Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/18

6 attention to the fact that they might safely leave me the Danish books and newspapers, since no harm could be done with them in Poland, where no one understands Danish. "In the censor's office they understand all languages," was the answer.—"Grant that that is true, although I have my doubts; but the government censor, who is Russian, I cannot corrupt, and the other people do not understand Danish, do they?"—"That is true from your point of view," was the answer, and, acting from their point of view, they kept the books. There was a Danish-French dictionary in the heap; I showed them that it was a dictionary, that the words were arranged in columns. They racked their brains over it. At last, after mature reflection they gave me the first part, A—L, but with very serious looks replaced part M—Z among the literature which the censor was to examine.

"When and how can I get all this again?"—"So far as the books are concerned you can ask for them at the censor's office; you have a receipt for them. You will get no receipt for the pistol. But you may address a petition—on a whole sheet of paper—to the Governor-General for permission to carry it, then, if he thinks fit, he can give an order to the custom-house officer in Warsaw to deliver it to you on your application there."

Thus on the very frontier itself we got the feeling that from this point we were outside the precincts of real European civilisation.

In such a trifling matter as the custom-house examination the two distinguishing marks of the bulk of Russian prudential regulations can be traced: the oppressive and