If one wishes to obtain the address of any person, he goes or sends to this Address Office, fills out a blank, for which he pays a couple of kopeks, and, after patient waiting for the over-busy officials to search the big files, he receives a written reply, with which he must content himself.  The difficulty, in general, about this system lies here:  one must know the exact Christian name, patronymic, and surname of the person wanted, and how to spell them correctly (according to police lights).  One must also know the exact occupation of the person, if he be not a noble living on his income, without business or official position.  Otherwise, the attempt to find any one is a harder task than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.  A person who had been asked to call upon us, and who afterward became a valued friend, tried three times in vain to find us by this means, and was informed that we did not exist.  This was owing to some eccentricity in the official spelling of our name.  An application to the American Legation, as a desperate final resort, served the purpose at last.  The same thing happened when the telegraph messenger tried to find us, to deliver an important cablegram.  Still, in spite of this experience, I always regarded my passport as an important means of protection.  In case of accident, one could be traced by it.  A traveler’s passport once registered at the police office, the landlord or lodging-house keeper is responsible for the life of his guest.  If the landlord have any bandit propensities, this serves as a check upon them, since he is bound to produce the person, or to say what has become of him.  In the same way, when one is traveling by imperial post carriage, the postilion must deliver his passenger safe and sound at the next post station, or be promptly arrested.  The passport serves here as a sort of waybill for the human freight.  When a foreigner’s passport is registered for the first time, he receives permission to remain six months in the country.  At the expiration of that period, on formal application, a fresh permit is issued, which must be paid for, and which covers one year.  This takes the form of a special document, attached to the foreign passport with cord and sealing-wax; and attached to it, in turn, is a penalty for cutting the cord or tampering with the official seal.  These acts must be done by the proper officials.  I thought it might be interesting to attend to securing this special permit myself instead of sending the dvornik (the yard porter), whose duties comprise as many odds and ends as those of the prime minister of an empire.

At the office I was questioned concerning my religion and my occupation, which had not been inquired into previously.  The question about religion was a mere formality, as they care nothing for one’s creed.  I stated, in reply to the last question, that I was merely “a traveler.”

“Don’t say that; it’s too expensive,” returned the official, in a friendly way.