The Dickinson press., 1889-05-11
BANISHED TO SIBERIA.
TERRIBLE s.yFFERlNGs ENDURED By
A PAIR OF ExILEs.

a PAIR OF ExlleS.
Pathetic story of IL Russian Woman and
Her Husband OH the Road TO Irkutsk.
A Mothers .Anguisl,-Why She Would
Not Accept IL Photograph.
Two of the most interesting politicals whom
We mot iii lliutsk We're Mr.. and Mrs. Ivan
Chciniavslii, who were banishcd to Siberia
by administrative process i'll 1878. became
very well acquainted with them, and for
Mrs. Clcrniavski especially / came to feel the
profoundest pity and regard.
Few women, even III Russia, have had be-
forc the age OF 80 so tragic and heart break
Ing Il life, and still fewer nave maintained
through hu,tlships, sickness and bereavement
such cllcerfnlncss and courage.
She was arrested in Odessa in the carly
part of ISIS, at the ago of about %, and after
q long term of Imprisonment was sent 10y ad-
ministrative process to tho province of To-
bolsk.
need not recount the har,iships and miser-
les that she, Il cultivated and refined woman,
endured Oh the road and in tho roadside
etapcs between kiev and the small town in
the Siberian province of Tobolsk, where she
and her husband had been assigned n resi-
dence.
BABf DEAD IN HER ARMS.
They reached their destination ut last; IL
child was there born to them and they lived
there in something like comfort until March,
1881, when Alexander Ill came to the throne
and Mr. Clicrniavski was required to take the
oath of allegiance.
He refused to do so and they were sent far
t!icr eastward to the town of Erasnoyarsk.
n,,.,,.l ,.f,-,l a., t,I.a tl,a oath, az ,llrri-
aNce resulted in their being sent to lrkutsk.
BY this time winter had set in, and they
We're travelling in an open tarantas with a
delicate baby Is months of age. 1t was with
the greatest difficulty that Mrs. Chcrniavski
could keep her baby warm, and at the last
station before reaching lrkutsk she removed
the heavy wraplinss in which she had CHI
vclopcd it and found it dead.
With the shock of this discovery sho be-
came dclirious, and wept, sang pathetic littlo
nursery songs to her dead child, rocked it in
her arms and PRAYED and cursed God by
turns.
In the court yard Of the Iriutsk forward
ing prison, in Il temperature of 80 degs. below
zero. Mr. CllerniavsLi stood for half M hour
waiting for the party To be formally re-
ceivCtl. with his wife raving in dclirium be-
side him and his dead child in his arms.
Mrs. Clcrniavski lay at the prison hospital
at lriutsk until she recovered her reason, and
to some extent her strength, and then she and
her husband were sent 1000 miles farther to
thcnorthcastward under guard of gendarmcs,
and c~ololizcd in IL Yakut settlement known
as the Gatarusi.i o%oloos, situated in tho
"tiaga" or p~rinlcval wilderness OF Yakutsk,
lho miles from the nearest town.
There, suffering almost every conceivable
hardship and privution, they lived until 1854,
when tho minister of the interior allowed
them to return to Il moro civilized part of
Siberia.
NOT ALLoWED a PICTURE
Mrs. Cherniavski, when l nado her nc
quaintancc, was II pale, delicate, hollow
checked woman, whose health had been conf
pletely wrecked by years of Imprisonment,
banishmclt and grief.
She had had two children, and had lost
them both in exile under circumstances that
made the bereavement almost intolcrable; for
seven years she had been separated by IL dis
tancc of many thousand miles from all of her
kindred; and the future seemed TO hold for
her absolutely nothing except tho love of tho
husband whose cXilo she could still share, but
whose interests She could do SO littlo in
her broken state Of health to promote.
Shc had not been able to step outside tho
house for two months, and it seemed to mo
when | Dadc her gool-hy, that her lifc of I'M
happiness and suffering was drawing to Il
close.
81 felt profoundly sorry for hcr-whilc lis
tcning to her story my face was wet with
tears, almost for the first timo since boylood
and hoping to give her some pleasure and
to show her how sincerely l esteemed her and
how deeply l sympathizcd with her, / offered
her my photograph, us the only memcnto l
could leave with her.
To my great surprise she sadly but firmly
firmly declined it, and said: "NIany years
ago | had u photograph of a little child that
l had lost. 1t was the only ono in existence,
and ! could not get another.
"The police made q search one night in my
house and took away all my letters and
photographs. told them that this particu-
lar picture was tho only portrait l had of my
dead boy.
Tho gcndarmo officer who conducted tho
search promised mo upon his word of honor
that it should be returned to me, but | never
saw it again. | made II 20 then that it
should not be possible for the Russian govern
llcat to hurt lle so u second time, and from
.t6at day to this | ave never had Il photo
graph in my possession"
do not know whether Mrs. Chelniavski
is now living ordcad; but if she cstil living
trust that these pages may find their way
to her and show her that on the other side
CT the world she is still remembered with
cG@ce..o.:atr syinpathy.-Gcorge KEENAN, Ill
Century