River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-03-05
LIFE IN SIBERIA.
lieutenant Me1vi1le's Account OF His Arc
tic Experience.

incidents of the terrible voyage of the
Jeanette until the vessel was lost, and
the officers and crew took to three boats
which were soon separated.
But there is much more in Mr.. Mel
| viIle's book. His account of life in
Siberia, in its towns, and its loneliess
| villages and thus is intensely interest
ing. He discusses the character
of the natives, their habits and
their resources. He visited the Of
ficials In the towns and received much
kindness and courtesy from them; hq
joined in the social gayeties; he traded
with the traders, and had dealings fa1
and near with every one who could b{
pressed into service In any way, for the
search of the lost men. But away from
| the town, on the long stretches Of ice
and snow, where are only scattered huts,
the life seems hardly human. And yet
| these wretehed creatures, poor beyond
anything we can ever dream of, igno-
rant, filthy as only degraded human be-
ings can be, were intelligent about
their own affairs, about their dogs and
the way from town to town. They
married and had children; they were
not cruel; they were, the women es-
pecially, pitiful and sympathetic, they
| did what they could for the relisa of Mr..
Melville and his companions; and in all
their misery and degradation, in their
smoky underground huts, set in the
midst of vast ice fields, these people
found human amusement and excite.
ment in drunkenness and gambling,
and cheating, and had the human desire
for gain. They are an extraordinary
study. But sadder far than the fate
of these people who are born amid
Siberian horrors and know moth
! ing better, is that of the Russian
political exiles who are sent there
| for years or for life. OF the Grim
inals who are sentenced to exile in
this melancholy frozen region Mr.. Mel
vile says very little; but he tells pa
thetic stories of the political exiles
whom he met. At Verkerarsk he met
a young man named Leon, who was ar
rested in street fight between students.
! Nothing was proved against him and he
was acquitted; but instead of being set
free he was banished by what is called
an administrative order" which closed
with these words. "We can prove
nothing against this man, but he is
| student o. law and, no doubt, very
| dangerous man." And so Leon was
banished for life. In the hut with him
were four other political exiles, between
| 10 and u years of age; all
four professional men, and ear
nest nihilists; they were young,
educated, and refined, living In
squalor, without books. and watched
by the disgusting native Yakuts. 1t is
| fiendish cruelty. These men, with 9TH
ers, inspired by MIR. Melville's success
| in reaching the Lena river by boat; at
| tempted to escape, but were terrified by
| the perils they encountered; and some
were captured and others surrendered
themselves. They We're separated and
scattered among the Yakuts. One of
| the company was woman. Another
exile was DR.. White, who had practiced
medicine in one of the smaller cities of
| the Crimea. He had committed no
| fault at all, but was sliced and sent to
| Siberia without explanation, and with
out being allowed to say farewell to his
young wife. Atone of the stations where
the band of exiles stopped the doctor
saw from the car inwhich he was confined
an old friend, to whom he told the story
of the outrage, and by whom he sent
messages to his wife. She started to
| Join him, and in some way managed to
let him know she was following him,
and hoped to join in Irkutsk She trav-
eled 4, 900 miles over the worst country
in the world, and reached Irkutsk two
DAYS after the exiles had moved on.
| She could not bear it, but went mad, and
in q little while died Dr. White was
not q nihilist, and held no dangerous
opinions. There are other strange and
tragic stories of these victims of Rus
sian fear and tyranny. Nothing that
has been written about northern ST
IBERIA and these exiles gives a more ter
rible picture of them and their misery
than this simple record of Mr.. Melyille's
personal experience.
Occasionally he describes thrilling
or dramatic scene, as the finding OF the
body of De Long with the arm lifted
above the snow and the hand bare and
open; and the solemn ceremony of his
burial on the lone mountain top IN the
| wild storm, and once, at least, he shows
a glimpse of the poetic side of his ma
ture. 1t was Christmas night, and the
seekers were crossing the divide be-
tween the Verkerarsk AID Yakutsk. It
was severely cold-ah, ferociously so,
from minus 40 deg. to 40 deg Reau-
muir; but the soft, clear moonlight was
gorgeous and glorious. We were about
1880 feet above the level of
the sea; the mountains were
grandly wild, and stripped for the pur-
pose, we toiled up their steep ascent on
foot, with the teams plodding slowly on
in front. Above rs ON either side the
gigantic peaks lifted their heavy heads
far into the blue vault of heaven silent
frigid and white. All! What grand
eur! rejoiced that it was night, and
so cold and still, for they filled me with
an awe, those snowy SUBMITS bathed IN
the silver radiance of an Arctic moon,
such as had never known before. And
though twice recrossed the divide, yet
the spell was not upon me as on that
wonderful night, and the splendor
then saw can never depart from my
memory" This is in marked contrast
with the trading and the degradation,
with the suffering and the rough deal
ings that fill so many pages. Here
is a touch that tells a story
of the gallant bearing of hardship and
exposure: "At length we turned into
our sleeping bags, cold and tired. We
had no oil-cloth to sleep upon; but
nevertheless were soon warm and COM
Portable, for the snow is soft and dry,
and forms much better bed than hard
ice, or even the harder boards in the
Yakut hut. When camping out in win
ter time, this is point to remember
and observe, but in summer, when the
snow is wet, it should be avoided. The
only good thing in the Arctic region is
that thunder and lightning are UNI
known.
The best clad and the happiest of the
exiles whom Mr. Melville saw in Siberia
were the Scaups, religious sect in
Russia which the government has entire
" failed to crush. In some respects they
resemble the American Shakers, whom
they call wet Scaups, they themselves be-
ing Dry They live in communities,
are farmers, and send every variety of
produce to market. They are intelli-
gent but sto1id; they are sober, frugal
and industrious. They have no chill
dren, and their one desire is to be rich.
They have several villages along the
Lena river, and, in spite of their pros
perity, are very unpleasing set OF IA