The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-04-24
A HUMANE GOVERNOR.
Why Russian Colonel in Siberia Did Not
Answer the Generava Letter.

Why . Russian Colonel in Siberia Did Not
!. Answer the Generals Letter.
:; i regret to have to say that he was
virtually driven out of Siberia by the
worst and most corrupt class of Rus
sian bureaucratic officials. He was
called weak" and sentimental; he
was accused Of being socialists" he
was said to be in sympathy with the
views Of the political convicts; and
the ispravnik of Nerchinsk openly
boasted, in the official club Of that
city, that he would yet ''send Col.
Kononovich to the province of Va
kutsk with a yellow diamond on his
back" How ready even high officers
of the Siberian administration were to
entertain the most trivial charges
against him may be inferred from the
following anecdote:
During the last year of his service
ut Kara there came to the mines a po-
itical convict, hardly out of his teens,
named Bibikof (Bee-bee-koft). AS a
consequence of long continued suffer
ing and Ill treatment on the road, this
young man was as Wild, suspicious
and savage as a trapped wolf. He
seemed to regard all the world as his
enemies, and glared at every officer as
II he expected blow, was half afraid
OF it, but was prepared to die fight
ing. Col. Kononovich received him
courteously and kindly; sent the wife
of one of the political exiles to him
with fresh underclothing; attended
generally to his physical needs, and
&,o11u .o;d ~ 49,, TD....I. A. -
nobody here will insult you or i'll treat
you"
The young convict was greatly sur
prlsed by such reception, and in a
letter that he wrote to friend in Eu-
ropean Russia he said, Il am glad to
know from the little acquaintance /
have had with KononoYich that q
Russian colonel is not necessarily a
beast" This letter fell into the hands
Of the police in European Russia, was
forwarded through the minister of the
interior to Gen. nyashevich QN-yah
shay-vitch), the governor of the Trans
Baikal, and was sent by that officer
to Col Kononovich with request for
an ''explanation." Itseemed to be re-
garded as documentary evidence that
the governor Of the Kara prisons was
on suspiciously friendly terms with
the political convicts. Kononovich
paid no attention to the communica-
ton.
Some months later he happened to
visit Chita on business and Governor
uyashevich, in the course of con-
versation about other matters, said to
him, by the way, Col. Kononovich,
you have never answered letter that
wrote you asking for an explanation
OF something said about you in a let
ter from one of the political convicts
IN your command. Did you receive
Yes," replied Kononovich. IT re-
ceived it; but what kind of an answer
did you look for2 What explanation
could give9 Did you expect me to
excuse myself because somebody re-
garded me as human being and not
beast9 Was I to say that the writer
OF the letter was mistaken in supposing
me to be human being-that in real
ity was a beast, and that I had
never given him or anybody else rea-
son to suppose that a Russian colonel
could be human beinga"
This presentation of the case rather
confused the governor, who said that
the demand for an explanation had
been written. by his assistant, that it
had been stupidity expressed, and that
after all the matter was not of much
consequence. He then dropped the
subject - George 'Kennan in Gen.
fury.