Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-31

"ln pity"
His lot has been ameliorated He is a..
present living in Irkoutsk"
After these words the inspector entered
the name of the convict on the register OPP
posite the number 1867; then, he ordered
him to be taken to the mine
In few instants, the exile was handed
OYER to a corporal of the guards.
''Yermac, said the keeper, here is a
man to help fill up the void in your squad of
miners"
''Three of my men died this week." OBJ
| served the corporal, as he drew a notebook
from his pocket ard prepared to write He
looked at the young man.
s'Yegor Semenon" said the latter. think
ing that the corporal was waiting for his
name ''Shall l write it MYSELF" added he
ooh! 1 know how to write" said the cor
poral, with faint smile. But need only
cipher. Number!''
''Number 1851" answered the keeper.
''The inspector directs that he shall lodge III
the fifteenth yOuTte, where there are already
two convicts."
| While the keeper was speaking, Yegor
Semenof studied the countenance of the
man, armed with a leather whip, under
whose control he was placed. He found
him possessed of grave air and bronzed
but regular features. He seemed to breathe
honesty. There was nothing of the convict
| guard IN MS face, which was rather that
of judge incapable of shrinking from his
duty
''To work" cried Corporal Yermac, strik-
| ing the air with his lash. ''There!'' added
he, pointing to a spot where a number Of
miners were drawing from the earth a
basket of ore. 81 am behind your criedhe.
The miners, covered with tattered sheep
skins, filthy and barefooted, stared gloomily
at the companion who had come to them
warmly clad and wearing huge seadog leath-
er boots bought at Nertchinsk, where the
! exile had been allie, thanks to the money
with which he was furnished, to make some
useful purchases.
One of them, going before, showed him
the road to take.
1t was ladder more than twelve hundred
feet long. Yegor began to descend, fol-
lowed by the squad and TIE corporal. Some
smoky lamps, placed in cavities of the wall,
served only to show the thickness of the
gloom. Hating places presented themselves
at rare intervals.
Yegor heard at the bottom of the shaft
the metallic sound of the hammer blows
upon the rock.
The sharp noise, the thick darkness, and
the sad and ragged groups, which, when
suddenly lighted up, threw out huge shad-
ows, together with the air loaded with de-
leterious dust, made strange impression
| upon the young man, who, nevertheless, was
| accustomed to the mournful episodes of the
| prison and exile
Nearer it was, if possible, still more
frightful the majority of these men, with
| great boards, long, shaggy locks, SWarthy
| compilations, scaly skins and sinister looks,
| bore upon their fOreheads and cheeks the
Infamous brand Won. They were assassins,
robbers, and forgers, and could be recognized
! by the squares of cloth sewed on the backs
| of their garments. A red square for the
murderers, a black square for the robbers
and yellow square for the incendiaries.
The others, belonging to the category Of
political convicts, displayed wan visages
and lean bodies undermined by fevers and
| gnawed by the dust of the ore, which sends
| forth arsenic if it is tin and verdigris if it is
| copper
They might be called walking horses.
Some were green, with bald pates as white
as chalk. Their half-blind eyes let their
| lids droop as if for the sleep of death.
They arose and disappeared suddenly
behind d rock or plunged like ghosts into
dark corridors; and one heard, from time
| to time, the hiss of a corporal's whip fall
ing upon bony sides and bowls caused by
| pain.
Yegor had been pushed to the extremity
of corridor just opened. Alone i'll this
narrow hole, as in a stone vault, it seemed
| to him that he was buried alive He was
suffocating. A feeling of terror impossible
to describe shook his body with convulsive
shivers.
| He strove to make use of his hammer,
| but his arm fell back inert and weak, as if
paralyzed.
The keeper under whose charge he was
advanced slowly towards him.
''Must [ set you in motion?'' cried he,
raising his whip.
eff you touch me-" screamed Yegor,
whose brain was in a whirl, 81 will kill
you" Then, as if prey to madness, he
added eff you wish, wait-you can mur-
der me with blows -
And he gave the corporal a resounding
slap on the cheek.
! Yegor expected to be hurled to the ground,
| to be torn to pieces.
But the convict-guard, strange to relate,
stared at him fxedly without a word; then,
casting his whip far from him, as if to es-
! cape the temptation to use it he answered
the exiles insult with these words, uttered
in tone of great calmness:
81 could crush you in my hands, if 1 wish
ed to do so, but this time I pardon you!
accept the chastisement in expiration of my
sons crimes!'
Fearing, doubtless, that he might say
more, the singular keeper abruptly depart
ed, leaving Yegor Semenoff to his unspeak-
able amazement.