The Dickinson press., 1888-07-14
PENAL SERVITUDE.
THE STORY A CONDEMNED MAN
TOLD AN AMERICAN.

Tho Miscries Of Prolonged imprisonment
In Siberian Dungeon-The Growing
Fear of Insanity-Loss Of Self-Control.
Scurvy-Suicide.
You cannot imagine the misery of pro-
longed confinement in casemate of the
fortress under what are known as dungeon
conditions (kartsernoi polozhenie). My case
mate was sometimes cold, generally damp,
and always gloomy. Day after day, week
after week, and month after month, lay
there in solitude, hearing no sound save that
of the high pitched, melancholy bells of the
fortress cathedral, which slowly chimed the
quarter hours, and which always seemed to
me to half aruiculate the words, "Tee zdais
seetlesh-ce seedee tee" (Herc thou liest-lie
here still. l had absolutely nothing to do
except to pace my cell from corner to corner
and think. For a long time used to talk to
myself in awhisper; to repeat softly every
thing in the shape Of literature that Could
remember, and to compose speeches, which,
under certain imagined conditions, would
deliver; but finally ceased to have energy
enough to do even this, and used to sit for
hours i'll a sort of stupor, in which, SO far us
can now remember, was not conscious of
thinking at all.
WEAK, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY.
Before the end of the first year / grew so
weak mentally and physically that began
to forget words. l knew what ideas de-
sired to express, but some of the words that
needed had gone from ME, and it was with
the greatest difficulty that could recover
them. 1t seemed sometimes as if my own
language were q strange one to me, or one
which, from long disuse, had forgotten
I greatly feared insanity, and my appre-
hension was increased by the fact that two
or three of my comrades in cells on the same
corridor were either insane or subject to hal
lucinations; and was often reused at night
and thrown into q violent chill Of nervous
excitement by their hysterical weeping, their
cries to the guard to come and take away
somebody, or something, which they inn
agined they saw, or their groans and en-
treaties when, in cases Of violent delirium,
they were strapped to their beds by the
gendarmes. My inability to SO what was
happening in the cells from which these
gave full play, of course, to my imagina-
tion, and thus increased my nervous excite
ment, until was on the verge of Mysteries
myself.
Several times, when feared that was
losing all self control, summoned the fort
ress surgeon, or the "feldsher," who merely
gave ME n dose of bromide of potassium and
told me that l must not excite myself so;
that nothing serious had happened; that two
or three Of the prisoners were sick and deliri-
Gus; but that thero was nothing to be
alarmed about AS the fortress contained 10
hospital, insane and delirious patients were
| treated in their cells, and were rarely re-
moved to an asylum unless they We're mani
festly incurable, or the care of them became
burdensome. The effect of the eternal still
ness solitude, and lack of occupation OH the
| mind was greatly heightened by the want of
| proper exercise and nourishment for the
body. Accused prisoners awaiting tlial
i'll the Trubetskoi bastion were allowed to
| have money i'll the hands of the ''Slnatritrl," i"
or warden, and could direct its expenditure
for white bread, vegetables. ten, sugar, etc,
to make up the deficiencies of the prison IA
ton; but we, the condemned" had to 1.-Two
upon black rye bread, soup which it WAS
often impossible to eat on account of the
| spoiled condition of the meat from which it
had been made, and n small quantity of
''kasha,' or barley, boiled with little fat
and served without seasoning and sometimes
only half cooked.
ATTACKED BY scURvY.
| Such food, in connection with the damp,
| heavy air of the caSemate and the lack of
proper exercise, caused arrangement of the
digestive organs, and this was soon followed
by more or less pronounced symptoms of
scurvy. Madame Lebedeva, who was in the
penal servitude section with me, suffered
from scurvy to such an extent that her teeth
became loose and her gums greatly swollen
and she could not nlasticate the prison bread
without first soaking it in warm water
Scurvy, even in IN incipient form, intensi
fled, of course, the mental depression due
primarily to other causes and made it almost
insupportable never seriously meditated
suicide-it always seemed to me cowardly
thing to escape suffering by taking ones OWL
life-but did speculate upon the possibility
of suicide, and wondered how could xii
myself in n casemate where there was abso
lutely nothing that could he used as an i'm
plement of self-destruction.
Once went so far as to see if could hang
myself from the small cylindrical hot ail
pipe which projected two or three inches into
my cell from the face of the brick oven.
did not really intend to take my life, but
felt morbid curiosity to know whether ol
not could do it in that way. AS soon as
threw my weight on the pipe, it pulled out
the masonry, making, as it fell to the floor, c
noise which attracted the attention Of the
guard in the corridor. was forthwith re
moved to another cell, and l never agar
tried similar experiment. They say tina,
poor Goldenberg succeeded in committing
suicide in the fortress, but l cannot imagine
how he accomplished it. l became satisfied
that could not kill myself in my cascmatt
in any other way than by biting into III
artery OF dashing my head against the wall
and l ultimately became so weak that doubt
very much whether could have fractured
my skull by the latter method.-George Ken
nan in The Century.