Rock Island daily Argus., 1888-12-13
BANlSHEo TO SIBERIA FOR LIFE.


Something About Felix Volkhofskf and
His Devoted, Heroic Wife.
To me, perhaps. the most attractive and
sympathetic of tho Tonsk exiles WAS the
Russian author Felix VoIkhofski, who YVES
banished to Siberia for life IN 1873 upon the
charge OF Belonging to q society that in
tends, at a more or less remote time in the
future, to overthrow the existing form of
government writes George kennan in The
Century.
He was about IS years of age at the time
made his acquaintance, and was man of
cultivated mind, warm heart and high aspi-
rations. He knew English well, was familiar
with American history and literature and
had, believe, translated into Russian many
OF the poems of Longfellow.
He spoke TO me with great admiration,
remember, Of Longfellow's Arsenal at
Springfield and rectei it TO me aloud He
was one of the most winning and lovable
men that it has ever been my good fortune
to know; but his life had been terrible
tragedy.
His health had been shattered by long i'm
| prisonment in the fortress of Petropavlovsk;
his hair was prematurely white; and when
| his face was in repose there seemed TO be an
expression of profound melancholy in his
dark brown eyes
l became intimately acquainted with him
and very warmly attached TO him; and
when bade him good-by for the last time
on my return from Eastern Siberia in 1885,,
he put his arms around me and kissed me,
and said: George Ivanovitch, please don't
forget u.s. In bidding you good-by, l fee
as II something were going out OF my life
that would never again come into it."
Since my return to America | have heard
from Mr.. Vokhofski only once. He wrote
me profoundly sad and touching letter, il
which he informs me Of the death of his wife
by suicide. He himself had been thrown ouI
Of employment by the suppression Of tht
liberal Tomsk newspaper, The Siberian Ga
zette and his wife, whom Iremember as {
pale delicate, sad faced woman, 25 or 8
years of age, had tried to help him suppor
their family of young children by giving
private lessons and by taking i'll sewing.
Anxiety and overwork had finally broker
down her health; she had become an invalid
and in a morbid state of mind, brought on b,
unhappinesS and disease, she reasoned her
self into the belief that she was an incum
brance, rather than a help, to her husband
and her children, and that they would ulti
mately be better off if she were dead.
A little more than a year ago she put al
end to her unhappy life by shooting hersel
through the head with O pistol. Her hus
band was devotedly attached to her, and he
death, under such circumstances and in sue
a way, was terrible blow to him.
He sent me with his letter SMALL WORT
leather matchbox, which had been given b
Prince Pierre krapotkin to his exiled brothe
Alexander, which the latter had left to VolE
hofski, and which yolkhofski had in tur
presented to his wife short time before he
death
The car may whten the hair of such me
as Felix Volkhofski in the silent bombproo
classmates OF the fortress, and he may sen
them in gray convict overcoats to Siberia
but time will come, in the providence c
God, when their names will stand highe
than his on the roll of history, and when th
record of their lives and sufferings will be
source of heroic inspiration to all Russian
who love liberty and their country.