Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1886-05-07
CONVICT COLONIES.
DIFFERENT DEGREES OF DISCOMFORT
IN SIBERIAN SETTLEMENTS.

Exiles Who Are Allowed to Roam the
Tundra at will-Others Who Are Sur
rounded by Dead-Line Ditch - No
Sunday-Potency of Brides.
The great Barabinza steppe between the
Irish and the Obi is traversed by strips OF
woodlands-"cross-timber as they would
call them in Texas-where game abounds
and where several trading posts control the
collection of yearly quantum of furs, COM
pulsor huncing and trapping being the only
penalty imposed upon comparatively en-
viable class of e5iles-the "twelve-years'
men" Transported for manslaughter, burg
larry and similar secondary offenses They
are permitted to roam the tundra at win,
being merely required to report at head
quarters twice or thrice a year-oftener
only If black marked for neglect Of duty.
During the first year they draw govern
ment rations, which they they ara afterward
permitted to commute for all sorts Of extra
supplies if their earnings should exceed the
prescribed minimum. Some of these invol-
untary sportsmen own quite comfortable
log houses
DIFFERENT DEGREES OF DISCOMFORT.
At the expiration Of their term they are
permitted to sell their homesteads TO a free
settler, unless they should prefer to become
permanent settlers themselves, and exchange
free wilderness for the comforts and con-
straints of west Russian city life Their
penal servitude is not much harder than
that to which poverty and an equally rig
orous climate subject thousands Of our
northwestern pioneers But there is an ex-
ceptional lot, and at Telms, in the govern
ment OF Irkootsk, there are penal factories
where convicts are worked for fourteen
hours day, and required TO pass the nights
in a shanty town, surrounded by dead
line ditch which they must not approach on
pain of being shot down like wild beasts
They, too, are, however, permitted to i'm
prove their lot by overtime work, and are
treated with comparative Indulgence, being
charged with such venial sins as robbery,
incest anu violation Of the excise laws
Political oAenders go to the mines. Some
are sent to the Stanovol mountains in the
far east, where escape is physical geographi-
cally impossible Others go to serezow, or
to VertschinSk, where the gloom of their
misery is never lighted by ray OF the sun,
their time being divided between work in
the bowels Of the hills or sleep in the bunk
room of their prison barracks Their food
consists of rye bread and a slice of salt beef,
washed down with ditch water. Barring
accidents in the shafts, they work from 4
a m. 20 p m, without intermiSsion,
dinner being omitted in the menu Of their
daily meals Supper, the principal meal Of
the day, has to be prepared and finished
within eighty minutes, for an hour and a
half after their return from the mines the
drum beats for lights out
THE HADEs OF VERTsCHINsK
They have no Sunday. and only ons
IL A,ls al l. s.Al.. -. A
few men of iron constitution have actually
endured the horrors OF that hell for twenty
five years. The happy plurality die before
the end of the fifth year. Yet 50 oInnipo-
tent is bribery in the dominions Of the car
that families OF wealth are known to have
hghtened the burden Of their exiled relatives
even in the hades Of Vertschinsk By tho
collision OF half dozen officials prisoners
can be kept on the sick-list for years to-
gether, a mining slave can secure a berth in
the commissary department or even a conf
Dental clerkship, after the timely and we'll
CREASED resignation of his predecessor.
A private interview with the governor OF
Telma is said TO have wrought even greater
miracles A sick convict was permitted to
get stiff enough to Justify his removal in a
perforated coffin, which, at the cemetery
gate, was deftly exchanged for less airy,
but also less heavy casket The relatives
of the deceased managed the rest Of the
programme During the prevalence Of a
convenient epidenic another governor took
1t upon himself to detail one OF his convicts
for duty in the role of special assistant
physician, and soon afterward was obliged
to report that his brevet doctor had abused
his confidence by taking a prescription Of
his own-a rather liberal dose OF fresh air.
DIR. Oswald In Cincinnati Enquirer.