Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-05
RUSSIAN EXILES.
Eugitives From Justice Hunted
Down Like Wild Beasts.

A graphic picture of the condition OF
those unfortunates who are 1tly de-
scribed as ''lost souls is drawn in the
work on Siberia by the Russian writer
Jadrinzeff. But few of the exiles ever
attain to the possession of "house,"
by which is meant miserable hut.
Most of them are in reality the bonds
men of the Siberian peasants. by whom
they are hired; that is to say, they re.
main in their debt as long as they live,
and are satisfied when they can get
money for drinking on holidays from
their masters. But as the majority of
the exiles are rogues and vagabonds by
profession, who are afraid of work, the
number of fugitives is constantly in
creasing, who steal, rob and plunder
whenever a chance offers, and thus in.
tensify the natural antipathy of the set
tiers against the class of the deported.
The peasants have every cause to be in
censed against them, for, besides suffer-
ing from the malpractices Of the convict
class, they have to bear the cost of the
erection and preservation of prisons for
the exiles, organize hunts for the capt
ure of the runaways, provide guards for
them, and find the taxes which can not
be raised from among the deported class.
But the greatest gaps in the ranks of the
exiles are caused by the almost syste-
matte escape of the latter from forced
labor and from the convict settlements.
No less than fifteen per cent. of the
deported escape during transport.
Many of them are shot down like wild
beasts by the peasants and natives, and
an observer of Siberian life made very
true remark when he said that Siberia
would scarcely have been able to
overpower the runaways exiles if the
peasants had not annihilated them.
The most extreme measures to check
the system of escape are the hunts by
the natives, organized by the Russian
government. The native receives three
roubles if he delivers the prisoner,
~'dead or alive" to the authorities. The
people are provided with good arms and
ammunition, so as to make hunting the
escaped prisoner II perfect success. One
of those few who managed so escape was
seized in his native village, and when
brought before the court, he said: "For |
two years have wandered about. have
SWAN through rivers and seas, have
crossed Siberian forests, passed through |
steppes and mountains, and no one has
touched me, neither man nor beast; but
here, in my native village, l have been
seized and cast into chains" The es-
cape from forced Tabor has become so
common that the administration of con-
vict establishments wsre in the habit of
calling out, when receiving prisoners:
"Whoever wishes to stay, let him take
he who runs away will not need
them." 1t sheuld be observed that the
clothes left behind by escaped convicts,
so as to guard against capture, are the
of the prison authorities.
While the statistics show an incredi.
BILE increase in the number of Grim es
committed by exiles, proving the eff
cheney of the system OF deportation as a
delusion, they are equally
of its much vaunted cheap
ness to the State. The cost of trans.
port of Siberian deporte is estimated
at so roubles (S37 SOY. But in this es-
innate are not included the cost of
transport to the main route (steam.
srs on the Volga and Kama, and thence
to the place of destination, the mainte-
nance of his family If he is accompanied
oy it, the maintenance in prison till
he spring, as transports in winter have
seeu abolished, as well as the cost of
military guards, so that the expenses of
for each convict to his place of
amounts to about 300 rou-
les 1925, o sum which would be sufi-
lent to keep him ct least four years in