Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1890-02-05

The Russians have no penitentlary system
Tor the punishment Of criminals such as We
hive. II man commits burglary or muir
der he is sent To Siheria to pay the penalty Of
his crime in various ways OF course these
common criminals are more numerous than
the political, and in a certain way sympathy
for the criminal classes Is much wasted
there as here, but If we treated our prisoners
even Of the lowest class as they do, IL would
arouse universal indignation Imagine gang
Of several hundred marched from New York
10 Sitka, Alaska, in the depth Of winter
shackled together with leg letters, confined in
Close quarters by the way, and poorly fed !;
fancy these wretched people accompanied by
their families and the suffering that ensues
among the women and children, the wives
telling along on foot, children dying by the
wayside OF Group and other infectious diseases
and no nelp at hand. This is what you zee in
Siberia. or course, you do not sympathizs
with the criminals, but with the human bo-
lngs who are treated worse than beasts
The treatment Of political prisoners differs
according TO the grade Of offensss they may
have committed. A man may be- sent to 81
IBERIA by order Of the minister OF the interior
without bearing or trial, but, as a rule, he Is
merely 'colonizsd, as 1t is called, for Ave, ten
or twenty years, according TO the whim Of
the official, and Is not subjected to penal
servitude as We understand that term. Again,
a man may be tried and sentenced for life,
but he Is free to engage in certain kinds OF
business Still another class are condemned
TO the mines and never permitted to return
to European Russia On the marc some Of
these go in leg letters; others ride As a rule,
the mobiles and higher orders arr furnished
with sleghs but lnasmuch as the temperar
tare frequently goes down 10 So and 40 degs
below zero, and it is impracticable to set q
pace OF more than two miles an hour and
keep company with the unfortunate ones
who are ON foot, you can readily understand
that the privilege does not amount to much
when man must walk to K himself alive.
In regard to the personnel Of the pris-
oners, nine-t enths Of the political exiles be-
long ne educated classes A large proper
ton Of them are graduates of universities,
and some Of them are ladies Of exquisite re-
finement OF character. OF all, it may be said
they are more or less Intellectual You easily
recognize this fact in their strong faces.
Mr.. Kennan here exhibited a large number
Of photographs which he had brought from
ftuz,lh, gave DFlei hlstDry u thCn OF
the subjects One was q handsome young
officer pictured in his shackles though still
wearing the undress uniform Of his rank !;
another was the wife Of o novelist; u third, .
famous writer; a fourth, the leonine head Of
a gentleman who subsequently, became insane
from suffering in solitary confinement; .
fifth, the face OF a mother, comely and grave,
whose little son had been taken from her be-
cause of the fear that she would bring up her
child in sympathy with her own liberal ideas,
and he is now being educated at the cost OF
the government, while she is in the mines:
sixth represented beautiful girl, scarcely
out Of her teens, sentenced to the mines for
eighteen years; another, with the splendid
features Of Charlotte Corday sentenced for
and proud Of her martyrdom. All
the faces, in fact, wore a look of proud reso-
luton and a conscious sense of SELF abnega-
ton.
1.-THE mines OF Kara resumed Mr. Ken
nan, are those to which the political exiles
are chiefly sent. Life there is simply close
confinement They do not work in the
mines, but are imprisoned in log huts and
prevented from communicating v tn their
relatives, four thousand miles away The
stories that this class Of prisoners work in the
underground quicksilver mines are simply
sensational and untrue. II they work at all
1t is in the open placer mines, and they have
frequently told me they preferred to do this
because it enabled them to enjoy temporary
release from the prisons and exercise in the
open air The sanitary conditions are bad,
aud many OF the prisoners die from what IL
called prison consumption. brought on by the
poisoned atmosphere in the stockades and i'm
proper food Their daily rations consist Of
two pounds aud half Of black rye bread
four ounces of meat, including the bone,
with few cabbage leaves or roots boiled
in the same kettle. They are not allowed
to use knives or forks, lest they should
Be tempted to commit suicide, and this scanty
supply of food is cut into little pieces to be
eaten with their fingers. The authorities
might just well imprison these people In
Moscow or st. Petersburg, but the idea Of
exile 10 Siberia is more terrifying to the inn
agination, for escape is almost impossible 1t
means an immense journey before reaching a
place of refuge and in the event of capture
an increase of hardships greater than before.
Eight prisoners escaped in 1852, but they were
all retaken. The espionage everywhere il
remarkable, for the Russian police seems to
be ubiquitous. 1t applies a. much to corrs-
spondence as to personal movements.
FxLIX g. DE FoNTAINE