Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-11-22

of Longfellov'a Arsenal at Springfield
and recited it tome aloud. He WIS one
/ of the most winning and lovable of men
/ that 1t has ever been my good fortune TO
know; but his life had been terrible
| tragedy. His health had been shattered
/ by long imprisonment in the fortress of
Petropavloysk; his hair was prematurely
white, and when his face was in repose
there seemed to be an expression OF pro
found melancholy in his dark browa eyes.
/ became intimately acquainted with.him,
and very warmly attached to him; and
when / oade him good bye for the last
time on my return from eastern Siberia
in 1856, he put his arms around me and
kissed me and Said George Iyaucvitoh,
/ please don't forget US! Ia bidding you
good bye, / feel as il something we're go
ing out OF my life that would never again
come iuto H..
Since my return to America, ] have
heard from Mir. Volkhofski only once.
lie wrote me last winter profoundly sad
and touching letter, in which he informed
me of the death of his wife by suicide,
He himself, had been thrown out OF en-
ployment by the suppression of the
/ liberal Tomsk newspaper, the Siberian
dbApAAts ALu MS Niitf NhbuA 1 ItuutAuutl
as pale, delicate, ead faced woman, 20
or 30 years of ege, had tried to help him
support their family OF young children
! by giving private lessons and by taking
in sewing. Anxiety and overwork had
finally broken down her health, she had
! become an invalid, and in morbid state
of mind, brought on by unhappiness and
disease, she reasoned herself into the
L Il. l.
rather than help TO her husband and
her children, and that they would be ulti
mately better Of if she we're dead A
little more than q year ago she put an
end to her unhappy life by shooting her
| self through the head with a pistol. Her
| husband was deyotedly attached to her;
and her death under such Circumstance
/ ana in such way, Was terrible blow to
! him. In his letter 10 me, he referred TO
copy OF James Russell Loweli's poems
! that | had caused TO be sent 10 him, and
SAID that in reading After the Burial he
wildly realized for the last time that
grief is of no nationality; the lines, al
though written by bereayod American,
expressed the deepest thoughts and feel
! ings OF a bereayed Russian. He sent me
with his letter, sm9ll, worn leather
match box, which had been given by
Prince Pierre Krapotkin to his exiled
brother Alexander; which the latter had
left to Fslkhofski; and which he ia turn
presented to mis- wife short time before
/ her death, He hoped, he said, il would
have some value to me, on aosount OF its
assoclatiOn wi the lives OF four poilti-
cal ofTeaders, al of whom l had known.
| One Of them was a refugee IL London,
another was an exile in Iomsk, and two
had escaped the jurisdiction Of the Rus
sian government by taxing their oRn
lives,
81 tried to read Volkhofski's let,er
aloud to my wife; but as / recalled thu
high character and loyable person Atty of
the writer, and imagined what this last
blow Of fate must have been TO such q
MANN exile in broken health and with
a family of helpless children dependent
upon him-the written lines vanished in q
mist Of tears, and with choking in m
throat l put the letter and the little box
away.
"Ihe Tsar may whiten the heads of
such men gs Felix Yokhofski in the
silent, bomb proof classmates of the fort
ress, and he may send them in gray con
Wet oyercoats 10 Siberia; but time viii
come in the providence of God when
their names shall stand higher than his
on the roll Of history and when the record
of their lives and sufferings will be a
source of heroic inspiration TO all Rus
SLAMS who love liberty end their country"