The man started, as if waking up from a sleep, stared at me, then relapsed again into a state of stolid indifference, and, reseating himself on the window-sill, said,—
“The authorities require it, so you see it is necessary.”
As he became again absorbed in his note-book, I went down the steps towards my cab.
“Well! have they locked him up?” asked the cabman. He had evidently become interested in the matter.
“They have,” I answered. He shook his head.
“Is begging forbidden in Moscow, then?” I asked.
“I can't tell you,” he said.
“But how can a man be locked up,” I said, “for begging in the name of Christ?”
“Nowadays things have changed, and you see it is forbidden,” he answered.
Since then, I have often seen policemen taking paupers to the police-station and thence to the work-house. Indeed, I once met a whole crowd of these poor creatures, about thirty, escorted before and behind by policemen. I asked what they had been doing.