The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1888-11-08
RECEPTION or ExILEs.
How Russian Political Offenders ~
Treated ut Forwarding Prisons.

RECEPTION OF ExILES
How Russian Political Offenders AS
Treated at Forwarding Prisons.
The prisoners had disembarked be.
fore we reached our destination. We
found them assembled in two dense
gray throngs at the end Of long
wooden shed, which was surrounded
and turned into sort Of cattlepen by
high plank wall. Here they were
identified, counted and turned over by
the convoy officer to the warden Of the
Tomsk forwarding prison. The shed
was divided transversely through the
middle by low wooden barricade, at
one end of which 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 been
formally received and were stand
ing at the eastern end Of the shed,
while the other half were grouped in
dense throng at the western end,
waiting for their names to be
called. The women, who stood
huddled together in a group by them
selves, were mostly in peasant cos
TUNES, with bright-colored kerchiefs
over their heads, and their faces, l
thought, showed great anxiety and ap-
prehension. The men all wore long
gray overcoats over coarse linen 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 longitudinaliy in such
way that one 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 officer OF the party.
the warden and the surgeon of the
Tomsk forwarding prison, the chief OF
the local bureau of exile administra-
tior, and two or three other officers.
all in full uniform. Colonel Yagodkin
introduced us IS American travellers
who desired to see the reception of an
exile party. and we We're invited to
stand inside the lnclosure.
The officer who was conducting tho
examination Of the convicts drew a
folded paper from larss bundle in his
hand, opened and glanced at 1t, and
then shouted, "Nikolai Koltsof!' A
thin, pale man, with heavy, wearied
eyes and a hopeless expression of face,
who was standing in the front rank Of
the exile party, picked up the gray
linen bag that lay beside him on the
floor, and with slow clink, clink,
clink Of chains walked to the inclosure.
The examining officer compared his
face carefully with photograph at
tached to the 'stateini speesok," or
identification paper" in order to
make sure that the pale man had not
Exchanged Names with some other
exile, while a Cossack orderly exam
ined him from head to foot and rum
maged through his bag to see that he
had neither lost nor surreptitiously
sold the articles Of clothing that he had
received in Moscow or Tiumen, and
that his "stateini speesok" called for.
'Is every thing there?" inquired the
officer.
Every thing" replied the Cossack.
"Stoopai" ["Pass on']said the Lieu
tenant; and the pale-faced man shoul-
dered his bag and joined the ranks Of
the received at the eastern end of the
shed.
The photographs are new thing"
whispered Colonel Yagodkin to me;
land only a part of the exiles have
them. They are intended to break up
the practice of exchanging names and
Identities"
But why should they wish to ex-
change namesP" inquired.
"If man is sentenced to hard labor
at the mines," he replied, land has a
little money. he always tries to buy So
cretly the name and identity Of some
poor devil of Il colonist who longs des-
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-
member the names and faces Of the
four or five hundred men in his party.
If the convict succeeds in finding
colonist who is willing to sell his name
he takes the colonist's place and is as
signed residence in some village,
while the colonist takes the convict's
place and goes to the mines. Hundreds
of hard-labor convicts escape in this
way. "-Gcorge kennan, tn Century.
Cruelty to a Father.