The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-30
The Boundary Post.

The frontispiece of the Century for
MAY is one of the saddest and most
suggestive scenes ever depicted by the
pencil of an artist. 1t accompanies the
opening article of Mr.. George Ken
mans series on " Siberia and the Exile
SYSTEM" and shows a band of eXiles
on their way to Siberia hating at 1.-THE
Boundary Post" for last goodbye to
friends and country. The place and
scene are thus described by Mr.. Ken
man, /" On the second day after our de-
parture from Ekaterineburg, as we
were passing through a rather open
forest between the villages of Markova
and Tugulimskaya, our driver suddenly
pulled up his horses and, turning to us,
said, Vot granitsa Here is the
boundary']. We sprang out of the
tarantas and saw standing by the road
side square pillar ten or twelve feet
in height, of succeed or plastered
brick, bearing on one side the coat of
arms of the European province of
Perm and on the other that of the
Asatic province of Tobosk. 1t was
the boundary post of Siberia. No other
spot between st. Petersburg and the
Pacific is more full of painful sug-
gestions, and none has for the traveller
more melancholy interest than the
little opening in the forest where stands
this grief-consecrated pillar Here
hundreds of thousands of eXiled human
beings-men, women and children;
princes, mobiles and peasants-have
hidden goodbye forever to friends,
country and home. No other boundary
post in the world has witnessed so
much human suffering or been passed
by such multitude of heart-broken
people. More than 10000 exiles have
travelled this road since 1873, and more
than half million since the beginning
of the present century. AS the bound
airy post is situated about halfway be-
tween the last European and the first
Siberian etape, it has always been
customary to allow exile parties to stop
here for rest and for last goodbye to
home and country. The Russian peas
ant, even when criminal, is deeply
attached to his native land, and heart
rending scenes have been witnessed
around the boundary pillar when such
party, overtaken perhaps by frost and
snow in the early autumn, stopped
here for a last farewell. Some gave
way to unrestrained grief; some COM
forted the weeping; some knelt and
pressed their faces to the loved soil Of
their native country and collected a
little earth to take with them into exile,
and a few pressed their lips to the
European side of the cold brick pillar,
as if kissing goodbye forever to all
order Stroisal r. Form ranks from
4 IA Nf la ,N,tt
end TO the rest and the leave-taking,
and at the word March the gray
coated troop of exiles and convicts
crossed themselves hastily all together,
and, with confused jingling of chains
and leg-fetters, moved slowly away past
the boundary post into Siberia. Until
recently the Siberian boundary post
was covered with brief inscriptions,
good-byes and the names of eXiles
scratched or penciled on the hard
cement with which the pillar was orig
inally overlaid. AT the time of our
visit, however, most of this hard plas-
ter had apparently been pounded off
and only few words, names and
initials remained. Many of the in
scriptions, although brief, were signifi-
cant and touching. In one place, in a
mans hand, had been written the
words Praschai, Maya! ; r Goodbye,
Mary! Who the writer was, who
Mary was, there is nothing now left to
show; but it may be that to the exile
who scratched this last farewell on the
boundary pillar Mary was all the
world, and that in crossing the Siberian
line the writer was leaving behind him
forever not only home and country
but love. After picking a few flowers
from the grass at the base of the
boundary pillar we climbed into oul
carriage, said Goodbye to Europe, az
hundreds of thousands had said good
bye before us, and rode away into
C;haria