SHARPWATCH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 43, 28 October 1893, Page 359

SHARPWATCH.

The author of ‘ Out of Doors in Tsarland ’ says that no person can live in Russia without being well known to the secret police, in whose records there is certain to be a long and exhaustive account of his personal history, including a list of his friends and associates, a description of his occupations and amusements, and a general sketch of his character. The author is disposed to think that the police are not un necessarily suspicious, and that they seldom commit the blunder of arresting innocent people. On the other hand, he gives them credit for marvellous acuteness in the detection of crime.

A foreign firm in St. Petersburg had in their employ a Russian clerk. He had been with them for many years, and enjoyed the best of reputation as an honest and faithful man. One day, to the boundless astonishment of the foreign merchant and his staff, the office was visited by a pristaf, or chief officer of the police force.

‘ I have called to inquire, - he said, ‘whether you have lately been robbed by any of your clerks ?’ The merchant answered that nothing of the kind had happened. Why was the question asked. The pristaf explained that, although the firm might have felt no uneasiness about the proceedings of their clerk, Mr V , yet the police had long had their suspicions, which suspicions had culminated in his arrest at the railway station that very morning. Would the gentleman please give

orders to have the books of the fiim carefully gone over, to see whether there had been any defalcation 1 With strong protests on the part of the merchant against this unjust treatment of his trusty clerk, an examination was begun ; and it soon transpired that the firm had been plundered to the extent of more than twenty thousand roubles !

Then, of course, the merchant begged to know how the police had become aware of what was going on. The officer explained that it was all simple enough. Mr V had been seen to be spending more money than a man in his position could be presumed honestly to have. Watch had been kept upon him accordingly. His champagne suppers, his boxes at the opera, and all such expenditures had been recorded. It was known also that he had made a large remittance to a * friend ' in Paris, and so, when he went to the railway station to buy his ticket to that city he was arrested.