Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/195

Rh would not be a secret police. It used to be a saying that where three men were together one was sure to be a spy, and one or both the others might be. The spies were in all classes of society, and paid by the police. They did not know each other, and it quite often happened that two of them would report against each other, doubtless to the amusement of the officials who compared their documents. If common gossip is true, the evil was greater in the time of Nicholas than under any other emperor, but many people say it is about as bad at one time as another.

"The clerk in the hotel, the waiter in the restaurant, the shopkeeper who was so polite to us, the tailor, hatter, boot-maker, milliner, or any

other tradesman, any or all of them—women as well as men—may be in the employ of the Government, and report your movements and conversation. Nobody knows who is a spy, and nobody knows who is not. Consequently it is an excellent rule in Russia never to say anything in the hearing of any one else than ourselves that can be called in question. Mind, I don't know of my own knowledge that there is such a thing as a secret police, nor that such a person as a police spy exists in Russia. Having never said or done anything to which the