when flags
were ordered up, because the Grand Duke was to visit Polotzk. The old
woman had no flag, and no money. She hoped the policeman would not
notice her miserable hut. But he did, the vigilant one, and he went up
and kicked the door open with his great boot, and he took the last
pillow from the bed, and sold it, and hoisted a flag above the rotten
roof. I knew the old woman well, with her one watery eye and her
crumpled hands. I often took a plate of soup to her from our kitchen.
There was nothing but rags left on her bed, when the policeman had
taken the pillow.

The Czar always got his dues, no matter if it ruined a family. There
was a poor locksmith who owed the Czar three hundred rubles, because
his brother had escaped from Russia before serving his term in the
army. There was no such fine for Gentiles, only for Jews; and the
whole family was liable. Now, the locksmith never could have so much
money, and he had no valuables to pawn. The police came and attached
his household goods, everything he had, including his young bride's
trousseau; and the sale of the goods brought thirty-five rubles. After
a year's time the police came again, looking for the balance of the
Czar's dues. They put their seal on everything they found. The bride
was in bed with her first baby, a boy. The circumcision was to be next
day. The police did not leave a sheet to wrap the child in when he is
handed up for the operation.

Many bitter sayings came to your ears if you were a Jewish little girl
in Polotzk. "It is a false world," you heard, and you knew it was so,
looking at the Czar's portrait, and at the flags. "Never tell a police
officer the truth," was another saying, and you knew it was good
advice. That fine of three hundred rubles was a sentence of lifelong
slavery for the poor locksmith, unless he freed himself by some trick.
As fast as he could collect a few rags and sticks, the police would be
after them. He might hide under a false name, if he could get away
from Polotzk on a false passport; or he might bribe the proper
officials to issue a false certificate of the missing brother's death.
Only by false means could he secure peace for himself and his family,
as long as the Czar was after his dues.

It was bewildering to hear how many kinds of duties and taxes we owed
the Czar. We paid taxes on our houses, and taxes on the rents from the
houses, taxes on our business, taxes on our profits. I am not sure
whether there wer