Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1889-11-21
! RusslA,s CHAIN GANG.
Scenes Among the Despondent Criminals
Leaving MOSCOW.

Leaving Moscow.
whats the matter here3" asked ],
finding considerable crowd assembled
around the long low front OF the great
Eastern depot at Moscow, the starting
point of the railway that connects Rus
sia's old capital with the famous COM
mercial center Of Nijni-Novgorod, on
the upper Volga
"Some fellows going along the
Vladimir road, said passer-by, care
lessly.
/ shivered involuntarily at the
words, which are proverbial phrase
in Russia for transportation to 81.
IBERIA, the manufacturing town OF
Vladimir standing on the great east
ern highway. which is the most di-
rect route to the penal settlements.
But before ! had time to reply pecu-
liar clinking sound-only too familiar
to my ear from my visits to countless
prisons in all parts of the world-told
me that the chain gang was at hand,
and in another moment the crowd
parted like water cleft by the prov of
ship, and the dismal procession came
filing through it.
1t was strange spectacle, and not
without certain gloomy picturesque
ness of its own, sad and heart sicken
ing though it was. Most of the pris-
oners had the sullen, logged look of
the hardened social outlaw, who wages
lifelong war against society, neither
giving nor expecting mercy. In the
sunken eyes of others lurlcd the half
cowed, half ferocious glare Of trapped
beast of prey, as they kept glancing
stealthily but ceaselessly around them,
bent upon attempting an escape, or
upon some other venture more des-
perate still, if they could but find a
lit moment and ready weapon.
l noticed one white haired old man,
very poorly dressed, whose haggard
face, hollow eyes and bowed attitude
of utter dependency showed that he
had reached tll;.t lowest depth OF
misery where horc ceases to exist, and
all that can be wished or expected is a
lessened measure of wretchedness.
I Behind him came several young lads
evidently professional criminals,
with whole lifetime Of viciousness
and guilt branded on their beardless
face, which had barely outgrown the
years of boyhood. These strove to as
sumo an air of staggering and reckless
defiance; but the poor pretense imposed
upon no one, and least OF all upon the
stalwart soldiers that marched beside
them, who, knowing well what real
courage is, looked down with just con-
tempt on this miserable atfectation
of it.
Almost at the end of the gloomy
file came the figure of woman, still
young, whose face, wasted and de-
formed though it was by vice and
misery, still bore manifest traces of
former beauty The hardness and
heaviness of the lower features-a
characteristic defect of nearly all
women of Slovenian race-contrasted
startlingly with the unnatural bril-
liancy of her wonderful eyes, which
kept glancing around with a fierce
restlessncss that reminded me of the
| look which had once seen in the eyes
of shared wolf.
What has she douc2" inquired | OF
one of the guards.
Murdered her child" said the man
quite coolly, and l asked him no more;
Suddenly there broke from the crowd
a voice as sharp and full Of agony as
the cry of sleep walker suddenly
awakened. "Ach, Meesha; moi Nee
shat! ooh. Michaell my hichaelD
Framed in the darkness of the prison