Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-13
For the Gazette.
PART ".

DAUGHTER.
Travellers who know Siberia and read
ers who have studied the literature of
the subject need not be told hat it is not
al ways winter in that vast region of the
Russian empire, which is larger than
Furope and has nearly as much variety
Of climate. If this last claim, however,
be somewhat e~Xaggerative, it must at
least be confessed that there are tracts
of Siberia which can boast of flowers
ana gardens, song-birds, butterflies,
clear streams, pleasant lakes, and fertile
valleys. a great portion OF the country
In the provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk,
and including the steppes OF Baraba and
Ishim, are of rare fertility; they are,
indeed, the g~ranaries Of Russia. The
valley Of the Yenesei, in Western Siberia
north Of the Sayansk mountains, is not
unworthy in Its summer months to be
compared with the valley of the Severn
in England.
Consult your encyclopedia n you will
find hat the majority of the inhabitants
Of the central provinces Of Siberia are
Russians and Poles who have been sent
thlther either as political or criminal ex-
lies; ~Ieavened somewhat by q respectable
minority Of colonists. The worst type Of
criminals and the prisoners who have
given most offence to the reigning powers
in the fierce, political c~onspiracies, are
condemned to hard labor in the mines;
others are detailed for work of a less
fatal character; and there is a third de-
gree of punishment which gives to the
political exile a large amount Of free
dom, in which many live more or less
contentedly, with their wives and fami-
lies, and occasionally even preferring
such limited freedom TO q return to their
former homes They are relegated to
specific districts under the surveillance
of III police, but are permitted to en-
plov themselves how they please. Some
of these have entered upon their new
life with their household goods, accom-
panied from Moscow by their wives.
Many pathetic stories that are honorable
to our humanity are told of lovely women
thus sacrificing themselves on the altar
of their loves, even marrying for the
sake Of such feminine martyrdom.
The general impression of the reader
who has dwelt upon the gentle romano
of Madame Coffin g Elizabeth is that
around the heroine s humble home in the
province of Ishim, the world was dark
and drearY, and had but one sad tale of
snow and chilly landscape, forgetting the
authors description of the four months
of summer that reIgned vel there, with
the perfumed blossoms of the birch tree,
which the eXiles cultivated in their little
garden; the playful focks of wilG-fowl
bh the lake; the genial character of the
air. the pleasant sunshine. Tt is true
these delights are only enjoyed to the full
by the natives of the country, the eXiles
still signing for their liberty and the sight
Of old frsepds. Elizabeth, in the well
known story, at last found a merciful
car. and this present history is not all
one long record Of imperial tyranny,
though the mercy found for the exile OF
Tobolsk and the ~interposition of the di-
rect imperial power which marked the
closing days Of Anna Klosstook and her
father, not TO mention the release OF
Philip Forsyth, are romantic exceptions
to the general outcome ;of those official
''orders of the cZar,i which fill the
bleakest spots of the Siberian world with
weeping and wailing and gnashing of
teeth.
There are instances of exiles, as 1 have
said, pTefeTring TO remain in the favored
category Of relaxed Siberian discipline,
wTetched men and women who have out
lived their friends, and who no longer
feel that they possess the capacity to be-
gin the new life that is offered to them.
Possibly these cases are few and far be-
tween, but Thousands of exfles, after
their term of detention has ceased, con-
time in the country, becoming farmers,
traders, trappers, and following the oc-
equations from which they had been car
Rad off hy Tha sfronu o-d 4nn nfTen ga
cret arm Of the law.
Johannes Klosstock had, for some
years, been permitted the highest privi-
leges allowed the exile; and he had ao-
cepted the relief with the same religious
resignation that had entered his soul
from the first. He had lon9Ssince ceased
70 suffer. The past had beSne,t to him a
dream. Happy Czaronva was still his
world. He walked out in summer days
and saw Anna and his wife. He sat by
the stove in winter and talked with Los
lnski and the Italian traveller FerTari.
once IN q way there would come to him
disturbing glimmerings Of the bitter
change that had left him all alone with
his dream. But he was a religious man;
he bowed his head and prayed, and
looked forward to the coming of the
Messiah and to the reality OF a reunion of
VIE and child. /
one summer afternoon, sitting at the
door OF his simple hut, where he was
permitted 10 lave the attendance of
an old Polish housekeeper, who was de-
voted to the old man, be saw the appa-
rltion OF his daughter Anna. She am
our or The distant woodland, crossed the
rough bridge which SPAWNED the stream, /
q tributary Of the great lake; then I
pauslng, she turned toward the cottage.
Inc oId man smiled. The summer sun
shlne fell upon the much-loved figure II
"hat he conceived 10 be his happy dream.
NY Gear, dear Anna he said; and
the N came on flowers in her path,
peace N her heart. she was no imag-
mary Anna walking in the silent land Of
the fathers tender fancy; she paused at
the primitive gate that finished the rough
tenclng OF the tiny garden and saw her
Iather. There was no demonstration on
me part Of either OF them. Anna was
dressed very much in the fashion Of her
eATIy day. Her face was pale but the
ola light had come into her eyes. Her
reu-goId hair showed streaks of grey;
out her step was light and her voice was
sweet and musical. When she entered
the garden the old man rose TO his feet.
lie DaRsed his hands over his RvRs then 4