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Show MISTAKES I OP RUSSIAN POLICE. , The Czar's whole bureaucracy .has for years been so thoroughly detested by all classes of Russians that now it Is mainly filled by the least Intelligent of the population. And of these the police are the worst. I myself was arrested several times,- as bo many correspondents correspond-ents are, and I found the police in every Instance the most dense of mortals. From my newspaper friends I heard scores of stories about this stupidity. These two are typical: Some time ago a man threw a bomb at a Governor, killed him and escaped. The Government sent all over the empire em-pire a placard with two photographs of the assassin, his front view . and his profile. And three weeks later a policeman police-man ln western Siberia telegraphed: "Have captured both criminals and am bringing them to Petersburg." At midnight in Petersburg an Innocent, Inno-cent, peace-loving professor stood - on a bridge, staring down Into the sluggish slug-gish water of the Neva. He was thinking think-ing of a rival professor who had a new theory about gravitation. "That man." said the professor aloud, "is the dullest Idiot . h Russia." Instantly a big policeman pounced upon him out of the darkness and without with-out a word began dragging him off. The poor old professor shook with terror. ter-ror. ' "Why am I arrested ?' he asked. -What is my crime?" "High treason," growled the policeman. police-man. "'But why? Why?'' "Oh. don't try to fool me! Tou called his Imperial Majesty an Idiot!" "Heavens!" cried the horrified professor, pro-fessor, the spectacles falling from his nose. "Why should you think I was speaking of the Czar?" The big policeman stopped and looked down, puzzled. "The dullest Idiot In Russia," he said Blowly, searching his memory. "Who else could you have meant?" The World Today. |