Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-03-01
Two EXileS.
When Will Russian Barbarism Cease
Its Cruel Practices!
4 Sample OF Russian Justice.
February Century.

/ A Sample OF Russian Justice
! February Century.
| Two of the most interesting politissIs
| whom We met in Irkutsk were Mr.. and
/ Mrs. Ivan CherDiav=ki, who we're bauiShe6
| 20 Siberia by administrative process in
| 1878. | became very well acquainted
/ with them, and for Mrs. CheruigYski es-
! peciglly | came to feel the profouudest
/ pity and regard. Few women, even in
! Russia, have had before the age o. 35 so
/ tragio and heart breaking life, and stIn
! fewer have maintained through hard
| ships, sickness, and bereavement such
| che rtuluess and courage. She wss ar
| rested In Odesza IN the early part of 1878
at the age of about 25, and after 10. 2
term of Imprisonment was sent by sd
| mlnistrati7e process to the province OF
! Iobolsk. In he city prison of Kiev, on
| her way to S IBERIA, she was detained for
| few days, and while there was forced to
! be almost an eyewitness of the assassin
/ a1iOn of her dearest friend. yoUpg
/ man of English descent named Beverly,
| whom she had known from childhood,
! had been arrested shortly before upon
| the charge OF living on a false assnOrt
| and carrying on q revolutionary prOps-
| ganda, and he was at that time in the
| Kiev prison. The night before Mrs.
| Cherniavski was to res 1me her Journey
/ to Siberia, Beverly, with a comrade named
! lZoltskl, attem pied to escape through
tunnel which they had succeeded in dig
! glng from their Cell to point outside the
! prison wall. The prison authorities. how
/ ever, had IN some way become aware of
the existence of the tQnkei, and had post
ed a squad of soldiers uear the place
where the fugitives must emelge from
the ground. Late at night, when they
made their appearance they were receiv-
ed with yolley of musketry. Beverly
was mortaliy wounded, and as he lay
writhiDg on the ground he was dispatched
by soldier with several re epeated bay
| onet thrusts. Izbitski, wounded and Sc
verely beaten, was taken back into prison.
The next morning wnen Mrs. Cherniav-
ski started with her party for Siberia
she bad to march past the bloody and
aisfgured body of her dearest friend,
which was sill lying where it had fallen,
IN plain sight of the prison windows, Il
can bear my own personal torment" she
said to me with g sob as she finished the
story OF this tragedy, but such things as
that break my heart"
need not recount the hardships and
ml=eries that she, cultivated and refined
woman, endured on the road and in the
roadside etapes between Kiev and the
small town In the Siberian province of
Iobolsk where she and her husband had
been assigned residence. They reached
| their destination at last; child was
born to them, and they lived there in
something like comfort until March, 1881,
when Alexander III. came TO the throne,
and NJ. CheTnlayski WAS required to take
the oath of allegiance He refused TO do
50, and they were sent farther eastward
TO the town of Krasnoyarsk. A second
refusal to take the oath of allegiance re
suited IN their being sent to Irkutsk. By
this time winter had set in, and they
were travelling in an open tarant8s with
delicate baby IL months of age. 1t was
with the greatest difficulty that Mrs.
Cherniavski could keep her baby warm,
and at the last station before reaching
Irkutsk she rcstJved the heavy wrat-
pings IN which she had enveloped it and
found it dead. With the shock of
this discovery she beanie delirious,
and wept, sang pathetic little nursery
songs to her dead child, rocked it in her
arms, and prayed and cursed God bv
turns. In the court yard of the Trkutsk
forwarding prison, in temperature of
30 deg. below zero, MIR. ChernlaVski stood
Tor half an hour waiting tor the party to
be formally received, with his wife rayinp
in drlirIum beside him and his dead
child iu his arms. Mrs. Cherniavski Law
IL the prison hos pital at Irkut SIX until she
recovered her reason, and to some extent
her strength, aud then she and her hus-
band were sent 1000 miles farther to the
northeastward under guard of geudarmes,
and cOlOnized in a Yakut settlement
known o. the Bataruski oooos. situated
IN the "taga" or primeval wilderness of
Yakufsk, 165 mlloa from the nearest town.
There, suffering almost evGry conceivable
hard dshiP and prIvati0n, they lived until
1884, when the minister of the interior al
lowed them to return to more civilized
part OF Siberia.
Mrs. ChernIavski, when | made her 40
qUBlntauce, was d pale, delicate, hollow
checked woman, whose health had been
oOm mpletely wrecked by years of imprisOn
ment, banishmeut and grief. She had hai
two children, and had lost them both in
exile under circumstances that made the
bereavement almost iutoIerable; for seven
vesCs she aad been separated by a distance
of many thousand miles from all her kin
dred, and the future seemed to hol6 for her
absolutely nothing except the love of the
husband whose exile she could still share
but whose interests she could do so little
in her broken state of health to promote.
She had not been able to staD outside the
house for two months, and is seemed to
ule, when | bade her gOod-bv, that her
life of unhappiness and suffering was
drawing to a close. l felt profoundly
sorry for her,-wbiEe listening to her
story my face was vet with tears, almost
for the first time eiDce bOyhoCd,-and
hoping to give her some pleasure and to
show her how sincerely [ esteemed her
and now deeply [ sympa'hizsd with he,,
l offered her my photograph as the only
mementO [ could leave with her. To nv
great surprise she sadly but firmly de
ciiued it, and said: Many years ago 7
| mad photograph of little child that l
| had lost. It was the Ouly one in exist
ence, and could not get another. The
police made search one night in my
house, and took away all my letters and
photographs. l told them that this par.
ticular picture was the Only portrait I
! had of MY dead boy, The genderme off
Ger who conducted the search promised
me upon his word OF honor that il should
be returned to me, but [ never saw it
again. 1 made vcw then that 1t should
not be possible for the Russian govern
ment to hurt rue so a second time. and
from that day to this I baye never had a
photograph IL my possession"
WISCONSIN, LEGISLATURE