The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-06-04
AN EzILE'S TALE.
A Siberian Tells the Story Of His
Imprisonment
TO MANY CANADIAN ADMIRERS.
lie has the Peculiarly Russian Characteristic
of Being a Martyr and Hero-The
Dominion is Lionizing the Bear

Especial to THE HERALp-Exaniner Dispatch
OTTAWA, June 3.-Mr. Felix Ebrant, a
Siberian exile, who some months ago es-
capped to Canada, is being honized through
out the Doya;sion. He says that his first
arrest resulted from letter sent to stu
dent who himself had been arrested and
searched. He was twenty-one years of
age at that time. The gems d'armes ar
rived at the house at midnight. He was
told to dress himself and was taken in a
sleigh to the secret police department at
Moscow and thence to st. Petersburg,
where he was put in q solitary cell. He
was well fed and could see the court yard
from his window, but he had no books and
no recreation to divert his mind. 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 he was thus diverting
hllnself ne took the paper away. His
mother hnally contriVed to see him, but
their interviews, held in presence of gems
4 d armes. were naturally very constrained,
fand they dare not mention the names of
mutual friends for fear of getting them
INTO trouble. After eight months solitary
confinement be 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 60 without learning the
why or wherefore of his arrest. He mad
only been free about a year when he was
again arrested and placed in a dirty cell
where he could not take four steps either
way. He was charged with melting stu
dents when as matter of fact at the II eet-
ing held by them, he had used all his efforts
TO show them the uselessness of their pro-
posed plans. He dared not urge this fact
IN self defense, however, 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 the solitary
cell. AT the end of two and half wears
he was brought to trial and acquitted. In
tthe meantime his health and nerves had
become completely shattered, and upon his
release he broke down utterly. becoming
seized with typhoid fever.
In Odessa he became a member of a
secret society for the purpose of lettering
the condition of the people. For third
time he was arrested 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 his fellow prisoners
which before had done so much to vile
away the time. He spent whole year in
this way and when he saw his mother it
was with difficulty he could think of words
reason and the eXpedient he adopted was
that of composing poem regarding a Rus
sian historical incident. He had to memoir
lie the lines, having nothing to write with,
and In this way ne composed 27S verses.
he waited three years for his Indictment.
Finally his cell door was opened one day.
and two soldiers seized him. beating him
with their iron lists almost all the way to
the room where he was tried. He was
brought to trial with 167 others and as evil
dence Of the terrible condition they were
all in, no less than five died during
the hearing: They had no jury.
He had been brought up as lawyer and
FINALLY entered upon literary works,
so that in place of enlightening
people there was no chance what
ever for him to exercise his talents in
these directions. He managed by manual
labor to make $40 month and thus he
lived Tor five years until he received per
mission to go home. At the end of five
years he was ordered to leave and he re-
ceived good place in the bench of lrkutsh.
The third month Of his stay there he was
ordered to leave town and then he went to
Hnother place and engaged in business
with friend. He had only been there a
= short time when he received orders to get
out within three days. His record as an
exile was sent after him wherever
he went and consequently there was
no place wherein, he could rest.
II was then he determined to escape, and
securing three months passport to 90
anywhere in Siberia, save the places from
which he had been expelled, he startsd on
his journey. Finally he reached Siberian
port on the Pacific and found there were
four foreign ships in port, including an
English steamer. He went on board and
asked the captain if he would take him as a
passenger TO Japan. He told the captain
he had no passport and asked if that wou1d
make any difference. The captain hest
tated and he then told him his whole story.
Finally the captain promised to take him.
telling him to come aboard next day. AL
together he has spent seven years in soil
tary confinement and his exile in Siberia.