Many a Jewish newcomer would bring with him on his arrival in St.Petersburg an artisan's certificate and enrol himself as an apprentice of some "full-fledged" Jewish artisan.
But woe betide if the police happened to visit the workshop and fail to find the fictitious apprentice at work.

He was liable to immediate expulsion, and the owner of the shop was no less exposed to grave risks.
Some Jews, in their eagerness to obtain the right of residence, registered as man-servants in the employ of Jewish physicians or lawyers.

[1] These would-be servants were frequently summoned to the police stations and cross-examined as to the character of their "service." The answers expected from them were something like: "I clean my master's boots, carry behind him his portfolio to court," etc.
Several prominent Jewish writers lived for many years in St.Petersburg on this "flunkeyish" basis--among them the talented young poet Simon Frug, [2] the singer of Jewish sorrow who was fast establishing for himself a reputation both in Jewish and in Russian literature.
[Footnote 1: Under the Russian law [see p.

166] Jews possessing a university diploma of the first degree were entitled to employ two "domestic servants" from among their coreligionists.] [Footnote 2: See p.

330.] It can easily be realized how precarious was the position of these men.
Any day their passports might be found ornamented by a red police notation ordering their expulsion from the capital within twenty-four hours.