New-York tribune., 1918-04-07

his arrest begged his prisoners par
don for not having an automobile a.
his disposal, and sent him off to
prison under an escort of two Red
Guards. On the way one made some
insulting remarks to the prisoner
, and used obscene language.
"How dare you, Tovarishi" re-
monstrated M. Gotz. "You should
not talk like that to me, a man who
has devoted all his life to the revolt
tion and spent ten years in Siberia. -
THAT is nothing to be proud Of, "
replied the soldier. "My father
spent twenty years in prison for be-
ing burglar" And he was serious
in believing his fathers crime gave
him merit.
How can I give you picture of
life in Petrograd? Famine is al
ways present. Clothing is scarce.
Fuel hardly to be had. For a time
it is little better yet-the ordinary
services of life were suspended.
Shops were closed, banks barred,
there were almost no mails, no
streetcars, few trains. And over all
was the Terror. Shooting in the
streets by day and night, drunken
soldiers Or escaped criminals throng-
ing the thoroughfares, no safety
from either the malicious arrest by
the Bolsheviki or licentious raid
from pillagers, or-if there were
women in the place-worse.
Try to imagine this, for it is the
pith of the whole matter-that you
could never sit for an hour in your
own home, day or night, without
knowing that at any moment band
of drunken, licentious, bestial men,
often escaped criminals of the worst
sort, but clad in the uniform of the
Red Guard, might batter down your
door and seize whatever is in your
house-your goods, yourself, your
wife or daughter-and that there
can be no protection and no redress.
Storekeepers Dare
Not Refuse Them
The same is true of stores and store
keepers. Especially the grocers, who
usually were very courteous and
very considerate of their customers,
have become rude and nasty. Their
wares are now more precious than
diamonds and their trade is full Of
danger. At any time patrol Of
armed soldiers may enter and ask
for bread, sugar or any other COM
modities they may see on the
shelves. The storekeepers do not
dare refuse; they will not even dare
ask for payment if it is not offered
of the soldiers own good will. The
reign Of the Tovarishi is supreme; !;
the word of the Red Guard is law
to the civilian and woe to the man
who dares dispute their authority.
And the real soldiers are not half
as bad as the criminals who are dis
guised as members of the Red
Guard. Army rifles are no more
the property of the army. The Boil
sheviki distributed them freely to
all workingmen, even to schoolboys
fifteen and sixteen years old. SO
many criminals availed themselves
of this opportunity and secured Red
Guard uniforms and rifles; now they
90 openly into stores and into pri-
vate houses, make searches "in the
name of the revolution" and take
away all valuables which they can
lay hands upon. At the beginning
all these occurrences were reported
to the Smolny Institute, the seat O.
the Bolshevik government. The gov
crnment issued warnings that 1t is
criminal to enter private houses or
confscate goods without proper au-
thority, but Of course the criminals
took no notice Of these warnings.
In old times every officer had the
right to challenge a private in the
street as to his regiment, company
and number, but now things have
changed; the officer is afraid of the
private, and so the criminals carry
on their work challenged by no one
and afraid of nobody.
Again citizens committee COM
plained to the Smolny Institute OF
violence and robberies in their
houses.
"Detain them and bring them
here; we will punish them severely, y
was the reply of the Bolshevik COM
missary.
But as all the Bolshevik rules
they work well only in theory No
citizen would dare detain an armed