St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1888-12-22

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The prisoners had disemeorkod BE-
Soro we reached our destinatiou. We
found them assembled IN. two dsnse
gray throngs at the end Of . long
wooden Shed, which Wao -surrounded
and turned into . sort % cattlepen BY
., high plank Walls Here they were
identified. counted and turned over BY
The coavoy officer to the vaRden Of the
Tomsk forwarding psisoa Tho shed
was divided traasyerssly through the
middle by = low wooden barricade, ~
ono end a. Vhich, wAs . fenced in
closure. about ten feet square, for the
accommodation Of the officers who had
TO take part In the reception Of the
party. About half the exiles had beea
formally receiver and were stand
ing ct tho eastern end Of The shed.
while the other half were grouped in
. dense throng at the western end.
waiting for their names TO b
called. Tho women. who stood
huddled together in . group by thsm-
selves, were mostly in peasant COS
tunes. with bright-colored kerchiefs
over their heads. and their faces. ]
thought. showed great anxiety and ap-
prehensi0n. The men all wore long
gray Uvercoats over coarse hnen shirts
and trousers: most Of them were In
chains, and the bare heads Of the con-
victs and the penal colonists had been
half shaved longitudinally In such .
way that ono side Of the scalp was
smooth and blue. while the Other side
was hidden by long neglected hair.
Soldiers stood here and there around
the shed, leaning upon their bayoneted
rifles, and inside the little inclosure
were the convoy ofncer Of tho party.
the warden and the surgeon Of tho
Tomsk forwarding prison. the chief OF
the local bureau Of exile administrar
tion. and two or three other omcersv
all in full uniform. Colonel Yagodkin
introduced US as American traveller!
who desired to see the reception Of an
exile party. and we were invited to
stand inside the inclosure.
The officer who was conducting the
examination of the convicts drew .
folded paper from large bundle in his
hand. opened and glanced at It, and
then shouted. 'Nikolai Kolt1of" A
thin. pale man. with heavy. wecried
eyes and q hopeless expression Of face,
who was standing in the front rank Of
tho exile party, picked up the gray
linen bag that lay beside him on the
floor. and with q slow clnk. clink.
clink of chains walked to the inclosure.
The examining ofncsr compared his
face carefully With o pb0togrAph At
tached to the ''sta4eini spessolE," or
identification paper" in order to
make sure that the pale man had not
exchanged names" with soEe other
exile, while q Cossack orderly exam-
ined him from head to foot and rum
maged through his bag to SEQ that ho
had neither lost nor surreptiti0usly
sold the articles Of clothing that he had
received in Moscow or Tiumen. and
that his ''stateini speesok" called for.
lis every thing there!" inquired the
officer.
Every thing" replied the Cos.ack.
''Stoopair' r..Pass on!' 1said the Lieu
tenant; and the pale-faced man .sh0ul-
dered his bag and Joined Tho ranks Of
the received at the eastern end Of the
shed. i
Tho photographs ore anew thing"
whispered Colonel YaGodkin to mo;
..and only q part Of the exdlss have
them They are intended to break up
the practice Of exchanging names and
identities"
'.But why should they wish to ex-
change names?" I inquired.
..If man is sentenced to hard labor
at the mines." he replied. 'tand has .
little money. he always tries TO buy So
cretly the name and identity Of some
poor devil OF colonist who lpngs de-.
perately for drink Of vodka. Or Who
wants money with which to gamble.
OF course the convoy officer has NO
means OF preventing this sort Of trans
action, because he can not possibly re-
the names and faces Of the
four or five hundred men in his party.
II the convict succeeds in finding .
colonist who is willing TO sell his name
he takes the cOlonist's place and II as-
signed residence in some village,
while the col0nist takes the convicts
place and goes to the mines. Hundreds
Of hard-labor convicts escape in this
way. ."-George Kennan, in Csntssy.