Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1891 — The Czar and the Bribe. [ARTICLE]

The Czar and the Bribe.

A curious story has just leaked out concerning what seems suspiciously like an attempt to bribe the Russian Minister of the Interior. The wellknown Jewish banker, Baron Ginzburg, waited the other day upon the minister in question, writes the St. Petersburg correspondent of an English provincial press syndicate, and, so runs the story, said to him, speaking in the name of the Jewish community: “We know it does not depend exclusively upon you to solve in the sense we desire the Jewish question now preoccupying so seriously the Russian government, but' we are -aware that you have it in your power if you choose to postpone its final settlement. Well, that is what we now ask of you, and in the event of your succeeding we shall prove to you our gratitude.” With these words he handed to M. Dovinovo, the head of the State Department, an envelope containing a check for 1,000,000 rubles, payable to the order of Ivan Nicolaevitch Dovinovo, and indorsed by the banking house of Mendelssohn &Co., Berlin. The Minister said nothing to Baron Ginzburg, but on his departure telegraphed the Czar, asking for an immediate audience, which was granted. The Minister repeated to the Czar the words the Baron had addressed to him, and handed the check to his majesty. By order of the Czar, Baron Ginzburg was immediately arrested and an aid-de-camp was sent to interrogate him and investigate the whole matter. The banker admitted the accuracy of the Minister’s recital and acknowledged the words attributed to him, but with regard to the check he declared that It was an ordinary hanking transaction, as the books of his house would prove. This turned out to he really the case. An examination of the books showed that the check had been entered in the usual manner as an o/der from Berliu. Baron Glnzberg refused to offer any further explanaticm of his mysterious interview. The Czar, who was informed by telegraph and telephoned of the result of the inquiry, ordered the immediate release of the banker. A new question itself, however—what was to be done with the check, whiclußaron Ginzburg positively refused to take back. It is said that his majestj\ decided the matter by ordering that half the amount, 500,000 rubles, should be given to the Cross Society and that the other half should be devoted to the relief of the peasantry in the distressed provinces.