Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-07-22
A Russian PRISON.

The fortress of st. Peter and st. Pau
Is huge, hideous and slabsided, and
surmounted by a thin and taperlng spirt
that looks like the end of a Brobding.
nagian syringe The fortress is In the
centre of the city. and faces the lmpe
rial palace. During the day it is part a
public thoroughfare, and people pas
through narrow detile 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 like 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 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 Car. In one easement, dying of
consumption, is woman whose identi-
ty is as greata 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 terrible tragedy must be hidden
in that woman's heart, if it still beatsl
The easements are cells i've PAGES long
and three wide, equal to about seven
and half feet-dens into which little
light struggles through strongly-bar-
red slit. The walls steam with mOis-
ture. For furniture the inhabltant has
a straw mattress and q thin quilt, jug,
the image of saint, and pile which
serves for all purposes and remains
there day and night. The prisoners are
never allowed to communicate with
or ex change 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.
he rises from his little bed and
follows his custodians into 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 wild beast in 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, its hastions, its ravellns and its
curtains there is the isolation of death.
No books are allowed in this dismal
solitude not even the Bible. If prison
er wants religious consolation he may
look at his saint and raise his thoughts
if he can. II is no won
der that men immured in these dark
places go mad. For clothing, the pris-
oners have the gray dress of common
Instead of shoes and
stockings, their feet are wrapped III
rags. Even in the depth of winter the
cells are seldom warmed, never sutii-
ciently, at least, the fuel assigned for
the purpose is insufficient. and embeZ-
zled at that. II nee the cells are always
damp, Water streams down the walls
and freezes in pools on the floor. So
intense is the cold that when the direc-
tor makes his rounds he never takes off
his fur cloak, and shivers even then.
Our Country Before Mans Advent.
The work of the Geological Survey
for the coming fiscal year has been
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
of the most exact geographi-
cal surveys upon large scale, is, so far
as the Government is concerned, mere
ly designed to lay the necessary founda-
ton for the studies of the scientists of
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 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, now 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 region OF steep
glaciers. The great basin was an
inland ocean, or rather two great
inland seas were found within it, 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 ana where not
covered with water was very fertile.
An ice sheet extended ever the northern
portion of the eastern and middle coun-
try, covering The great lakes and the
bordering regions TO the south for hun
ireds OF miles. Continually moving
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
noraine, still distinctly traceaOle as
, range of hills through New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and
thence nOrthwestward along the present
inc of the Missouri through Dakota
and up into British possessions. Great
tongues of ice shot off from this sheet
lar to the southwark, while an 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
han the time which has elapsed since
he disappearance of che last sheet, and
Turing the interval forests Of large con-
fers covered the face of the earth.
Long Island. which was created by gla-
,ial deposits, marks the southeastern
INIT of the sheet. The climate condi-
tons to the country south of the great
ce belt were much the same as at pres
mt, and the fora was similar though
,oniferous growths were proportionate-
" 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 elephantine mammoth: the
horse, smaller animal than his relative
Of to-day, having well-formed hoofs
but still bearing in rudimentary form
one or two of the toes of his prlmeaval