THE BORDER A train had just come to a stop in the border station of Virballen.

Half of the platform of that station is in Russia; half of it in East Prussia, the easternmost province of the German empire.

All trains that pass from one country to the other stop there.

There are customs men, soldiers, policemen, Prussian and Russian, who form a gauntlet all travelers must run.

Here passports must be shown, trunks opened.