Mr. White to Mr. Gresham.
St. Petersburg, January 20, 1894. (Received February 6.)
Sir: Returning from Germany recently, I was waited upon at the frontier by a wealthy manufacturer, Mr. Kirschten, of this city, who was returning on the same train from a visit to the United States, and was bringing with him, as a servant, an American citizen of African decent, Mr. Joseph Wingfield, aged 14 years.
Mr. Kirschten found, on arriving at the Russian frontier station, that the police were disinclined to admit the boy, and he therefore came to me and asked me to take him into my own suite as a servant. This I declined to do, but on talking with Mr. Kirschten, I became satisfied of his good intent, and on learning from the boy’s remarks that he was of parents evidently respectable, had been brought up in the public schools, and had come abroad partly from a desire to better his position and partly in a not discreditable spirit of enterprise, I wrote a recommendation to the police authorities, and especially to Gen. De Wahl, prefect of St. Petersburg, a statement of the case, and expressed the hope that they would do all in their power to prevent harm to the boy.
The case was, indeed, a serious one, since it looked for a time as if he was to be left among utter strangers, speaking a language of which he could not understand one word, and in the depth of winter.
My note served its purpose, and he was allowed to proceed with his employer upon the train. Since his arrival in St. Petersburg, though the authorities have shown him more forbearance than is usual in such cases, they absolutely insist that he be furnished with a passport or leave the Empire.
The main objections to the boy receiving a passport are, so far as I can see, that he is not only under age, but has come with the intention to remain here for five years; still, as he is evidently in kindly hands, I have felt that ordinary humanity must in this case prevail over the usual routine, and I trust that this issue of a passport will not meet your disapproval.
I may add that the number of people of African descent here is very small; I have seen but two since my arrival, and they are servants at the Winter Palace. This fact gives to a domestic of that race considerable distinction, and is to some extent a guarantee that he will be well treated.
I am, etc.,