Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1882-03-29

amelioratiOn- rhe oil features which
contained cruelty have been done away
with; the arrange ments for the transpor.
tation of exlles have been IT gulatsd and
improved; houses have been built for
their accommodation along the road;
compulsory labor in the mines has
been restricted for tile most part to
criminals whom We would imprison for
life OF hang; fiogging with the knout
has long been abolished; letters and
chains .-re scarcely ever seen, and upon
tie occasion OF every new Emperor
thousands OF exiles have been wholly
pardoned.
At present men and women are sent
in exile for all kinds of crime, from muir
der to larcency, and from twenty years
with hard labor, which is the maximum
sentence. down to simple banishment
for four years. The severer sentences
involve the deprivation of all civil right,
forfeiture of all property, which descends
to the criminals heirs as though he was
dead; and the severance of all family
relations, unless his family voluntarily
accompanies him to his place of abode,
If criminals wife and children choose
to go with HIM they are allowed to do
so, and the Government furnishes them
with transportation. If not, the autho-
rity of the criminal over his family cea-
ses with the exile. Exiles can only be
sent to Siberia now by courts, after due
trial In accordance with law. From
1927 to 1857 the number of e1iles sent
across the Ru border was $50, 755,
of whom %, ,440 were women; 33 per
cent. were exiled for vagrancy. one
fourth of them for burglary and IA 900
for murder. and homicide. One would
think to read the articles written to day
on the subject that nearly all the exiles
were sent there for political reasons,
and that they were thigh born men and
women" Such is not the case. OF the
160, 900 sent in the twenty years men,
toned, only 443 were exiled for politi-
cal offenses, and of the small number
nearly two thirds were mobiles, which
would seem to show that the common
people are little disturbed by the poll
teal offenses. About 1000 exlIes
escape every year and return to Russia,
Nearly II, 900 persons are exilea an
nually; less than one per cent. are po-
litical exiles, the remainder being COM
mon felons; only eight per cent. are
to hard labor, the rest b.ing
simply bauished as free colonists. Every
900 men are accompanied by over 900
women and children, who 60 voluntarily
at the governments expense. Ali the
exiles ar seat to the fertile zone of
South Siberia, i'll places which lie one
Or two degrees south of their native
towns. A criminal, therefore. has rather
a better home than before he was exlled.
The celebrated convict settlement of
Nerchinsk, lies eight degrees south of
St. Petersburg, and fourteen degrees
south of Moscow, and corresponds in
attitude almost to that of Berlin. 1t is |
not true that the exiles are sent to a |
bleak, desolate, uniniabited Arctic
waste. Take for instance the Siberian |
province Of the Trans-Balkan which con-
aims two of the largest of the exile mi
ming settlements-the mines of Ner-
,hinsk and the mines of Kara. 1t has |
IN area of 200 square miles and a
population of 10000 of which, 1O6,-
]OU are Russians. 1t has 677 towns, vii !
ages and settlements, and 334 churches
md places of worship. The inha-
oitants own 10000 horses, 100000
,attle, 450, 900 sheep and $500 camels.
In one year there were grown 300, 900
bushels of grain and 1000 pounds of
tobacco.