A great army of unofficial and unpaid _attachés_ assists the regular police of the towns. This force was obtained through the clever device of enlisting the services of every house porter, the Russian _dvornik_, who answers to the French _concierge_ and the German _Hausknecht_, and discharges much the same functions in an emphasised and more arbitrary fashion. The _dvornik_ is bound to see and examine the papers and passports of all inmates of the house he serves, and especially of all visitors and new arrivals. The police regulation requires every _dvornik_ to carry the passport to the police station within three days of the arrival of a new person, and to lodge it there in exchange for a ticket of residence. The same process is followed on departure. Thus the _dvornik_ becomes a sort of permanent detective; he has not only to watch over all in the house, but he is held responsible that no revolutionary proclamations are posted on the external walls, no dangerous articles thrown out of the windows, and he is expected to lend a hand to the police if they make an arrest or give chase to a fugitive. Although he gets no pay from Government, he is expected to give much service under irksome conditions. He is forbidden to leave his post at any time during the long night watch, sixteen hours, from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. next day, and he is liable to severe punishment if he fail in these duties. For all this the house proprietor really pays, and he may be still further mulcted, for he is held responsible for all illicit acts committed in his house, which may be sequestrated on proof of secret meetings held within it, or on any discovery of weapons, ammunition, explosives, or forbidden literature. The police in the provinces is represented by a force of 5,000 or more, who were first appointed in 1878, were armed, mounted, given good pay and many rights. Each officer had his own beat, in which he ruled supreme, and he was thought quite a delightful institution. But within a year or two the police had developed into abominable petty tyrants, who held the country folk at their mercy, a prey to their exactions and brutality. They became, in fact, a perfect scourge in their districts, and even governors and high officials denounced them as brigands. It became clear that a bad police was worse than no police at all. Thus, an institution intended to help and protect the people soon degenerated into a new and terrible instrument of vexation and oppression. No name was too bad for the rural policeman, the _uriadniki_, who were nicknamed the _kuriatniki_, or "chicken stealers," by the peasants, and likened by the better informed to the dread bodyguard of Ivan the Terrible.