Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-07-08
SIBERIAN EXILES.
What RxIIatTon Mean.-An Amerf-
can Dentist I'm Exile Dreamy
Poles.
New York Herald Erk,ltsk Letter.

nine politicals at the present time in
Irkutsk, all, like most of the criminals,
living in freedom IN the city, but kept
under strict police surveillance. do not
care to go into the statistics of exiles in
Siberia at ALL am not sent here for that
purpose-but am inclined to call atten-
ton to the very absurd statements made
by an English clergyman, Mr. Landsell,
in his recently-published work entitled
Through Siberia. He asserts that in
1880 only eight political prisoners were
seut to Siberia. This on the face of it Is
preposterous statement, for the Danish
ed Nihilists are nearly all classed as
politicals, and their number is very large.
OF the two hundred and seventy nine
political prisoners in Irkutsk l should say
that two.thirds of that number are Poles,
who have grown gray in exile, and in
most cases have become established in
trade or have some useful occupation.
The Poles are the gentlemen" among
the exiles; they are the most cultivated
men in the country, and are deserving Of
ali sympathy. Groups of them may be
met at dinner or supper every day at the
hotel where | stayed, fine specimens of
their race, but grown old and weary, de-
spairing of ever being able to get back to
their own country, not for lack of per
mission, but the necessary means of
transport They are dreamers still, these
aged patriots, dreaming ever of grand
future for Poland, but helpless as chill
dren in rendering any assistance to gain
that end. 1t seems terribly cruel thing
to have done with these men, to have
wrested them from the country and home
they loved and fought CALAMITY for and
to have condemned them to this more
than useless life in the Siberian wastes
No one can grasp the terrible meaning Of
eXilatiOn 10 Siberia unleSe he has seen
theee men, grown old and desolate in this
far-off place, their poor decrepit bodies
thousands of miles away from the place
where they have left heart aud soul.
would curse heaven and humanity were |
| condemned to live forever in this sOulless
country, away from all that is beautiful
and flood and healthy in the world, away
from the life where tenderness and love
reign sweetly over hearth and home.
And there is no escape from this land
made he'll for humanity, except pardon,
tardilv granted, or, more frequently,
| death and a grave that is frozen all the
year round. These thoughts arise when
| | think of the fate of the Polish eXiles
| still here. For the ordinary criminals |
have no sympathy, nor yet for the Nihi-
| lists, and only think it sad that any
country, however wretched, yet capable
of any future at all, should be burdened
with their presence. Of the former,
droves may be seen on the roads every
day; of the latter large numbers are con-
| stantly arriving. On the 9th of March
the notorious DR.. Weimer, vino was i'm
| plicated in the NihilIstic attempts on the
late Emperor's life, passed through
| lrkutsk on his way to some place still
further removed from the world, but his
| destination l did not learn, but probably
somewhere in the Amur province, where
he will be enabled to make interesting
studies in the villages filed with diseased
and rotten humanity.
One of the most interesting exiles l
met in lrkutsk was, as you may be sur
| prised to learn, an American. but vol
untary one, an American dentist, Dr.
| Ledyard, who, with his wife and child,
arrived only month or two ago from
| China, intending to make a home and a
| fortune for himself in Eastern Siberia.
But | am afraid the doctor will not stay
long on the Angaria, having inherited
too irrepressible a DIES re to travel from
his ancestors to think of settling any.
where for a long time together DR..
| Ledyard, who halls from the Pacific
slope (Ssn jose, think is the grandson
of one of Capt. Cooks officers, John Led
| yard, who had the most romantic en-
thusiasm for adventure of any man Of his
time. He conceived the project of travel.
ing across Europe, Asia and America as
far as possible on foot, and to this end
set out from London with some $3.50 in
his pocket. He reached Yakutsk, where
he met Capt. Billings, an Englishman,
who. after sailing with Cook, was EN-
ployed by the Empress Catharine ii. to
make discoveries ON the northeast coast
of Siberi.i and among the islands in the
Eastern ocean stretching to the Ameri-
can coast. At Yakutsk, however, Led.
yard was arrested on suspicion of being
a French spy, and was sent back under
escort to Europe. Afterward he was
commissioned by the London Geographic
col Society 10 make explorations in
Africa. Dr. Ledyard, his descendant, is
an inveteTate wanderer, too, and trust
that before he leaves Eastern Siberia he
will make the journey up the Lena, as
have just done, to Yakutsk, and make a
| special study of the wonderful teeth of
the Yakuts he will see along the road,
and tell the world the reason WHY this
aboriginal race can boast of the most
beautiful teeth in all the wide world
| Three hundred versts from Yakutsk |
have seen old men of sixty and seventy
with sets of teeth small and pearly white
! and polished and healthy as those of the
handsomest American girl of sixteen.
Decay AID suffering and unsightliness
and loss are actually unkr own. A physi
clan of Yakutsk tells me that he believes
the reason of this phenomenon is to be
found in the habits and the kind of food
eaten by the natives. as we'll as to a Ger
tain care taken by them from childhood
up. In the first place. the Yaknts do not
touch sugar in any form, fer the simple
reason they cannot afford TO purchase it,
Secondly, they are in the habit of drink
ing daily large quantities of fermenied
sour milk, summer and winter, which is
an antiscOrbuiic and is very beneficial in
preserving the teeth. Aud lastly they
have the habit of chewing a preparation
of the resin of The FIR Tree. a piece of
which, tasting Ike tar, they masticate
after every meal in order specially 10
clean the teeth and gums of particles of
food that may remain after meals. The
gum or resin is prepared and sold by all
apOthecaries in Siberia and is much used
by Russian ladies. The fermented milk
is said to be not very savory drink.
First, the milk is cooked and then put into
lrge vase-shaped utensil made of frozen
cows dung, in which it is allowed to
ferment until the winter, when it is
broken up into blocks and preserved for
use in the cellars all the year round.
Now, if DR.. Ledyard would make an
exhaustive study on this subject and
publish the results of his observation he
would confer lasting benefton suffer
ing humanity.