The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-11-01
ARUsSIAN CHAIN GANG.
PEN PICTURE OF NOT lNFREQUENT
SCENE IN THE CARS DOMINION.


SCENE IN THE CARS DOMINION.
"What's the matter here" asked l,
finding q considerable crowd assem-
bled around the long low front of the
great Eastern depot at Moscow, the
starting point of the railway that cou-
meets Russa's old capital with the
famous commercial centre Nijnii-Nov-
gorod, on the upper Volga.
'Some fellows going along the VIad-
imir road" said passer-by, carelessly.
shivered involuntarilv at the words,
which are a provebial phrase in Russia
for transportation to Siberia, the manu-
featuring town of Vladimir standing
on the great Eastern highway, which
is the most direct route to the penal
settlements But before | had time to
reply a peculiar chinking sound-only
too familiar to my ear from r.y 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 procession
came filing through it.
1t was a strange spectacle, and not
without a certain gloomy picturesque
ness of its own, sad and heart-sicken-
ing though it was. Most of the prison
ers had the sulen, dogged look of the
hardened social outlaw, who wages a
lifelong war against society, neither
giving or expecting mercy. In hesunk-
en- eyes of others lurked the half COW.
ed, half-ferocious glare Of trapped
beast of prey, as they kept glanciug
stealthily but ceaselessly around them,
bent upon attempting an escape, or
upon some other venture more desper-
ate still, if they could but find a Fit
moment and ready weapon.
Isaw one white-haired old man, very
poorly dressed, whose haggard face,
hollow eyes and bowed attitude OF ut
ter dependency showed that he had
reached the lowest depth OF misery
where hope ceases to exist. and all that
can be wished or expected is a lessen
ed measure of wretchedness. Behind
him came several young lads-evident
ly professional criminals, with whol,
lifetime of viciousness and guilt brand
ed on their beardless faces, which hac
barely outgrown the years of boyhood
These strove to assume an air of swag
gering and reckless defiance; but the
poor pretense imposed upon no one
and least of all upon the stalwar
soldiers that marched beside them,
who, knowing we'll what real courage
is, looked down with just contempt or
this miserable affectation of it.
Almost at the end of the gloomy
file came the figure of woman, still
young, whose face wasted and deform
ed though it was by vice and misery
still bore manifest traces of forme
beauty. The hardness and heavin 81
of the lower features-a characteristic
defect with nearly all women of Sla
vonian race-contrasted startingly wit
the unnatural brilliancy of her wonder
full eyes, which kept glaucing arorn'
with fierce restlessness that reminded
me of the look which l had once seel
IN the eyes of a shared wolf.
"What has she donel" inquired / o
one of the guards.
''Murdered her child" said the maj
quite coolly, and asked him no more
Suddenly there broke from tn
crowd voice as sharp and full o
agony as the cry of sleep wake
suddenly awakened, "Ach Meesha
moi Meesha!" (Oh, Michael my Mich
aeD
Framed in the darkness of tn
prison-car door way stood a solitar
form, the last of that doomed band
taking his farewell look of the worl'
he was leaving. The face was that o
a young man, and though white AM
shrunken as the face of corpse, it ha
in it a nameless something whicl
showed him to be far above the fou
creatures with whom it was now hi
doom to live forever.
At the cry he turned his head, and
had just caught passing glimpse of
young girl in the orowd-she perhaps
Tor whose sake he had plunged int,
crime--stretching out her arms to hin
despairingly, when the whistle sound
ed its warning scream. | had barrel!
time to spring into my own car whe'
the fatal door shut upon its prisone
with dull thud, like the falling of
coffin lid There came long grind
ing creak; and off went the train au
its dismal freight. looked out tn
girl was gone, but | could see far il
the distance two gray coated "gorodc
Wye" "(constables) carrying away a mo
tionless figure between them,-Dagtt
Rer in Harper's.