, 1889-08-22
A HUMANE
WIN n Russian Colonel in sIberiA Did Not
Answer the Generals Letter.

Why n Russian Colonel in sIberiA Did Not
Answer the Generals Letter.
regret to have to say that he was
virtually driven out Of Siberia by the
worst and most corrupt class of Rus
sian bureaucratic officials. He was
called weak and Sentimental !" he
was accused of being'a socialist" he
was said TO BIO in sympathy with the
views of the political convicts; and
the ispravuik of Nerchinsk openly
boosted, in the official club Of that
city, hat he would yet ''send Col.
Kononovich TO the province Of va
kutsk with a yellow diamond on his
back" How ready even high officers
Of the Siberian administration were to
entertain the most trivial charges
against him may be inferred from the
following anecdote:
During the last year of his service
at Kara there came to the mines a po-
litical convict, hardly out of his teens,
named Bibikof (Bee-bee-koft). AS a
consequence of long continued suffer
ing and i'll treatment on the road, this
young man was as Wild, suspicious
and savage as q trapped wolf. He
seemed to regard all the world as his
enemies, and glare1 at every officer as
if he expected a blow, was half afraid
of it, but was prepared TO die fight
ing. Col. Kononovich received him
c~ourteously and kindly; sent the wife
of one of the political exiles to him
with fresh Undertaking; attended
generally to his physical needs, and
finally said to him, ''Remember that
nobody here will insult you or i'll treat
you"
The young convict was greatly sur
prised by such a reception, and in a
letter that he wrote TO a friend in Eu-
ropean Russia he said, II am glad to
know from the little acquaintance 1
have had with Kononovich that a
Russian colonel is not necessarily a
beast" This letter fell into the hands
of the police in European Russia, was
forwarded through the minister of the
interior 10 Gen. nyashevich Qll-yah
shay-vitch), the governor of the Trans
Baikal, and was SEM by that officer
TO Col. Kononovich with n request for
an ''explanation." II seemed to be re-
garded as documentary evidence that
the governor of the Kara prisons was
on suspiciously friendly terms with
the political convicts. Kononovich
paid no attention TO the communica-
ton.
Some months later he happened to
visit Chita on business and Governor
Ilyasheyich, in tho course of n CON
versation about other matters, said to
him, by the way, Col. Kononovich,
you have never answered a letter that
] wrote you asking for an explanation
of something said about you in a let
ter from onJ of the political convicts
in your command. Did you receive
it2"
Yes" replied Kononovich, II re-
ceived it; but what kind of an answer
did you look fort What explanation
could | give7 Did you expect me to
excuse myself because somebody re-
garded me rs n human being and not
a beastH Was l to say that the writer
of the letter was mistaken in supposing
me to be a human being-that in real
ity | was a beast, and that l had
never given him OF anybody else rea,
son to suppose that n Russian colonel
could be a human being7"
This presentation of the case rather
confused the governor, who said that
the demand for an explanation had
been written by his assistant, that il
had been stupidity expressed, and that
after all the matter vas not of much
consequence. He then dropped the
subject George KEENAN, in Cen
tury.