Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/194

188 Police is the only man in Russia who has the right to go to the Emperor's presence at any hour of the day or night. Not even the Field-marshal-in-chief of the Army or the Grand Admiral of the Navy can do that.

"The Ministers of War, Navy, and Foreign Affairs have a right to an audience with the Emperor every day, while the Ministers of Education, Railways and Telegraph, Finance, and other home matters, can only see him once or twice a week. But at any hour of the day the Minister of Police can send his name, and immediately follows the messenger into the Emperor's office; at any hour of the night he may have the Emperor waked and told that the Minister of Police has an important communication to make."

"Do you suppose that is often done?" one of the youths inquired.

"Probably not very often," replied Doctor Bronson, "but how frequently the outside public cannot possibly know. In ordinary times it is not likely the minister would ever exercise his right, as it is not wise to wake an emperor from a sound sleep, especially when you have bad news for him. But when assassins are making plots all around the capital and palace, the Emperor's safety may easily require that he should have a personal warning. In such case the Minister of Police would not hesitate to perform his duty."

Their walk took them to the Summer Gardens, where they sat down on one of the benches and watched the groups of children and nurse-maids, together with other groups of old and young that comprised the visitors to the place. As they sat there the conversation recurred to their recent topic, the police.

"The public police is organized very much like the same service in other countries. There are some points of difference, but they are not great enough to be mentioned at length. One objection to the Russian public police is that in the cities and large towns the policemen are nearly all soldiers who have served their time in the army, and receive police appointments as rewards. Their long service in the army imbues them with the greatest deference to the uniform of an officer, no matter what its wearer may be. The result is the policemen salute every officer that passes, and thus their attention is drawn from their duties; furthermore, the officer can misbehave himself as much as he pleases, and run very little risk of being arrested like an ordinary offender."

"What can you tell us about the secret police?" one of the youths asked.

"I can't tell you much about it," was the reply; "and if I could it