The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1889-03-09
A WIFE'S DEVOTION.
The Story OF Helpless Victim OF
Russian Cruelty.

CnermlROI, u sklliul ana accomplished
young surgeon named DIR. Baltic, writes
Mr.. George KEENAN, in one Of his Century
articles on Russia. Although he was a
man Of liberal views, he was not an agita-
tor nor revolutionist, aud had taken no
active part in political affairs. Some time
in the late winter or early spring Of 1879
there came TO him, with letters Of intro
duction, two young women who had been
studying in one Of the medical schools for
women in st. Petersburg, and had been ex-
PEELED and ordered to return to their
homes in central Russia on account of their
alleged political untrustworthnes -
tneblag0nadezhnosD They were very
anxious to complete their education and to
fit themselves for useful work among the
peasants; and they begged Dr. Baltic to
aid them in their studies, to hear their
recita:ions, and to allow them to make use
OF his library and the facilities Of his
Office. As they were both in an illegal"
position.-that is, were living in a place
where, without permission from the
authorities, they had no right to bet was
DR.. Baillle's duty as loyal subject 10 hand
them over to the police, regardless Of the
fact that they had come to him with
letters OF introduction and petit
ton for help He happened, how
ever, to be "a man OF courage, independence
and generous instincts; and instead Of be-
traying them, he listened with sympathy 10
their story, promised them his aid, intro
duced them to his wife, and began to give
them lessons. The year 1879 was year OF
intense revolutionary activity IN Russia.
Attempts were constantly being made by
the terrorists to assassinate high Govern
ment officials; and the police in all parts OF
the empire, were more than usually suspi-
cious and alert. The visits of the young
girls to Dr. Baillie's house and Office soon
attracted the attention Of the local authori-
ties in Ivangorod, and they took steps to as
certain who they were and where they had
come from. An investigation showed that
one OF them was living on u forged pass
port, while the other had none, and that
both had been expelled from st. Petersburg
for political "untrustworthness.n Their
unauthorized appearance in Ivangorod,
when they should have been al their homes,
and their half-secret vislts-generally at
night to the house Of DR.. Halllie, were re-
garded as evidence Of Il political conspiracy,
and on the 10th of May, $50, both they and
the young surgeon were arrested and eX-
lied by administrative process to Siberia
DIR. Baltic eventually was sent to the arctic
village Of Verkhoyansk, latitude Gi.3O, in
the province Of Yaliutsk, where he was
seen in 1857 by Engineer Melville, Lieuten-
ant Eisenhower, Mr.. W. H. Glider and
all the survivors of the arctic ex-
plOring steamer Jeanette. At the time
OF DR.. Baillie's punishment, his wife,
beautiful young woman, twenty-four or
unptx tt,ax anf
tinemcnt, and was therefore unable to go to
Siberia with him. AS soon as possible,
however, after the birth of her child, and
before she had fully recovered her strength,
she left her nursing baby with relatives and
started on journey of more than 5000
miles to join her husband in a village stu
ated north OF the Arctic Circle and near the
Asiatic pole Of cold. She had not the
necessary means to make such Journey by
rail, steamer and post, as Lieutenant
Scheutze made it in 1885, and was there
tore forced to ask permission Of the
Minister Of the Interior to travel
with party Of exles. AS far as the CITY of
Tomsk in Western Siberia, both political
and common criminal exiles are transported
in convict trains or barges Beyond that
point the common criminals walk, and the
OF about sixty miles week, stopping in an
etape every third day for rest At this rate
of progress Mrs. Balllie would have reached
her husbands place of exile ouly after six
teen months of incessant hardship, priya-
ton and suffering. But she did not reach it.
For many weeks her hope, courage and love
sustained her, and enabled her to endure
without complaint the jolting, the suffocat-
lnQt the csnrpbipy
autumnal rains on the road, and the bad
food, the plank sleeping benches, the YER
min, and the pestilential air of the etapes;
but human endurance has it's limits. Three
or four months of this unrelieved misery.
with constant anxiety about her husband
and for the babe that for her husbands
sake, she had abandoned IN Russia. broke
down her health and her spirit. She sank
into deep dependency and eventually began
10 show signs of mental alteration After
passing krasnoyarsk her condition be.
came such that any sudden shock
was likely completely to overthrow her
reason-and the shock soon came. There
arc two villages in Eastern Siberia whose
lanes ure almost alike-V erkholensk and
Verkhoyansk. The former is situated ON
the river Lena, only $50 miles from Irkutsk.
while the latter is on the head waters of the
Yana, and is distant from Irkutsk nearly
2,1OO miles. AS the party with which she
was travelling approached the capital OF
Eastern Siberia her hope, strength and
courage seemed to revive. Her husband,
she thought, was only a few hundred miles
away, and in few more weeks she would
be in bis arms. She talked OF him constant
ly. counted the verstposts which measured
her slow progress toward him, and literally
lived upon the expectation Of speedy re-
union with him A few stations west of
lrkutsk she accidentally became aware, for
the first time, that her husband was not in
Verkholensk, but in Verkhoyansk; that she
was still separated from him bv nearly 4 ono