets and golden cords
of the general staff, and If the car
himself in the uniform of the Preebra-
zhenski guards should visit incognitO Il
house in which 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 If they appear to be err
mine or lizards or small. blind kittens
they must go to the station house 1or
examination and Judgment.
In every large Russian city the police
keen 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 re-
xarded as politically untrustworthy.
Such persons are liable to be arrested
on suspicion at any time and are al
most sure to be taken into custody art
or the assassination Of high Official
when there Is no clew to the assassin
and the police hope to set u cIew oy d