Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-01-23

SOH WIS VI Amo A$AChoE SOhNs Ehcs
A writer in the Pail Mall Gazette
says:
The Siberian convicts of the
richer sort, who are allowed to
maintain themselves, live in villages
whose male population never ex-
ceeds two hundred souls. The col
onies are scattered at least twenty
versts apart, and each is guarded by
company Of forty soldiers and
three officers. The commander
holds ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS rank and
governs the colony, administering
martial law with his two subalterns,
In the event Of a murder or an at
tempt at rebellion, he dispatches a
Cossack to neighboring village to
fetch couple of other officers, and
so composes a court of five, who
have power of life and death. No
communication is allowed between
the exiles of different colonies, and
if two brothers or a father and son
are transported together they are
placed apart. The dwellings vary
in size and in comfort. Some, built
at the expense of aristocrats in
trouble, are decent villas we'll fur
nished; others are mere huts, whose
principal furniture is a big stove.
In those terrible regions beyond
Tomsk, and still further beyond the
Jenissa, winter prevails during
ninth months Of the year, and for
twelve weeks of that time the days
are scarcely six hours long. The
colonists organize evening parties
and drinking bouts, in which the
officers and the village popes often
Join. All these functionaries are
men who have got into some dis.
grace themselves, and the private
soldiers are the refuse of the army,
who have been sent to Siberia as a
punishment. This TACT does not
give the colonists better chance of
mutiny or escape, for commander
who allows an exile to slip from his
custody is consigned to penal servi-
tude in the mines. He also risks
being degraded to the ranks if he
suffers convict to send off a clan
destine letter, and for this reason
the strictest watch is kept
ON THE CARAVANS OF JEWS
who come once or twice a year to
bring goods for sale. The arrival
of these caravans affords a holiday
time to the wretched colonists. For
a day or two the villages are con.
verted into fairs, and those who
have money lay in a six months
provision of garments, books and
luxurieS of the table. The Jews do
not object to acting as postmen if
well paid, and, possibly, a governor
will often connive for a bribe, but
if an exile is detected in passing
out letter without having preyi-
c1sly corrupted the governor he gets
flogged. Women are aogged as well
as men; and if wife who has come
into voluntary exile for her hus-
baEc'' lake commits an offense,
she has to choose between being
whipped or being sent back to her
country and meyer seeing her hus-
band again. Corporal punishment
is the chief method Of discipline in
Siberia. In the mines, in the gangs
working on the roads, saucy word
is enough to bring bloWs; butin the
welI.toedo colonies exiles are donbt.
less exempt from hard usage SO
long as they have money. The
governors are not bad fellows,
though drnnkards to a man, apdIit
is to their interest to keep on good
terms with their charges. They
suffer the latter to roam within d
radius of five versts from their vii,
lagos, and to kill time according to
their fancy. Twice a year an in.
spector general goes the round Of
the colonies to collect reports and
bring pardons; and then the gov
ernors have the privilege of recon-
mending to the cars clemency ex-
lies who have committed acts Of
conrnoe In saving life OR hnlninn To