The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-26

itentiary for ten years." lie goes to
prison. He is shut in between four walls
No sunlight. No fresh air. No bath
room. Before he has served his ten
wears 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 in 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-
Die places for work. Ask me, to whom
the newly liberated come from all the
prisons ifnploring 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, ssWhere did you live lastF'
should make for reply, Estates prison at
Auburn or Moyamensing. Now in ST.
IBERIA they have 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.
1 talked with the president or the
National Society of Russia for the Ed
ucation and Moralization 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 illumlnes her
| face and makes fearful her eyes and
| tremulous her voice. The evening L
passed at her house in st. Petersburg
was one of the memorable events OF my
| lifetime. I will not attempt to pro-
nounce the name Of that noble woman
appointed by the emperor as the pres1-
dent of the National Society OF Russia
| for the Education and Moralizatlon OF
| the Children of Convicts. Please to
| name any such national society III our
country supported by government for
| taking care of the children Of convlcfs.
| You know, if you know anything, that
there is no chance In this country Tor
man who has been imprisoned or Tor MS
| children. God pity them and hassen
the time when we shall, by some national
| institution established 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 as gracious
and benignant as ever breathed oxygen.
| The merciful character of the present
| emperor was well illustrated in the fol-
! lowing Occurrences: 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
| pardoned the murderer Of his father, and
| the forgiven assassin is now living in
Russia unless recently deceased. When
| I 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 conmlseratlon.
If you say that it was a man, Q divine
man that came to save the world, L say
| yes, but it was q woman that gave the
| man. Witness all the Madonnas-ltal-
| 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 criminals?
| WHY, Russia abolished the knout before
| it was abolished from our American
navy. But how about the political pris-
oners hustled off to Siberia? According
| to the testimony of the most celebrated
| literary enemy Of Russia, only four hum
dred and forty-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
civil war? Well, I will guess at least one
| hundred thousand. Americas one hun
bred thousand political prisoners versus
Russia's four hundred and forty-three
| political prisoners. Nearly all these
four hundred and forty-three of twenty
years were noblemen or people des-
perately opposed to 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 bent
to Siberia. They all say they were inno-
cent. Prisoners always are innocent.
Ask all the prisoners of America today,
Guilty OF 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
Professor de Armand, 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 twenty-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 l am authorized from
Russia to offer free of charge to any re-
kponsible American publishing house
that will do them Justice LET these