Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-12-16
MAS.HUNTISG ~ SIBERIA.
f.aias amer the s.flanehbaek-." and the
Fmte of she Gentiefs.

A 81. Pc rsburgh lstier to the London
Giofe SAYS
Sorry. indeed. even when death doss
net come fo pui ana end a. has existence,
j. the lot II the convict who has suceoc'l-
ed Ia escaIing.tron tbs mines # Eastern
Siberia.
Without resourcos>ef my kind. he
must bag or rob his way tSek 10 kussin.
The alternative II seeking 1rses-e'ss.-slt
j. one which often has Disastrous
quenccs. The convict II the H.
type regards the Siberian eolorist as an
inferior. and has a saving which de-
scribes him as "blind for three DAYS af-
ter birth. But the colonist has his re-
venge. He works the supercilions con-
Wet like beast Of burden, and gives
him rs little rest and as little food as
possible.
When wages are demanded the colon
ist has an original way Of satisfying his
laborer. The money is paid without de-
mur, hut. before the convict can get
clear. he falls dead. killed by a bullet
from the gun Of his cruel employer.
This method of payment is sometimes
carried ont ON large scale. IL is adopt
ed in the case Of vagabond laborers who,
having finished their autumn work In the
fields. return to the neighboring village
to he paid off
The wages are forthcoming, and the
laborers allowed to depart with their
hardly earned money. But they have
no sooner gone than the peasant farmer
assemblies his neighbors, and having pre-
vided them with horses and firearms. the
whole party sallies forth i'll pursuit of the
vagabonds.
The retiring laborers are speedily
overtaken; most are killed on the spot,
all are robbed, the recovered money
being divided between the farmer and
his confederates.
The only respect shown for authority
is the prevalent habit, where robbery has
been the motive of slaughter, of conceal
ing the dead. The murdered convicts
are usually cut up and mutilated, and the
remains buried in out-of-the-way places.
This hunting of the hmchbacks, as
the escaped cOnvicts are often called III
derision, has gone on for years. entering
so deeply into the habits of the people
that it has escaped the attention of few
travellers through Eastern Siberia.
"Where are the men ?" was asked of a
woman left in charge of small village
adjoining the highway. "Gone after the
hunchbacks." was the reply. Such is
the prevailing decentralization in this
respect that boys have been heard to ask
their fathers to kill vagabonds in order
that they may see 50 how the fellow will
roll ON his hump" In some of the
governments it's certain death for con-
Wet escaped, or still under supervision,
to be caught returning from the mine.
Occasionally the soldiers initiate the
colonists III their exploitation of the
vagabond. The Cossack. rs well as the
ordinary colonist, covets cheap labor, and
is in the habit of rewarding with an ounce
or two of lead the convict who declines
to pass from one condition of bond
slavery to another.
During the colon Zation of the Trans
baikal region the hunting of vagabonds
was one of the common diversions of the
newly arrived settlers. From TOmsk to
Chit there is locality that has rendered
itself notorious for the pursuit on a large
scale of escaped convicts. In the Tonrsk
government itself whole villages are de-
scribed as living solely by the robbery OF
the vagabonds. The river Karasan has
been SO filed with the bodies of MUIR
dered convicts as to become putrid.
Near Fingul open woods are known as a
favorite ground for the slaughter. The
whole of the district is full of the mem
ories and traditions of Siberian man.
hunting. Heroes of the sport are still
alive Bitkov, Romanov and Zavorata
were each expert in different ways.
Romanov for instance. gained celebrity
in the village of Fingul, where he was in
the habit of lying III ambush close to the
highway, and shooting down every vag-
abond who passed. Inthe autumn even
ings Bitkov used to pick off stragglers
along the banks of the river Augar. Dur
ing subsequent sport along the Birvus
there were individual Siberians who
boosted that they had brought down as
many as sixty and in some cases ninety
vagabonds. Only upon one of these
hunters Of men do the vagabonds seem
to have taken vengeance. They selected
one Paramonich, who had been all his
life engaged in killing convicts. The
vagabonds assembled together, seizedhim
and brought his career to close by
plunging him alive into a cauldron of in
candescent metal