The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-21

majority of dwellers there are exiles or the
descendants of exiles. T found them intel
liQent and we'll informed and very hosplt-
able. But that latter is q distinctive Rus
sian trait. / like the Russians, and L be.
lieve that the more my countrymen see OF
tween the two countries. The outward
semblances of hospitality are very rigor-
ously observed. They are de rigeur. At
all parties the handshaking is interminable.
And the kissing-well, after one experience
with a stalwart Russian brother who caught
took good care to hold a pipe or cigar in
my mouth when making my adieus.
sEverywhere I found the classes cheerful
and contented. They didn't seem to have
much of anything to complain OF. In fact,
I believe there are moro complaints OF tyr
inside. I say I did not see the mines. | did
see the prisons. That was impossible to
avoid, for there were prisons in every large
town. Well, of that phase of life in 81
IBERIA I haven't much to say. You will be-
lieve noe when I tell you that it is sufficient
ly horrible. And to me one OF the worst
features was the promiscuous way in which
the prisoners are put in the prisons. They
are simply herded together. 10 a man OF
cultivation. and refinement, as many OF the
prisoners are, there could be nothing more
horrible in daily life than to be crowded
into a single great room along with a hun
dred or so more men of all ages, all con-
ditions, all crimes. There he must eat and
dress and sleep, one of a herd of human be.
ings from whom the least degree of privacy
is taken. There are absolutely no guards
over these mobs to control them. The men
are jammed into the inclosure and the door
looked, and there they sleep and eat and
breathe and perspire in common till the air
is a marvel Of foulness.
Each OF these roomfuls of men elect
from their own number a captain, who has
control over them. Naturally, the worst
criminal of the lot is the one who has at
tanned tho highest degree of influence in
the room, and is thus the almost lnvariabie
choice for captain. Then, in his little
sphere, he has unlimited power; the guards
are always absent, and he suffers no re
straint, He has the prisoners who have
elected him ready to do his bidding, and
what then is easier for him than to have a
prisoner killed who may have incurred his
displeasure? Oh, that is a thing that is
done. The prison officials nave told me Of
secret crimes thus committed which could
not be ferreted out. Thu prison becomes a
forcing house of lawlessness.
'While the Russian officials were uni
formly kind, 80 far as | saw, it struck me
that they were incapable OF approaching q
| Joke. For instance, at Krasnoiatsk n fancy
ball was given, to which a young man went
in a costume something like n sandwich
man. On his breast he bore inscriptions
setting forth the advantages of Siberian
life, on his back its disadvantages. 1t was
all a joke, but the officials couldn't condone
his back. He was called from the ball, and
eventually disappeared. Presumably he 10
now doing penance in exile for what he In
tended as a joke"
Mr.. Price considers that he has now
nearly completed the circuit of the earth by
a route never before followed. He ia en-
thusinstic over his trip. He ia not alone a
journalist and an artist, but u soldier.
Eight years ago. when the English asHailed
the Beers in South Africa, he was detailed
as a special correspondent. Blu he found
such attaches Of tho column were not al
lowed, 80 he enlisted. and passed a year in
| Africa, following the life of q trooper and
correspondent of his paper also.