St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-07-17
An American in Siberia.
From Engineer Melville's New Book on His
Polar Experiences


''Leon now urgently invited me to
visit his comrades in exile. | asked
kasharoffski whether he had any OBJ
lection and he said: 'Oh no. | do not
believe nihilist can hurt republi-
can So he sent me to the hut of the
exiles in his sleigh, which returned
again for Leon and myself at dinner
time. Leon was slenderly- built,
dark and cadaverOus-lO looking man with
Jewish features, though when | asked
him he said that he was not a Hebrew.
His hair was long and black, reaching
to his shoulders. He had been stu
dent of law, he told me, and was ar
rested i'll students street row. He
had been brought afterward before
| three separate tribunals, not one of
| which, however, had been able to find
any thing irregular i'll his habits of life,
and so, indeed, his final commitment
papers expressly stated. While Oh his
way to Siberia the gOOd-natured Cos
| sack officer in command of his guard
permitted him to look over these pa
pers, and he learned that he had been
! sent out, after three different tribunals
had acquitted him, on what is known
us Il government Order'-a most re-
markable instrument which closed
| with the following specimen of legal
| logic: we can prove nothing against
this man, but he is IA student of law,
and no doubt a very dangerous man."
| And hanshed for life he accordingly
was. Leon had preserved Il copy of
! his commitment papers and exhibited
them with IL great deal of mcrriment
ut the peculiar philosophy of the ad-
ministration.
In the hut with Leon, Melville found
four other young men, all political
cXiles, the oldest y and the youngest
Ia years of age. They were profess
sional men and spoke French fluently,
some of them German and others lit
| tie English. All were earnest nihilists,
though several said they had not been
so until after their banishment. Each
one had Il mournful story to tell. They
were from different parts of the en-
pire, had known the inside of Russian
| prisons all the way from Archangel to
the Crimea and were finally sent to
| the frontier for safe keeping. They
| questioned Melville eagerly III regard
to the navigation of the Siberian coast
and had number of charts and maps
| They had often talked and dreamed,
they said, of making their escape, but
1000 miles of river and 2OOO miles of
coast seemed an impossible Journey
with the means ut their command.
| Melville continued his visits to the
exiles. ''ln the evenings" he says,
several little parties were given, when
the men sang, played, ate, gambled,
drank and smoked. The women did
as much i'll separate apartments of
thei own and | astonished the assem-
| bly, by telling them that | never played
ut cards, not even i'll my own country.
Leon, who was present, told me that
they would think evil of me. They
will say to themselves, this is queer
man, who neither gambles nor smokes
he must be always thinking, and IL
man who does that is dangerous.' But
this was the speech of poor exile,
| whose life WAS lost because by reading
and rejecting he had learned the truths
of morals and politics and had un-
wisely uttered them aloud. He had
read Mill, Golden and Herbert Spencer
and lOnged for English books, for
though they had an English, together
with IL German and French, dictionary
in the hut they had no other books
printed i'll English and begged me for
the Bible or any other English book in
the navigation box, which, as they
were relics of the expedition, | was
obliged To refuse"
The hut the eXiles lived in was, it
appears, IL miserable affair, built after
the manner of Il Yakutsk yaurta, OF
rough timber plastered with mud, con-
tanning the usual outer and inner apart
ments, Il kind of weather porch and Il
kitchen which contained their fireplace
and cooking apparatus. In the inner
apartment where they lived, they kept
their books, bedding and clothes. Rus
sian illustrated papers were pasted Oh
the walls, but the ceiling was so low
that the room presented IL dark and
dismal appearance and candles were
burning there at midday. The gov
ernment allows each exile a monthly
stipend of % rOubles (paper,) about
! $3.50 i'll American coin. Out of this
they must feed, clothe and house them
selves, besides procuring firewood and
service. This is almost absolute des-
titution, for in Siberia the pud, or 4t
pounds Russian (36 pounds American,
costs five rOubles. Sugar is worth d
rouble pound. Though venison, beef
horse flesh and fuel are comparatively
cheap, all the other necessaries of life
are eXtravagantly dear. Some of the
eXileS had rich relatives who sent them
money, but not more than 300 rOubles
could be sent ut any one time, and the
mail service is SO irregular that some
times, there is only one delivery in siA
months, and only at odd intervals dur
ing the winter when some government
official has occasion to go over the
. road. No exile may send or receive
any sealed package. Every thing o
that nature must be opened and reaC
or examined by the Cossack command
ant OF the chief of police.
"My coming" Melville writes, .'filled
them with the widest hopes, for here
totore it had been considered as impos.
sible to effect an escape by the ice o
the Artic ocean as To cross living SCI
of fire, and for them, doubtless, i
would be, us there was not Il seafarinG
man i'll their number, nor one, sus
pect, who had ever seen the rolling
ocean. Yet before | left they told III,
that they intended to make the attemp
and / ardently hoped that it might b'
successful, for here ! saw youth, intel
ligence and refinement banished 70
life to an Arctic desert, without com
paniOnship of books or cultivated so
ciety, surrounded by filthy and dis
gusting Yakutsk, who were to
certain extent their keepers-for tn
natives are held strictly accountable
under penalty of the dreaded knout o
5 of imprisonment, for the escape of al
exile, since nobody could travel ia
into the country without their knowl
edge"
The exiles told Melville that all the
asked and strove for was a cOnstitu
! tIonal form of government. "Ihe