Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/21

Rh It is thus that prohibition and censorship only succeed in acquiring a character for ineffectual spite. This is notably the case with the Polish press. It continually happens that an article is forbidden by the censor on a particular day, but a day or two later the author is allowed to make free use of it. The result of this is only that the suspected newspapers are behind their rivals in the discussion of the subjects of the day. It continually happens also that an article is forbidden by the censor in one newspaper and allowed in another.

The passport system has the same character of annoyance without profit as this form of censorship. Without a passport, viséd by the Russian consul in your place of residence, generally speaking, you cannot cross the frontier into Russia. It is called for, as already stated, in the railway carriage, it is examined in a separate room during the time while the baggage is being searched, and they are so concerned to prevent the traveller from handing it over to some offender or the other, that he does not get his passport back till after he has taken his seat in the train, immediately before the last ringing of the bell; a police soldier brings the passports in a case prepared for the purpose with alphabetical letterings. You hardly reach your place of destination before the passport is again called for; it is taken to the police office and kept there during the whole stay of the traveller in the city, and the information there given is supplemented by inquiries of the servants in the house where you reside as to the full names of your parents, whether you are married or unmarried — the unmarried are regarded as the more dangerous — as to several matters. And this passport, which is only given back on the day of departure, is examined again for an hour at the station on the frontier through which you pass on your return journey.

Nevertheless this vigilance also has a gap by which its results are almost wholly destroyed. There is hardly any attempt to ascertain whether the person named in the passport is the same who has presented it. They evidently have no means of knowing whether the name is