News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-12-02

every fragment of the envelope upon
which he had inadvertently written the
name of his brother. ''Chis may seem
to you" he said, like absurd timidity,
but it is necessary. If the police should
discover, as they probably will, that
visited you to-day, they would not only
| examine the servants as to everything
which took place here, but would col
lect and fit together every scrap of waste
paper found in yourroom. They would
then find out that | had addressed an
envelope to my brother, and would Jump
at the conclusion that | had written him
letter, and had given it to you for
| delivery. How this would affect you |
don't know, but it would be fatal to me.
The least l could expect would be the
addition of year to my term of exile,
or Punishment to some more remote part
of Siberia. am strictly forbidden to
communicate with my brother, and have
not heard directly from him Or been able
to write to him in years" was familiar
enough with the onditions of exile life
in Siberia to see the force of these state
mcnts, and we began at once search for
the fragments of the envelope. Every
scrap of-paper on the floor was carefully
examined, but the pieces which bore the
dangerous name, ''Pierre A. Krapotkin," :"
could not be found At last my travel
ing companion, Mr.. Frost, remembered
picking up some torn scraps of paper and
throwing them into the slop- basin. We
then dabbled in the basin for twenty
minutes until we found and burned
every scrap of that envelope upon which
there was the stroke of a pen, and only
then could Prince Krapotllin go home
and sleep. 1.-TWO years hence" he said
to me as he bade me good night, you
may publish this as an illustration of
the atmosphere OF suspicion and appre-
hension in which political exiles 1--we.
In two years hope to be beyond the !
reach of the Russian police" Poor
krapotkin! Less than two years have
elapsed, and his hope is already realized,
but not in the way we then anticipated.
When kissed him goodbye on the
following day he was full of anticipa-
tiOns of freedom and a new career out
side the limits of Russia. His term of
exile would have expired in September !
of the present year. and it was his in
tentlon to 60 at once to Paris. His only |
fear was that at the last moment an ad- |
oitIOu VI khO vi IuIGc years WOulu Do |
arbitrarily made to his term of exile. |
That, he admitted, would be a terrible
blow to him, because he had nearly ex-
hausted the little money which remained
from the wreck of his small private for
tune, and he could not support his fam
lily on the small pittance of three dol
lars a month which is the allowance
made by the government to political
eXiles in Western Siberia
The evil which he dreaded probably
came upon him. | have no information
as to the circumstances which brought
about his suicide. but there would seem
to be little doubt that late in August he
was informed that he would not be per-
nitted to return in September to Euro
Dean Russia, and that, in a fit of des-
pair, he took his own life 1t would be
Easy for such man, in the bitterness of
lis disappointment, to reason himself
nto the belief that his wife and chill
lren would be better of without him
han with him. and when once this
Morbid belief had taken possession of
i'm, there would be little to restrain
i'm from suicide. in Prince Alexander
death Russia loses an honest
nan, a cultivated scholar. true patriot,
n gallant gentleman.
GEoRGs KEENAN,, an The Century.