The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-03-06
The Journey Of Russian Exiles to the
WildS Of Siberia.

ions III siberia IN Speciai cdTIldScS- VI.
Maximof has very vividly described
low the convicts at Irkutsk, TO whose
Judgment such a moving machine WAS
submitted, declared at once that it was
he most stupid vehicle that could be
invented for the torment of both horses
and convicts. Such carriages, which
have no accommodation for deadening
The shocks, move slowly on the rugged.
iolting road. plowed over and over by
thousands of heavily-loaded cars. In
Western Siberia, amid the marshes on
the eastern slope of the Ural. the jour
ney becomes true torture, as the
highway is covered with loose beams OF
wood, which recall the sensation ex-
perienced when a finger is dragged
across the KEYS of a piano, the black
KEYS included. The journey is hard
even for the. traveller who is lying on a
thick felt mattress in comfortable
tarantass, and it is easy to conceive
what the convict experiences, who Is
bound to sit motionless for eight or ten
hours on the bench of the famous vehi-
Gle, having but few rags to shelter
him from snow and rain.
Happily enough, this journey lasts
but few days, as at Tumen the eXiles
are embarked on special barges, or
floating prisons, taken in tow by
steamers, and in the space of eight or
ten days are brought to TOmsk. The
convict barges are usually 80 over
crowded, and are usually kept in such
a state of filthiness that they have be-
oor,a raal DaStS of Infection
"Here you see." wrote friends of
ours who have made this passage, "the
reign of death. Diphtheria and typhus
pitilessly cut down the lives of adults
and children, especially these last.
Corpses of children are thrown out at
nearly every station. The hospital,
placed under the supervision of an
ignorant soldier, is always over
crowded"
At Tomsk the convicts stop for a few
DAYS. 1t is easy to conceive what a
hell the Tomsk prison becomes when
the convicts arriving every week cannot
be sent on to Irkutsk with the same
speed on account of foundations or OBJ
stacles on the river. The prison was
built to contain $50 souls, but it never
holds less than 1900 to 400, and very
often 2,200 or more. One-1uarter OF
the prisoners are sick, but the intirm-
ary can shelter only one-third or so of
those who are in need of it; and SO the
sick remain in the same rooms. upon
or beneath the same platforms where
the remainder are crammed to the
amount of three men for each free
place. The shrieks of the sick, the
cries of the feyer-stricken patients and
the rattle of the dying mix together
with the jokes and laughter of the pris-
oners, with the curses of the war'iers.
The exhalations of this human heap mix
with those of their wet and filthy clothes
and with the emanations of the horrible
PardSha.
The families room" is still more
horrible. "Here you see, Says Sibe-
rian official in charge of the prisons
NJ. Mishlo-'' hundreds of women and
children closely packed together in
such state of misery as no imagina-
ton could picture" The families of
the conyicts receive no cloth from the
State. Mostly peasant women, who, as
arule, never have more than one dress
at once; mostly reduced to starvation
as soon as their husbands were taken
into custody, they have buckled on
their sole cloth when starting from
Arkhangelsk or Astrakan, and after
their long peregrinations from one lock
up to another, after the long years of
preliminary detention and months of
tourney, only rags have remained on
their shoulders from their weather-worn
clothes. The naked, emaciated body
and the wounded feet appear from be-
meath the tattered clothes as they are
sitting on the nasty floor eating the
hard, black bread received from COM
passionate peasants. Amid this moving
heap of human beings who cover each
square foot of the platforms, and be-
meath them you perceive the dying
child on the knees of his mother, and,
close by. the newborn baby. The baby
is the delight of, the consolation of.
these women, each of whom surely has
more human feelings than any of the
chiefs and warders. 1t is passed from
hand to hand; the best rags are parted
with to cover its shivering limbs, the
tenderest caresses are for it. How many
have grown up in this way? One of
them stands by my side as write these
lines, and repeats to me the stories she
has heard SO many times from her
mother about the humanity of the
.'scelerates" and the infamy of their
'chiefs." She describes to me the toys
that the convicts made for her during
the interminable journey-plain toys.
Inspired by a good hearted humOr, and
side by side, the miserable proceedings,
the exactions of money, the curses and
blows, the whistling of the whips of the
chiefs.
The prison. however, is cleared by
and by, as the parties OF convicts start
to continue their journey When the
season and the state of the rivers per-
NIT it, parties of five hundred convicts
each, with women and children, leave
the Tomsk pri-on every week and begin
their foot journey to Irkutsk and Tran
shaikalia. A track, marked al along
with poles to distinguish it from the
surrounding plain, plowed and rugged
by the passage of thousands of cars,
covered with ruts that break down the
hardest wheels, runs through the naked
plain. In front row of soldiers opens
the march. Behind them heavily ad-
vance the hard-labor cOnvicts, with
half-shaved head: wearing gray clothes.
with yellow diamond on the back,
and open shoes worn out by the long
Journey and exhibiting the tatters in
which the wounded feet are wrapped.
Each convict wears chain riveted to
his ankles. it; rings being twisted into
rags-if the convict has collected
enough of aims during his journey to
pay the blacksmith for riveting it looser
on his feet. The chain goes up each
foot and is suspended to a girdle.