Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-10

I
protection from the weather.
Starting up he heard his fellow passen-
gers alighting and repeating the two
words of the driver, S'Vot granista
(Here 5 the boundary.
They were in forest clearing.
Before them by the roadside, stood a
tall pillar, and round about it a strange
weird group of men and women, soldiers
on foot and mounted Cossacks, their
spears bright amidst light feathery flakes
of falling snow, which was Transforming
the surrounding country into a white
world.
They had arrived at the boundary post
of Siberia, square pillar, ten or twelve
feet in height, of succeed or plastered
brick bearing on one side the coat OF
arms of the European province of Perm +,
and on the other the Asiatio province of
TObosk. emo other spot between st.
Petersburg and the Pacific, says Mr..
George KEENAN,, whose current work 1
have already mentioned sis more full
of painful suggestions, and none has for
the traveller more melancholy interest
than the little opening in the forest where
stands this grief-consecrated pill
lar. Here hundreds Of thou
sands of exiled human beings
HGu, WCUeH huu CuIiUItuy pEluCGs 4,
mobiles and peasants-have bid good-b bye
forever to friends, country and home.
No other boundary post in the world has
witnessed so much human suffering or
been passed by such multitude of heart
broken people. More than one hundred
and seventy thousand exiles have trav-
eled this road since 1878, and more than
half million since the beginning of the
present century. As the boundary post
is situated about halfway between the
last European and the first Siberian
etape, it has always been customary to
allow exile parties to stop here for rest
and for last goOd-b bye to home and
country. The Russian peasant, even
when a criminal, is deeply attached to
his native land, and heartrending
scenes have been witnessed around
the boundary pillar when such a
party, overtaken perhaps by frost and
snow in the early autumn, stopped here
for last farewell. Some gave way to
unreStrained grief: some cOmfOrted the
weeping; some knelt and pressed their
faces to the loved soil of their native
country, and collected little earth to
take with them into exile; and few
pressed their lips to the European side of
the cold brick pillar, as if kissing good
bye for ever TO all that 1t symbOlized. At
last the stern order 'StrOisa!' (fOrm
ranks) from the under officer of the con-
vOy put an end to the rest and the leave
taking, and at the word March, the
grey coated troop of eXiles and cOnvicts
crossed themselves hastily all together
and, with a confused jingling of chains
and leg-tetters, moved slowly away past
the boundary post into Siberia.
A. fuT II Cd Of ho
tarantas, and pressed forward towards
the exiles, the stern order "Form
ranks!'' and the following word
"March!' were given, and prisoners
prepared to resume their weary and
heart breaking journey
"Captain Karakazov?' exclaimed
Dick Chetwynd at venture, hardly
daring to think that he bad overtaken
the band he was following, but with a
desperate hope that It might be SO.
Whether he had not spoken loud
enough TO command attention amidst
the cIanking of chains and the misceI-
Ianeous orders and ordinations, his ex-
cited interrogatory passed UNDECIDED.
sis this Capt. KarakazoV's COM
mand?' he shouted in French.
No reply; but there was a movement
in the ranks which attracted his attention.
"Capt Karakazov!' he shouted again
at the top of his voice, his feIlow-pas-
sengers now regarding him with both sur
prise and alarm. An officer who had
been busy receiving the reports of some
turned somewhat angrily
towards him.
81 am Capt. KarakaZov, - he said.
''What is your business, sir, with me?''
"Thank God!" exclaimed Dick.
"You have prisoner, Philip Forsyth, -
at which moment one of the eXiles fell
forward from q group and was caught
with difficulty, but with great solicitude,
in the arms of q woman who, turning to-
ward Chetwynd and the officer, disclosed
to the English traveller the weird face of
the woman in the gold medal picture,
the scene of which flashed upon Dick
with a strange terrible realization; the
winter background of lurid light, the !
snow, the bearded prisoners, the hooded |
the mounted guard, the |
thoughtful student, the woman at bay.
Before the officer in command had time |
to say another word, Dick Chetwynd was |
On his knees by the eide of Philip For |
'yth.
"Great God!" he exclaimed, whisper |
ng into the ear of the woman, ''the |
Countess Stravensky!'
She looked at him with fearful light |
n her great violet eyes, and placed
niger upon her lips with a gentle sibiI-
ant "Hush!''
Dick Chetwynd had hardly put his arm
'ound his friend than he was roughly !
ragged into the roadway and literally
lung at the feet of Capt. Karakazov,
Who saluted him with some coarse words
n Russian. The next moment, Dick, on
lis feet, gIaring at the officer, hurled at
lin few equally strong eXpletives in
english. Both having thus somewhat /
oothed their angry agitation, Dick, in
french, said:
''Sir, l have orders for you from the
minister of war at ST. Petersburg, and a
,ipher also from his imperial majesty of
till more Importance
"Permit me to see them, - said the
f1cer.
While they spoke the evening was
apidly changing into night. A lantern
Eas brought, in the CLEAN of which Dick
'hetwynd showed his authoritative writ
ngs to Capt. KarakazOv.
'They are sufficient. - said the officer,
and 1 beg you will accept my apoI-
gies -
core fbaue o-dare arn OrouDfIv no rria5