The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-11-21
A RECEPTION OF EXILES.
EXAMINING RUSSIAN PRISONERS
DESTINED FOR SIBERIA.

With Heads Half Shaved
Identifying by Photographs
A Ruse of Prisoners.
From George Kennan's latest article !
in the Century on life among Russian
exiles, we quote the following The
prisoners had disembarked before we
reached our destination. We found them
assembled in two dense gray throngs
at the ends of a long wooden shed,
which was surrounded and turned into
sort of cattle pen by a 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 inclosure, 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 lie called. The women,
WHO SlOOu uuuAlltu bbAOIlltl III a EAOhB
by themselves, were mostly in peasant
costumes, with bright-coored 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 III
chains, and the bare heads of the con-
victs and the penal colonists had been
half shaved ongitudinally in such way
that one side of the scalp was smooth
and blue, while the other side was hidden
by long neglected ha'r. Soldiers stood
here and there around the shed, leaning
upon their bayoneted rifles, and inside
the little enclosure were the convoy otii-
Ger of the party, the warden and the
surgeon of the Tomsk forwarding
prison, the chief of the local bureau OF
exile administration, and two or three
other officers, all IN full uniform.
Colonel Yagodkin introduced us as
| American travellers who desired to see
the reception of an exile party, and we
were invited to stand inside the en-
closure,
The officer who was conducting the
examination of the conyicts drew folded
paper from large bundle in his hand,
! opened and glanced at it, and then
shouted, "Nikolai Koltsof" A thin,
pale man, with heavy, wearied eyes and
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 photo
graph attached to the ''stateini speesok,
or identification paper" in order tC
make sure that the pale man had mo-
exchanged names" with some othe
exile, while Cossack orderly examined
him from head to foot and rummageC
through his bag to see that he had neithe
lost nor surreptitiously sold the articles
of clothing that he had received in Mos
COW or Tiumen, and that his "statein
speesok" called for.
"Is everything there." inquired tn
officer.
"Everything," replied the Cossack.
"Stoopai!" ("Pass onnO said the lieu
tenant; and the pale-faced man shoul
dered his bag and Joined the ranks o
the received" at the eastern end of tn
shed.
"The photographs are new thing
whispered Colonel Nagodkin to me
"and only part of the eNiles have them
They are intended to break up the prac
tice of exchanging names and identities
"But why should they wish to eS
change namesl" Inquired.
"If man is sentenced to hard labo
at the mines" he replied, "and has lii
tie money, he always tries to buy secretl
the name and identity of some poor dew
of colonist who longs desperately for
drink of vodka, or who wants none
with which TO gamble. OF course tn
convoy officer has no means of prevent
lug this sort of transaction, because b
cannot possibly remember the names an
, faces of the four or five hundred men
his party. If the convict succeeds
finding a colonist who is willing to Sc
his name, he takes the co!onist's plaC
] and is assigned a residence in some vi
lage, while the colonist takes the col
4 vict's place and goes to the mines. HUI
dreds OF hard labor conyicts escape
e this way"