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


lives of the exileS who have their
families with them. Their sons
grow up and must go away to serve
in the army; their daughters, at the !
age of twenty, have to choose be-
tween returning to Russia or mar
rying an exile and remaining set
tied in Siberia. Once the sons and
daughters have gone, their parents
see no more of them; but, cruel as
this separation is, many parents
prefer it to allowing their children
to linger all their lives in the wastes
where they themselves have suffer-
ed so much. Sometimes a young
exile falls in love with the daugh-
ter of fellow-colonist. and then
there is dismal romance, for it
depends on the governor whether
leave shall be granted for a marriage,
and this functionary, acting on Or
ders from headquarters, may refuse.
1t has happened that female exile
has been courted, and has obtained
her pardon just after she had sent
in her application for permission to
marry. Her entreaties to be allow
ed to stay and share her lovers fate
are of no avail, for pardon is often
more an act of ostentation than
of mercy, and the recipient must
accept it in order that the inhabi-
tants Of the Russian town appoint
ed for his or her residence may have
the opportunity Of admiring a liv-
ing example Of imperial clemency.
Pardons are seldom granted to exiles
who have been more than ten years
in Siberia, for they would have too
much to relate on their return.
They are generally conceded at the
end of two or three years; and it
has now and then happened that an
exile has found a pardon awaiting
him on his arrival in the colony.
This has served to feed the popular
notion, often retailed to foreigners,
that unless a man has committed
some heinous offence he is sure to
be pardoned, the truth being that
pardons have very little to do with
the nature of an offence, but are
bestowed out of pure caprice. A
rogue having influential friends
may get one at once, and another
who has committed a piccadillo,
atoned for byyears of good conduct,
may exhaust appeals for mercy in
vain. The discharged exiles leave
Siberia in caravans during the sum-
mer, and each receives orders to 90
and reside in some inland town or
village, where he remains under
police surveillance. 1t depends on
his loyalty, and, above all, on his
reticence of tongue, whether, after
few years of probation, he shall
be permitted to return to his former
home; but he never gets leave to
live in st. Petersburg, Moscow, or
Odessa unless he joins the Grown
service as a police spy.
THE ExILEs IN THE MINES.
The exiles who live in the mines
are convicts of the worst type and
political offenders of the best. The
murderer for his villainy, the intel
ligent and honest Polish rebel for
his patriotism, are deemed equally
worthy of the punishment 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 quicksil-
yer under the eyes Of taskmasterS
who have orders not to spare them.
Iron gates guarded by sentries close
the lodes, or streets, at the bottom
Of the shafts, and the miners are
rallied off from one another in
gangs of twenty. They sleep with
in recesses hewn out Of the rock
very kennels-into which they must
creep on all-fours. Prince Joseph
Lubomirski, who was authorized to
visit one of the mines of the Oural
at a time when it was not suspected
he would ever publish an account of
his exploration in French, has given
an appalling account of what he
saw. Convicts racked with the
joint pains which quicksilver pro-
duces; men whose hair and eye
brows had dropped of, and who
were gaunt as skeletons, were kept
to hard labor under thelash. They
have only two holidays a year,
Christmas and Easter; all the other
days, Sundays included, they must
toll until exhausted nature robs
them of the use of their limbs,
when they are hauled up to die in
the in6rmary. Five years in the
quicksilver pits are enough to turn
q man of thirty into an apparent
seXageparian, but some have been
known to 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
tho way Of grace is leave to come
up and work in the road gsngs; and
it is the promise Of this favor as
reward for industry which operates
even more thsp the lash to main
tain discipline.