The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-11-22

found guilty. ! sentence you to the PEN
itentiary for ten years" He goes to
prison. He is shut in between four walls.
No sunlight No fresh air. No bath
room. Before he has served his ten
years he dies of consumption, or is so
enervated that for the rest of his life he
sits with folded hands, wheeling in
valid. In preference To the shut III life
of the average american prisoner give
me Siberia. Besides that. when offend
ers come out of prison in America, what
chance have they! Ask the poorly sup
ported societies formed to get these peo-
pie places for work. Ask me, TO whom
the newly liberated come from all the
prisons implCring what they shall do.
No one will commend them. The pallor
of incarceration is on their cheek. Who
wants to employ in factory or store
man or woman who IN answer to the
question, "Where did you live last%
should make for reply. States prison at
Auburn or MOyaneuslng." Now In ST.
IBERIA they have d better chance. They
are never Spoken of as criminals, but as
unfortunates, and they are allowed every
opportunity of retrieving their lost rep
utation and lost fortunes.
| talked with the president of the
National Society of Russia for the Ed
ucation and Mobilization of the Children
of Siberian Convicts. The president of
that society, appointed by the emperor,
is a lady of great accomplishments and
much sympathy, which illumines her
face and makes fearful her eyes and
tremulous her voice. The evening l
passed at her house i'll st. Petersburg,
was one of the memorable events of my
lifetime. l will not attempt to pro-
nounce the name of that noble woman
appointed by the emperor as the presl-
dent of the National Society of Russia
g. . gNf
the Children of COnVictS. Please to
name any such national society in our
country supported by government for
taking care of the children of convicts.
You know, ii You know anything, that
there is no chance in this country for
man who has been imprisoned or for his
children. God pity them and hasten
the time when we shall. by some national
institution estab lished by the congress of
of the United States, initiate the mercy
of the Russian government toward the
innocent children of imprisoned offend
ers. He who charges cruelty on the
imperial family and the nobility of
Russia bellies men and women rs gracious
and benignant as ever breathed oxygen.
The merciful character of the present
emperor was we'll illustrated in the fol-
lowing occurrence: The man who super
vised the assassination of the father of
the present emperor, standing in the
snow that awful day when the dynamite
shattered to pieces the legs of Alexander
the Second-I say the man who super
vised all this fed from St. Petersburg and
quit Russia. But after awhile the man
repented of his crime and wrote to the
emperor asking for forgiveness for the
murder of his father and promising to be
a good citizen. and asking If he might
come back to Russia. The emperor
Of hiC 90 thor md
the forgiven assassin is now living In
Russia unless recently deceased. When
l talked to the empress concerning the
sympathy felt in America for the suffer
ings of the drought struck regions OF
Russia, she evinced an absorbing inter
est and compassion and an emotion OF
manner and speech such as we men can .
hardly realize. because it seems that God
has reserved for woman as her great
adornment the coronet, the tear jeweled
coronet of tenderness and colnmiseration.
If you say that il was a man, a divine
man that came to save the world, say
yes, but it was q woman that gave the
man. Witness all the Madonnas-Ital-
ian, German, English and Russian-that
bloom in the picture galleries of Chris
tendon. Son of Mary, have mercy on us!
But how about the knout, the cruel
Russian knout, that comes down on the
bare back of the agonized criminals2
Why, Russia abolished the knout before
it was abolished from our American
navy. But how about the political pris-
Ouers hustled off to Siberia! According
TO the testimony of the most celebrated
literary enemy Of Russia. only four hun
bred and fortv-three political prisoners
were sent to Siberia in twenty years.
How many political prisoners did we put
in prison pens during our four years OF
We'll 7 will srT1pCG "a lea ST Ona
hundred thousand. Americas one hun
bred thousand political prisoners versus
Russias four hundred and forty-three
political prisoners. Nearly all these
four hundred and fOrty-three Of twenty
wears were nOblemen or people des-
perately opposed 10 the emancipation
of the serfs. And none of the political
prisoners are sent TO the famous Kara
mines For the most part you are
dependent for information upon the
testimony of prisoners who are sent
to Siberia. They all say they were inno--
cent. Prisoners always are innocent.
Ask all the prisoners of America today,
Guilty or not guilty? and nineteen out
of twenty will plead. Not guilty" Ask
them how they like their prison, and
how they like sheriffS. and how they like
the government of the United States,
and you will find these prisoners admire
the authority that arrested them and
punished them Just about as much as
the political prisoners of Russia like
Siberia.
But, you ask, how will this Russopho--
bia, with which so many have been Bit
ten and poisoned. be cured? By the
God of Justice blessing such books and
pamphlets as are now coming out from
Prof ssor de ArnaUd, of Washington;
Mr.. Horace Cutter. of San Francisco;
Mr.. Morrill,. of England, and by the
opening of our American gates to the
writings of some twentv-four of the
Russian authors and authOresses, in
some respects as brilliant as the three
or four Russian authors already known
the translation of those twenty-four
authors which | am authorized from
Russia to offer free of charge to any re-
sponsible American publishing house
that will do them Justice. Let these
R11ssiarns tell their nHEm stnry for thew