twist.

[Sidenote: Petrograd life normal.]

The life of Petrograd was still normal as late as Thursday morning
February 23d, Russian style (March 8th). The bread lines were very long,
but Russians are patient and would have submitted to standing four or
five hours in the cold if in the end they had always been rewarded, but
shops were being closed with long lines still before them, and the
disappointed were turning away with bitter remarks.

[Sidenote: The historic spot for protests.]

[Sidenote: Cossacks merely keep the crowd on sidewalks.]

The open ground before Kasan Cathedral is the historic spot for protests
and, true to tradition, the first demonstration against the bread
shortage began there Thursday morning toward noon. There were not more
than a dozen men speaking to groups of passing citizens. Each gathered a
constantly changing audience, like an orator in Union Square, New York.
But the Nevsky is always a busy street and it does not take much to give
the appearance of a crowd. Examining that crowd, I could see it had not
more than a hundred or two intent listeners. A company of Cossacks
appeared to disperse it, but they confined themselves to riding up and
down the curbs keeping the people on the sidewalks. The wide street was,
as usual, full of passing sleighs and automobiles. Even then, at the
beginning, it must have occurred to the military commander, General
Khabaloff, that the Cossacks were taking it easy, or perhaps the police
acted on their own initiative; at any rate the scene did not become
exciting until mounted police arrived, riding on the sidewalk and
scattering the curious onlookers pell-mell. By one o'clock the Nevsky
was calm again, and the street cars, which had been blocked for an hour,
started once more.

[Sidenote: Duma discusses food situation.]

[Sidenote: The first snarl of the mob.]

That afternoon I went to the Duma, where the mismanagement of the food
situation throughout Russia was being discussed. I had a glass of tea
with a member of the liberal Cadet Party, and he seemed more concerned
with the victualing of the country than with the particular situation in
Petrograd. Toward evening I drove back along the Nevsky and my
'ishvoshik was blocked for a few minutes while a wave of working people,
in unusual numbers for that part of town, passed. They were being urged
on by Cossacks, but they were mostly smiling, women were hanging to
their husbands' arms, and they were decide