Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-06-19
A SIBERIAN EXILE.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE IN
RUSSIAN PRISONS.


Mr.. Felix Brant, the Siberian exile, who
some months ago escaped to Canada, is
being lionized throughout the Dominion.
He says that his first arrest resulted from
a letter sent to student, who himself
had been arrested and searched. He was
Fl years of age at that time. The gen
darmes arrived at the house at midnight
and reused his mother with their loud
knocks. She opened the door and the
room was instantly filed with officers.
They asked for her son and received
answer that he was in bed. The reply
came, 'tNo matter" and then they be-
gan the search of all the papers in the
house, the examination lasting until
early morning. Then he was told to
dress himself, and taken in a sleigh to
the secret Police Department at Moscow,
and thence to st. Petersburg, where he
was put in a solitary cell. He was well
fed, and could see the courtyard from his
window, but he had no books and no
recreation to divert his mind, which
could not fail to brood upon the fact that
he had been ruthlessly torn away from
friends and all that made life most dear.
He got hold of piece of printed paper
and tried to amuse himself by seeing how
many words he could make out of each
word, but when his guard saw that he
was thus diverting himself he took the
paper away. His mother finally con-
trived to see him, but their interviews,
held in the presence of gendarmes, were
naturally very constrained, and they dare
not mention the names of any mutual
friends for fear of getting them into
trouble. After eight months of solitary
confinement he was brought to trial
There was no jury, he had no lawyer,
and there was no charge explained to
him. He was simply told to go, with
out learning the why OF wherefore OF his
arrest.
He had only been free about year
when he was again arrested and placed
in dirty cell in which he could not take
four steps either way The bed was of
straw, without any bed clothes or quilt,
and it was so full of vermin that he was
unable to sleep during the first two
nights. All that the authorities allowed
him was five cents day on which to
feed himself, and he was forced to live
on bread and pork sausages. Had not
his mother come to his assistance he
must have died there. Russian news
papers are never allowed to publish ar
rests or tell where the accused are taken
but his mother, after weeks of searching,
discovered his prison and brought him
assistance. He was charged with lncit-
ing students, when, as matter of fact,
at a meeting held by them he had used
all his efforts to show them the useless
ness of their proposed plans. He dared
not urge this fact in self-defence, how
ever, or he would have been called upon
to give the names of those present. He
was finally taken to st. Petersburg, and
again placed in solitary cell. The pris-
oners were allowed to take exercise
every two days in the courtyard, but with
gendarme in front and another in the
rear this recreation was not so enjoyable
as it might seem. The only thing the
prisoners valued it for was by reason of
the fact that they could drop letters to
one another. These were generally writ
ten on cigarette paper and folded so
as to be hardly discernible. Another
mode of conversation was by knocking
on the walls. This was done by system
of knocks. 1t was only by means of
these communications that many of them
were saved from madness.
At the end of two and half years he
was brought to trial, and acquitted In
the mean time his health and nerves had
become completely shattered, and upon
his release he broke down utterly, be-
coming seized with typhoid fever. After
recovering he was forced to spend a year
in the south of Russia before he was able
to do anything, and even then he was
very weak and feeble. In Odessa he be-
,c a,nft fT, ka
purpose of bettering the condition of the
people. For the third time he was ar
rested and once more sent to Moscow.
He became deaf in the dirty prisons of
that place, and when finally transferred
to st. Petersburg he could not hear the
knocks of fellow prisoners, which before
had done somuch to while away the time.
He spent whole year in this way, and
when he saw his mother it was with great
difficulty that he could think of words
to speak to her. Then began the fight
for reason, and the eXpedient that he
adopted was that of composing poem
regarding a Russian historical incident.
He had to memorize the lines, having
nothing to write WITH and in this way
he composed 27s verses.
He related many instances of heart
rending cruelty practised on the prisoners
and says that the punishment cells were
near an oven and covered with filth and
vermin. In fact, so maddening was
the temperature that many of those
placed therein went insane for the time
being. He waited three years for his in
dictment. Finally his cell door opened
one day and two soldiers seized him
beating him with their iron fists almost