The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-11-30
4 CRITIC CRITICIZED.

The public have lately enjoyed rare
treat in listening TO Mr.. George Remnants
lectures on Siberia. The lecturer is elo-
quent, his subject is attractive, he has
thorough y mastered it, he carries his audi
euce with him. and every one Of them is
glad to have spent an evening in his COM
pauy.
AT the same time it is but fair 10 remem-
Der that there are two sides to this question
Persons who have derived their impressions
from their youthful recollections of Eliza
beth, or the EXilcs of Siberia" believe that
country to be terrible waste, inhabited by
prisoners who are knouted at tie within of
bruta jaiiers. or starved to death, or shut
UP in subterTanean mines into which the
light of day never penetrates ana from which
the miner never emergeS. Mr. kennan'S
lectures rather tend to confirm than TO cor
rect this impression. And yet the fact is
that only about 3 per cent of the inhabi-
tants Of Siberia are prisoners; the others are
Russians who emigrated there of their OWN
free Will, and who remain there from choice
1t is perhaps difficult to understand how any
one could choose such a bleak and barren
place Of abode, but between four and five
millions of Russians seem 10 have done so,
and 1t may therefore be inferre that TO the
Russian mind eX lie to Siberia presents 10
great horrors.
That among the 200, COO prisoners who are
serving sentences OF exile in Siberia num-
Der are treated with cruelty Is atteStei by so
many witnesses that no doubt on the subject
can be entertained. But it must not be for
gotten that the Russian nation, which is
nearly twice as numerous as the people of
the United States, contains races which pro-
,,Fe iad n
type that they can only be mastered and
KEPT under control by methods which to US
seem cruel. The Tartar occasionally de-
veiopS into a v lid beast without onscienCe,
or pity, or reason, or human instincts.
When this hend Stays his enemy OF his wife,
sets fire to a house full of people, or throws
Il dynamite bomb into a crowd, and is sent
to Siberia in consequence, our mild systems
Of restraint would be thrown away upon
m. H is amenable to nothing but force
and pl ysical suffering. When long career
OF the most Infamous crime has proved him
TO be utterly irreclaimable, the best thing
! probably TO be done with him IS to put him
where he can never injure any one-at the
bottom of a mine, if convenient.
1t is a sad mistake to judge all Russians by
our standard. The genuine Tartar is be
ing whom We can hardly conceive. tbs
wife Of a Russian moujik complains that
her husband does not love her if lie alb
stains for 4 week from giving her a dose Of
stick. At Iukerman the British cavalry
rode through solid bodies Of Russian in
fantry, cutting and slashing as they ent.
and the miserable foot soldiers never
thought Of using their Uayonets in their
defense. To us the picture Of Russian
| Corporal laying hundred lashes with a
whip on the bare back Of helpless and in
offensive prisoner seems horrible; but ii
does not strike the Russian in that light.
He is used to being whipped, and the pen
ance seems neither to wound his spirit nor
infict any serious injury on his tissues.
Some Russians are human beings in an
early stage Of development. Travel teaches
them to dress and behave Ike other people,
| but at heart they remain troglodYtes. ST.
IBERIA is perhaps as good prison pen as
! could be found for the most reprobite mem
| bers Of such race.
Mr.. KEENAN, complains that the Russian
Emperor exIurgated books which con-
| tanned his structures on the Russian penal
| system. Here again he seis up an utterly
! inapplicab!e standard, and complains that
descendant Of the Romanofs does not
| act like q constitutional monarch. There
| have been times in the history of the race
| to which MIR. KEENAN, belongs when the
! publication Of such censures as his would
! have cost him his liberty if not his life in
the country Of that race. 1t is not SO very
long since Peacham and Guy Fawkes we're
Iaeked and executed in England for Of
| lenses against the King far less than those
which MI KEENAN, has committed against
the Gar. The gifted lecturer will not
| probably extend his lecture tour to st.
Petersburg and Moscow, and it win not de
volye upon the United States to demand
his surrender at the lannon's mouth. But
it may mitigate the ferocity OF his hatred
for the Emperor of Russia to reflect that
| he is acting with less severity than mon
arch Of Mr.. Kennan'S race would have acted
| three centuries AGO.