Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1878-06-27

dod.aflf1qssAHs ) ihsRs-
Ituss Of Satnes, b. - ed oat
|fof pure caprice. "A rogA ying IN
ausntial friends may get II once,
and another who has corr 8 pee
lGadiIlo, at oned for b. good
conduct. may exhaust arr fDr ner-
The discharged exile Siberia
i'm caravans during tbe neF, and
each receives orders e - reside in
some inland town or vilia here be
remzins under police znrve zee. His
lot here is that CT Ieks the IN
habitants are afraid % spe1s 10 lest
\ they Should cUnpf0fni5e = W -
He is forbidden TO exercise any profess
sion; he cannot trade, for the merchants
will not sduIt him to their guilds; and
wese he tp.wrife, the police Eoasd make
sure that he was going to publish his Si-
berian experiences, and wculd seize bis
papers. II he have no private means,
tie Government allows him the pay and
rations of a common soldier, and he
must contrive TO live on that, beguilIng
his tine. as he capy 1t depends pnxhis
loyaltS. and above an, on his reticehce
of tongue, whether, after few years OF
probation, he shall be permitted to re-
turn TO his former home; bat he never
gets leave toelite in St. PeteFsBufe
Moscow, or Odessa unless he joins the
Crown service as police, spy. =.
Tx wslae h< Ewn -. aLa era
eonvicts or the worst type and political
offenders Of thebest. The murderer for
hls villiany, the intelligent and honest
Polish rebel for his patriotism, are
deemed equally worthy Of the punish
ment OF slow death. They never see the
light of day, but work and sleep all The
year round in the depths Of the earth,
extracting silver or quicksilver under
the eyes Of ftaskmassers who have orders
moi TO spare them. Iron gates guarded
by sentries close the lodes or streets
al the bottom of the shafts, and The mi
ners are rallied of from one another in
gangs of twenty. They sleep within re-
cesses hewn out oil the roek--yery ken
nels-into which they must creep on all
fours.
Prince Joseph Lubom;rski, who was
authorized TO visit one of the mines in
the district beyond Lake Baikal at a
time when It was not suspected be would
ever publish an account OF his lcxplora-
ton in French, has given an appalling
account of What be saw. Conyicts
racked with the joint pains which quick
silver produces; men whose hair and
eyebrows had dropped OF, and vino were
gaunt as skeletons, were kept 70 hard
lzaaA ssa.a@s as : - -. !
two HOLIDAYS Ssss'ss'' - sea ts ano
Easter; rffss4syF Is 5ays in
cluded, they vast toll Entil sxbausse,a
nature robs them Of Tie use UT their
limbs, when they .afe hauled up to die
in the inRrmary. Five yearsin the quick
silver pits are enough to turn man OF
thirty into an apparent sexageharian,
but some have been known 10 struggle
on for ten years.
No man who has served in the mines
is ever allowed to return home; the most
he can obtain in the way OF grace is
leave TO come up and work in the road
gangs, and il is the promise OF this IA
vor as a reward for industry wmieh OPP
crates even more than the lash to main
tam discipline.
Women are employed IN the mines
as sifters, and get no better treatment
than the men. Polish ladies' by the
dozen have been sent down to rot and
die, W bile the st. Petersburg Journals
were declaring that they were Irving IS
free colonists; and more recently ladies
conneGted with the Nihilist consPira-
cies have been consigned 20 the mines
in pursuance to sentence of hard ia
bor., 1t must always be understood that
a sentence of Siberian hard labor means
death. - - ~ f-fi..@A. , ~
The Russian Government well knows
thatjto live for Years in the atfocious
tortures of the mines Is humanity impos'
slbIe, and, consequently, the use Of an
euphemism to replace the term capital
punishment Is merely Of a piece with the
hypocrisy of all official statements IN
Russia.
Once. a week pope hirnselfanexile
goes down into the mines TO bear the
consultations of religion, under the form
of a sermon enjoining patience. BY the
same occasion be drives q little trade IL
vodki. The miners. who live habitually
on tschi and black bread, are allowed
kopeck for good days work; and thi:
sum invariably goes IN drink. Perhaps
the raw, rancid spirit serves TO keep uE
their strength; anyhow, The intoxicatIor
it brings on Affords the unfortunates the
only dreg or comfort they can expect OF
this earth.I
One shudders to think Of the state @
the better educated men whoFefuse ths
consultation of occasionally drownihs
their sorrows in liquor. What must b.
the plight of professors, journalists
landowners, who have been condemne'
10 die By inches for the cfime of emit
ting Liberal opinions, which. in Englan'
bring a man to great honor and coTnfor
on eveff sides Perhaps those EEglisl
Liberals who feel kindly towards Rus
sian humanitafiaoisEn would pick up
notion or two If tbey could interview
some of their Mosecfite colleagues earn
ing the reward for their progressive thee
ries underground. with drunken prizes
to whine them homilies.
E ---G.s. So
e%Af old salt, sitting on . wharf th
other day, very sObeIly remarked: =