The Penn's Grove record., 1885-07-18

ina X Tx The END or a brODdlng-
nagian syringe. The fortress is IN the
centre of the ~citysand faces the Impe-
rial palace. During the day it is part a
public ~thoTOughfaTe, and people pass
through a narrow dehle of gloomy and
tOrtuOus vaults, where heavily armed
sentinels march to and fro. and stone
slabs in inches hold aloft burning Ia
pers. But at nightfall all Is closed, and
when darkness covers the capital and
the quays of the Neva are all aglow
with gaslights. the prison here dedica-
ted to st. Peter and st. Paul remains
shrouded in gloom Ike.some huge NAV.
ever ready to swallow up all that is best
and noblest Of the unhappy land which
it curses with its presence. During the
last twenty years thousands have enter
ed its gloomy portals, and as fast as they
perish or depart the great army OF mis-
CRADLES is reinforced by fresh victims.
Most Of them only remain for a time.
either pending their trial or until they
are removed to a 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 for
years, often for life, simply by order of
the Gar. In one easement, dying of
consumption, is a woman whose identi-
ty is as great a mystery as the imam in
the iron mask" Neither her jailors
nor her fellow-prisoners know either
her name nor the nature of her crime.
She Is a number, and nothing more.
What a terrible tragedy must be hidden
in fhat urnpnaV,1g hn9Pt if il still hpatQi
The easements are cells five PAGES long
and three wide, equal to about seven
and a half feet-dens into which little
light struggles through a str0ngly-bar-
red slit. The walls steam with mois-
ture. For furniture the inhabltant has
a straw mattress and a thin quilt. q jug,
the image of a saint, and a pile which
serves for all purposes and remains
there day and night. The prisoners are
never allowed to communicate with
OF ex change a word with their ~jailorS.
Once a day the door is opened, and the
wardens signify to the inhabitant by a
gesture that it is the hour for exercise.
Silently he rises from his little bed and
follows his cu>todians into a narrow
yard so hemmed In by high walls as to
seem like the bottom of a well. Here
he PAGES to and fro for the allotted time
like a wild beast in a cage, and is then
led back to his den as silently as he was
brought out. The prison is full of peo-
pie, yet for every inhabitant of its case
mates, It's hastions, its raVelins and its
curtains there is the isolation of death.
No books are allowed in this dismal
solitude not even the Bible. If a prison.
er wants religious consolation he may
look at his saint and raise his thoughts
heavenward, if he can. 1t is no won.
der that men immuTed in these dark
places go mad. For clothing, the pris-
oners have the gray dress of common
m~aiefactors. Instead of shoes and
stockings, their feet are wrapped III
rags. Even in the depth of winter the
cells are seldom warmed, never suti-
GENTLY; at least, the fuel assigned for
the purpose is insufficient, and embez-
zled at that. Hence the cells are always
damp, Water streams down the walls
and freezes in pools on the flooG. So
intense is the cold that when the direc-
tor makes his rounds he never takes off
his fur cloak, and shiverS wen then.
-
ouf Country Before Mans Advent.
The work of the Geological Survey
for the coming fiscal year has been
mapped out and the plans approved by
the Secretary of the Interior. The
work of the map makers, while serving
the many important ends, State and
municipal, of the most exact geographi-
cal surveys upon a large scale, is, so far
as the Government is concerned, mere
ly designed to lay the necessary founda-
| flnu for fhn at p1Jpq of thn CnlQntidtG nf
the Institution.
The picture in outline of the young
continent in quarternary times, just
before the advent of human life, into
which, as one OF a series, the gentlemen
Of the department are now painting
the details. has but few familiar fea-
lures. The great mountain systems
were already uplifted and were vastly
more rugged and higher than. now.
The Southern Sea, nov the Gulf OF
Mexico, had possession of an immense
strip of the lower country and of the
great valley and the Atlantic coast,
The Pacific slope was a region OF steep
glaciers. The great basin was an
inland ocean, or rather two great
inland seas were found within 1t, of one
of which the great Salt Lake is a petty
remnant. This region and that to the
south, now SO sterile and dry, was then
one of great humidity and where not
covered with water was very fertile.
An ice sheet extended over the northern
portion of the eastern and middle coun-
try, covering the great lakes and the
bordering regions to the south for hun
dTeds of miles. Continually moving
southwark, this sheet deposited its car
goes of detritus century after century,
forming the sub-sOlls of what are now
the Eastern, Middle and Northwestern
States, and heaped up a terminal
moraine, still distinctly traceable as
a range of hills through New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and
thence northwestward along the present
line of the Missouri through Dakota
and up into British possessions. Great
tongues of ice shot off from this sheet
far to the southwark, while IN inland
region comprising much of the present
State of Wisconsin remained bare.
| There were, in fact, two great ice peri
DDS. with an intervening season longer
than the time which has elapsed since
the disappearance of che last sheet, and
during the interval forests of large con-
lltIs tONcItu kuC AdbO Va thC Oal bh'
Long Island, which was created by gla-
cial deposits, marks the southeastern
limit Of the sheet. The climate condi-
tions TO the country south of the great
ice belt were much the same as at pres
emit, and the flora was similar though
cOniferous growths were p~roport.onate-
ly much more abundant.
Through the forests along the borders
of the ice sheet roamed strange animals,
among which were the huge hairy and
more than e%lephantine mammoth: the
horse, a smaller animal than his relative
Of to-day, having well-formed hoofs
but still bearing in ru%dimentary form
one or two of the toes of his p%rimeayal
ancestors; the great buffalo, two or
TIRES times larger than his descendant
of to-day; the pig, more nearly resem-
bling the peccary of South America