The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1892-12-08
CHAPTER XVII.
AN UNEXPECTED DENoUEMEN,

Amongst the convicts of Siberia an artel,
or secret society, is often formed for the
protection of themselves against the bru-
tality ofthe officers and soldiers. This
union elects chief who is known as a
sarosta, who has an extraordinary amount
of power placed in his hands, and his ruling
is implicitly obeyed. A code of secret
sign andsighals is drawn up, and every man
belonging to the union has to contribute a
mite from his miserable Government al
lowance towardssa general fund, of which
tho starosta is the treasurer. This fund is
employed to buy extra food and tobacco
for the members of the union, and as much
as possible of it would be given to any
member who had planned an escape and
saw chance Tor carrying it out.
If an officer or any other individual has
made himself particularly obnoxious to
the convicts his death is decided upon, and
the members ofthe artel draw lots as to
who shall kill him, and very rarely indeed
does the man whose lott is to do this shirk
it. These secret societies sometimes have
most extensive ranIiications, and man
proving false to the confidence and trust
reposed in him would be killed, though it
might not be until years after the offense
was committed. 1t is seldom indeed q
traitor to the artel can escape its vengeance
Of course the authorities are not ignor-
ant of the existence OF these secret socie-
though they try and tits % very rarely
that a member of the artel turns traitor
that the authorit! es Can get no information.
Although union OF this kind cannot effect
the release of all its members, 1t can and
does aid individual escapes, and 1t has
power to ameliorate the condition to q
large extent OF an exile party.
When the party from Kara of which
Catherine and Paul Petrovna VT re men,
bers had reached Nikolaevsk, an mrtel had
been formed. Catherine, as may be sup
posed was the prime mover in this ST.
lently and surely she had worked until she
had secured the cooperation ofncarly the
whole of the convicts, Paul had been
chosen starosta, and though he was i'll and
! weak, and his energy and hope alike were
gone, he was encouraged and supported by
| his VIE. She whispered to him of liberty.
She talked Of thenear time when they
would affect their escape, and, reaching
| some land where there were just laws and
a humane Government; would yet know
| happiness.
He had no faith that this would ever
come to pass; but still he longed for ven
| geance against those who had tortured him
| and subjected his wife to indignity and in
| suit She like Rachel nursfd and fostered
an intense hatred against those who had
| been responsible for the misery brought up
I, on those each loved.
| But in Rachel's case the circumstances
were somewhat different Her grievance
was against harticA ar individual, yho at
| that moment was in power there. But to
| Catherine this man was a stranger. Shp
| knew him not, and he was in no way res
/ sponsible for her misfortunes. She had,
however, come to regard everyone in au-
thority as her deadly enemy, and against
/ them all she was embttered.
! During the terrible journey, and those
long dreary months in Kara, Rachel had