The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-08-03
MEETING oE ExlLEs.
Observations Made by Mr.. Kennan in the
Mines of Kara.

Observations Made by Mr.. Kennan In the
| Mines of Kara
One by one the political couvicts Of
the free command began to assemble at
Miss Armfeidt's house. Every few
minutes low signal-knock would be
heard Mt one of the window-shutters
and Miss Armfeldt would go cautiously
TO the door, inquire who was there, and
when satisfied that it was one of her
companions would take down the bar
and give him admission. The small,
dimly lighted cabin, the strained hush
of anxiety and apprehension, the soft,
mysterious knocking at the window
shutters, the low but eager converse
tion, and the group of pale-faced men
and women who crowded about me with
intense, wondering interest as If |
were a man that had just risen from
the dead, made me feel like one talking
and acting in II strange, vivid dream.
There was not, in the whole environ-
mont, II single suggestion of the real,
commonplace, outside world; and when
the convicts. with bated breath, began
to tell me ghastly stories of cruelty,
suffering, insanity and suicide at the
mines, felt almost as if | had entered
the gloomy gate over which Dante saw
inscribed the dread warning, leave
hope behind"
About nine o'clock, just as / had
taken out my note book and began to
write, II loud, imperative knock was
L Il IL. - 4 Ii,
Madam Kolenkina exclaimed in Il low,
hoarse whisper, Its the gendarmes!
Don't let them come in. Tell them
who of us are here and perhaps they II
be satisfied" Every body was silent,
and it seemed to me that | could hear
my heart beat while Miss Armfeldt
went to the door and with cool self
possession said to the gendarmes: 1--WE
are all here; my mother, | Kurteyef,
Madame kolenliina, and"-thc other
names | could not catch. After a mo-
ment's parley, the gendarmes seemed to
go away, Miss Armfeldt shut and re-
barred the door, and coming back into
the room said win smile: "They were
satisfied; they didn't insist on coming
in." Then, turning to me, she added,
in English: 1.-The gendarmes visit us
three times a day to see what we are
doing and to make sure that we have
not escaped. Their visits, however,
have grown to be formal, and they do
not always come in" Conversation
was then resumed, and for two hours
or more | listened to stories of convict
life in prison, on the road or at the
mines, and answered as well as | could
the eager questions of the convicts with
regard to the progress of the Russian
revolutionary movement. In the course
of the talk my attention was accident
ally attracted to a person whom |
had not particularly noticed be-
fore and to whom | had not
been introduced. 1t was man thirty
or thirty-fve years of age, with color
less, strangely vacant face and large,
protruding blue eyes. He had seated
himself on low wooden stool directly
in front of me, had rested his elbows on
his knees with his chin in his open
hands. and was staring up at me with
a steady and at the same time express
sionless gaze in which there seemed to
be something unnatural and uncanny.
At the first pause in the conversation
he said to me abruptly, but in strange,
drawling, monotonOus tone: I'VE
have-a- acknowledgements
here. Would yell like-to-see-
it?"
| was so surprised and startled by
his manner and by the nature of his
question that did not for moment
reply; but the conviction suddenly
flashed upon me that it was Il political
convict who had lost his reason. As
the knocking at the gate after the
murder in Macbeth seemed to De
Quincy to deepen the emotions eX-
cited by the tragedy and to reflect
back sort of added horror upon all
that had preceded it, so this strange,
unprompted question, with its sugges-
tions of insanity and death, seemed to
render more vivid and terrible the
stories of human suffering that | had
just heard, and to intensity all the
emotions reused in my mind by the
great tragedy of penal servitude.-
George Kennan, in Century.