New-York tribune., 1921-03-20

l
msM1aation qUorker IN
perience of detention or arrest and
| carefully avoided both.
"A regulation which caused great
inconvenien1e was the examination
of documents Of Identification on
entering houses. This duty was
imposed upon house porters, who
often performed it carelessly. But
in some houses the examination was
very strict. 1t depended on the
house committee. Every house in
Petrograd and Moscow must, ac-
cording to 1.-THE regulations, elect
and maintain house committee,
which is responsible to the authori-
ties for everything that happens in
the house.
"When the measure was first intro
duced during a period of many
strikes in Petrograd l was interned
in one house for five days without
being able to leave, because the back
entrance, the only one left open, was
picketed by sailors. The house was
large one, containing more than
fifty flats, and had two front en-
frances, both of which We're closed
at the order of the commissar in
! charge of the search. The latter
mistrusted the house porter, and to
show their zeal the Communists as
sumed the duty of picketing the yard
entrance themselves.
"'Too many suspicious looking
characters come in and 60 out of this
house. observed the commissar to
my host.
"His suspicious were. probably not
unfounded when one considers the
number of 'sackmen' who made use
OF the back stairways and that the
entire civil population was engaged
in Specializing in one thing or an
other. | regarded myself now as an
'unsuspicioqs' character, but, unfor-
tunately, l was not written in at
this house. The picketing beginning
early one morning, should have been
brought to book for staying the
night without giving notice the even
ing before. Two women were caught
like this the first day, but they turned
out to be only prostitutes, who had
been to see some of the sailors, so
i nothing was said of it.
Every stranger who was admit
ted left his papers with the picket,
who returned them when the visitor
made his exit. The fifth day the
sailors zeal abated. Ny host got
himself put on picketing duty and
let me out, returning to me at the
gate my papers, which he had taken
with him in his pocket.
An Expert at Fits
"The sailors had spoken of search
ing the whole house, but they did not
put their threat into execution. In
such an emergency should have
probably produced sit.' / prac-
t'ced fits and became quite expert.
"On one occasion, overtaken by a
search, had such fit that the in
vestigator from 'Gorochovaya Dva,'
who was conducting operations,
would not have let his men touch me
with a ten-foot pole. My host was
arrested on the charge of having had
an interview with an Englishman
masquerading as a Russian three
months before. l often wondered
what the Investigator would have
said had he been told subsequently,
that while he was searching the
study the 'Englishman' was in the
next room burning couple of pass
ports with different names, but with
the same photographs, and hiding
the ashes up the chimney.
"A brazen show Of self-confdence
was the best security at such mo-
ments. The person just mentioned
as arrested on my account got off a
few days later by an extraordinary
display of audacity, outwitting even
Gorochovaya Dva.' confess ] am
not one of those who love to plunge
into any hazardous enterprise just
for the fun Of it. In many q tight
corner I was really shaking in my
boots, although / managed to keep
those articles firmly on the ground
and maintain an attitude Of self