Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/176

170 Russian once said to me that an official must steal in order to make an honest living; he did not mean it as a joke, but in sober earnest, though his language did not exactly express his meaning. He wanted to say that a man must accept pay for showing zeal in the interest of any one whose affairs passed through his hands, and unless he did so he could not properly support himself and family.

"There is a story of a German savant who was ultimate with the Emperor Nicholas. The latter once asked him to point out any defects in the system of government, and the savant immediately suggested the universal system of bribery, which ought to be stopped. The Emperor shook his head, and said it was impossible to put an end to an evil which was so widely spread.

But your Majesty could issue an Imperial decree against bribery,' the savant replied, 'and that would prevent it.'

But I would have to begin,' said the Emperor, 'by bribing my Prime-minister to publish the decree, and then I would have to bribe everybody else to stop taking bribes.'

"I will tell you," the Doctor continued, "what I have been told by Russians; I do not vouch for the correctness of what they say, but have no doubt of their veracity. While I have had no business transactions that involved the payment of money to officials, I have some friends whose negotiations were altogether stopped, as they believe, by the fact that they would not give money to persons of influence.

If you have dealings with the Government,' so the Russians have told me, 'you must pay something to each and every man who has power expedite or hinder your business. If you do not pay you will not prosper, and may be certain that your proposals will be rejected. But you should not offer the money directly to the official, as that would give great offence.'

"The question arises, 'What is the polite and proper way of doing such nefarious work?'

The usual way is to make up your mind what you can afford to pay, and then put the money in a cigar-case along with two or three cigars.