Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-20
EXILES AND CONNECTS.
A COLUMN OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS
 EN ROUTE TO SIBERIA.


 of the Brodyag-Rest for the Night. Rations.
 The column moved at the'rate of about two miles an hour, and long before noon it was enveloped in suffocating cloud of dust raised by kthe shufding, letter encountered feet of the prisoners. In warm, dry weather, when there is no wind, dust is a source of great misery to marching parties, particu- larly to the sick, the women and the children. There is no possible way of escaping it, and when prisoner is suffering from one of the diseases of the respiratory organs that are so common in etape life it is simply torture to sit in a cramped position for six or eight hours ill all open telega, breathing the dust raised by tho feet of $50 men marching in close column just ahead. have traced the progress of an invisible exile party more than a mile away by the cloud of dust that hung over it in the air.
 Five or six miles from Tomsk the party passed "chasovnaya," or roadside shrine, consisting of an open pavilion, in which hung ghastly wooden eff1gy of the crucifed Christ. Here, as upon our departure from Tomsk, 1 noticed that two-thirds of the con- victs removed their caps, crossed themselves devoutly, and muttered brief applications A Russian peasant may be a highway robber or a murderer, but he continues, neverthe- less, to cross himself and say his prayers.
 HALT BY THE wAYsIDE
 The first halt of the party for rest was made about ten miles from Tomsk at the en- trance to a small village Here, on patch of green sward by the roadside, had assembled ten or twelve girls and old women with bas- kets of provisions, bottles of milk, and jugs of ''kvass," or small beer, for sale to the prisoners. At first sight of these prepara- tions for their refreshments, the experienced brodyags, who marched at the head of the column, raised a joyous shout of "Preevall Preevaly'-the exile's name for the noon day halt. The welcome cry was passed along the line until it reached the last wagon of ''in- capables," and the whole party perceptibly quickened it's pace. A walk of ten miles does not much tire healthy and unincumbered man, but to convicts who have been in prison without exercise for months, and who are hampered by five pound leg letters united by chains that clash constantly between the legs, it is trying experience In less than minute after the command to halt was given, almost every man in the crowd was either sitting on the ground or lying on it at full length. After 0 short rest, the prisoners began buying food from the provision ven ders, in the shape of black rye bread, fish pie, hard boiled eggs, milk and kvass, and in half an hour they were all sitting on the ground, singly or in groups, eating their lunch.
 The afternoon march was without note worthy incident. The brodyags talked con- stantly as they walked raising their voices so as to make themselves heard above the jingling of the chains, while the novices generally listened or asked questions. There is the same difference between brodyag | LoS +o ho1f and novice who is going for the first time that there is between an experienced cow | boy and 'tenderfoot." The brodyag knows the road as the tongue knows the mouth; he has an experimental acquaintance with the temper and character of C try convoy officer from Tomsk to Kar>; ;,ud his perilous ad- ventures in the ''taigan-the primeval Sibe- rian forest-have given to him self conf dence and decision of character that make him the natural leader in every convict party. It is the boast of the true brodyag that the ostrog (the prison) is his father and the taiga the wilderness) his mother, and he often spends his whole life in going from one parent to the other; he rarely escapes from Siberia altogether, although he may reach half a dozen times the valley of the Ob Sooner or later he is almost always recap tured, or is forced by cold and starvation tc give himself up As an etape officer once said to brodyag rearrested in western Si beria: ''The cZar's COW pasture is large, but you can't get out of it; we find you at last il you are not dead."I
 REST FOR THE NIGHT.
 When our convicts, after their toilsomt march of twenty-nine versts from Tomsk reached at last the red roofed poloo etape O. Semiluzhnaya, they were marshaled in row in front of the palisade and again careful. ,%oI &lo NQ4 & make sure that none had escaped, and thel the wooden gate of the court yard wa thrown wide open. With wild, mad rusl and Q furious clashing of chains, more thai 800 men made sudden break for the marrow gateway, struggled, fought and crowdet through it, and then burst into the kameras in order to secure, by preoccupation, place on the sleeping platforms.
 At last the tumult subsided, and the con victs began their preparations for supper Hot water was furnished by the soldiers o the convoy at an average price of about cent a teakettleful; "brick" tea was made b the prisoners who were wealthy enough t afford such a luxury; soup was obtained b few from the soldiers kitchen; and tn tired exiles, sitting on the sleeping platform
 CT on the fioor ate the black bread, the ifs pies, or the cold boiled meat that they ha purchased from the provision vendors. Th evening meal is sometimes an exceedingl scanty one, on account of the failure of th peasant women to bring to the etape for sal an adequate supply of food. They a1
 not obliged to furnish subsistence t ? convicts on the road, and the exi 7 administration attempts no regulation of tt f conmissariat beyond furnishing the pri 2 oners with money for rations and allowin l the peasants or the soldiers of the convoy 3 act as purveyors. In times of scarcity it , impossible to buy, with the money given
 each exile for his subsistence, enough foe . to satisfy hunger. In one district of easter Siberia, where there had been a partial fai @ ure of the crops, the exiles could scarcel l buy, with cents a day, pound and @ half of black rye bread, The etape office f complained bitterly to me of the indifferen' t of the government to the sufferings of u | prisoners and declared that it was unju
 and cruel to give men only pound and @ half of black bread, and at the same tin d force them to march twenty miles day r leg letters, and in bitterly cold weather. @ George Keanan ii Tho Century. ''
 A Toad in Solid Coal.
 e The correspondent of The Colliery Qua