The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-04-12
EXILES IN SIBERIA.
THE PARDoNING PowER-EsCAPE ALMOST
Observation-Disclosures INQUIRIES.


1 was informed by number of the
government officials in Siberia that the
exIles were not sentenced for life, but for
five years each. Just before the expifa-
ton of his term of absence a report up
on his condition is sent to the pardoning
power. If that report is favorable the
prisoner is permitted to return to Russia,
but If, on the contrary, the Ispravnik Ie-
ports that his frame of mind is not such
as TO make him at present a safe mem
ber of the community, the poor wretch
is doomed to another five years term and
usually is sent still further away into the
wilderness.
In all the Siberian townsI found exiles
who had been in the country for various
periods and not infrequently those whose
terms had expired, but who still dwelt
there, as during their long absence from
Russia their homes had been broken up,
their people scattered and nothing re-
maiDed OF sufficient attraction to win
them from the rough lives to which they
had become accustomed. In the large
towns and cities, such as YakoQtsk,
Irloutsk. Tomsk, Krasnoryarsk, Tobolsk
and Ioumein, many of the larger stores
aud hotels are kept by ezile$ or ex exiles,
and many have become valuable citizens
of that still undevloped country. Those
who are assigned to Oriental Siberia ar
rive in Irkoutsk, the capital, aud from
there are distributed to the more distant
points. Some are sent to the northern
and eastern towns, where they are per-
mitted to do about as they please, to en-
gage in business or in hunting and fish
ing, but are not allowed to leave the
districts. Others are sent to the mines
of the southeast and to the island of
Saohalien.
Escape is almost impossible, for every
person in the district is responsible for
the custody of the prisoners. No one
can travel anywheIe without road pass,
which states where and how he is going,
and, # to return, when. Any individual,
even the natives, can ask you for your
road pass, and if not satisfied, can cause
your arrest Should n prisoner escape. a
heavy tax is put upon tue entire district,
and thai secures attention to their duty.
And vet the hope of escape is ever pres
ent as long as youth and vigor last. but
finally the habit of life and of association
become so strong that few would care to
return to n country from which their
home had disappeared even if released,
and much less make an effort TO escape.
I fonnd myself an object of much interest
TO the eXiles wherever | met them, and
they invariably piled me with questions
concerning my journey from America
Through the land of the TchOuktchis. /
soon saw that in my case there was add.
ed to the natural interest in seeing some
one who was not one of their jailars the
deeper interest of talking to one who had
travelled alone from point but forty
miles from the "home OF the free" and
they reasoned that if he had come that
way, depending upon the country for
subsistence, why could they not go to
America in the same way? Then, too. I
was au American, and they believed that
to be an American was to be Nihiist
They were astoniehed beyond measure
when told that the only Nihilists and
Anarchists in America were foreigners
Col W. II. Glider in New York
World.