Daily Republican., 1885-06-24
A RUSSIAN PRISON -.

The fortress of st. Peer and st.
Paul Is huge, hideous and slabsided,
and surmouuted by q thin and tapering
spire that looks like the end of Brob.
dingnagian syringe. The fortress is in
the centre of the, city, and
faces the imperial palace. During the
day it is In part q public thoroushfare
and people pass through q narrow defile
OF gloomy and tortuous vaults, where
heavily armed sentinels march to and
fro, and stone slabs In inches hold aloft
burning tapera. But at night fall all
Is closed, and when darkness covers the
capital and the quays of the Neva are all
aglow with gas lights, the prison here
dedicated TO st. Peter and St. Paul
remains shrouded In gloom like some
huge nav, ever ready to swallow up
all that Is best and noblest of the un.
happy hand which 1t curses with its
presence. During the last twenty years
thousands have entered itsgloomy por.
tails, and as fast as they perish or de-
part the great army of miserables is
reinforced by fresh victims.
Most of them only remain for time,
either pending their trial or until they
are removed TO central prison or de-
ported to Siberia. But there are some
whose fate Is still more terrible. There
are prisoners who have never been tried
and never will be-men and women
who are kept in prison generally TOR
years, often for lie, simply by order OF
the Gear. In one easement, dying OF
consumption, is a woman whose identi-
ty is az great mystery rs the man
| in the iron mask" Neither her
ja:lors nor her fello w-prisoners know
either her name nor the nature of her
crime. She is number, and nothing
more.
What a terrible tragedy must be hid.
den in that woman's heart, II 1t still
beats! The classmates are cells five
PAGES long and three wide, equal to
about seven and half feet-dens into
which little light struggles through a
strongly barred slit. The walls steam
with moisture. For furniture the in
habitant has q straw mattress and a
thin quilt, jag, the image of a saint,
and q pail which serves for all purposes
and remains there day and night. The
prisoners are never allowed to COM
nunicate with each other, nor to
Exchange a word with their jailers.
Once day the door Is opened, and
the wardens signify to the inhabitant
by a gesture that it is the hour for OK.
Iercise. 81 emily he rises from his little
bed and follows his custodians into a
marrow yard 30 bemmed In by high
wallis az to seem like the bottom OF a
well. Here he PAGES to and fro for the
Iallotted time like wild beast in a
cage, and is then led back 10 his den as
lsilently as he was brought out. The
prison is full of people, yet for every
inhabitant of its classmates, its bas
lions, it's ravelins and its curtains there
Is the isolation of death.
No books are allowed in this dismal
|solitude, not even the Bible. If Q prise.
ner wants religious consolation he may
) look at his saint and raise his thought Is
heaveuward, II he can. 1t is no won.
! der that men immured in these dark
places sometimes go mad. For clothes,
the prisoners have the gray press Of
com mon malfactors. Instead of shoes
and stockings, their feet are wrapped IL
rags. Even In the depth of winter the
cells are seldom warmed, never suffici
entity; at least. the fuel assigned for the
purpose Is efficient, and embezzled
at that. Hence the cells are alwayi
damp. Water streams down the wallt
and freezes In pools on the floor. 81
intense IL the cold that when tho direc
tor makes his rounds he never takes of
bis fnr cloak, and shivers even then.