Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-01-12


such thing. But the policemen soon |
cleared up this point Jaksakof had |
shortly before left his old lodgings.
and at leaving had given his porter |
left-off overcoat. In the pockets the |
porter found letter from the nihilist
Kibaltshitsh, who a year and half be-
fore had been executed for the attempt
on the cars life. 1t was, indeed,
very compromising letter. In it
Kibaltshitsh requested Jaksakoff to
give him certain promised. article
What could this be but the material
for the dynamite bombs which had
been used against the emperor? At any
rate, the smart porter soon came to
| that conclusion, and the police agreed
with him. What good did it do Jaksa-
| koM to swear that he only knew
| Kibaltshitsh at the university at the
time when the latter did not even know
what nihilist was?
| What did it benefit him to assure
them that the article referred to was
only harmless waterproof, and that
| the letter was dated from the year
| 1877? He was condemned to hard labor
for life. and this was regarded as a
specially merciful penalty, for the
crime for which he was accused was
| punishable with death. The victim
was transported to Siberia, to the
| Nertschinsker silver mines. which at
| the public expense are exploited for the
| czar's private funds, and. on account of
| their containing so little silver, are
| called lead mines. The transport to
Siberia lasted year and half. Dur
| ing the two years that the prisoner
worked in the mines he suffered such
torrents that he became an idiot.
The following are some extracts
from Jaksakoffs memoirs. On the 10th
| of May, 1882. he writes from the prison
at Mini Novgorod:
81 am locked up with fifty others
within four walls. The cell is narrow,
and the mold covers the walls with
| thick crust. On the floor the dirty
and filthy straw reaches to our ankles
This is our resting-place: Two rows Of
low shelves stretch across the whole of
the room. Here 1 should rightly have
room to sleep, and here the others do
sleep on the bare boards and without
a pillow of any kind. But we have
given up our places to the women of
two banished families, who, with their
children, following their hus bands
| voluntarily into exile. A mau who
| has ever seen better days cannot have
any idea of the sufferings of exiled
prisoners. He cannot b eIieve his own
eyes when he is thrust into such a eel
lar, more worIny md horrible than
the grave, and is told that for the
future this will be his alb ode. Most,
so circumstanced, gasp for air, like any
creature accustomed to living on land
upon being thrown into water. Their
| heads swim, and a few minutes after
entering they faint. But their COM
panions, the other poor wretches, call
them back to life again, and In day
or two everybody is accustomed to the
air of a Russian dungeon, filed as it is
with the stencil Of corpses, and full Of
plague and typhus germs"
Jaks akOf arrived at Tamsk by ship
from Tiumen the nineteenth of Sep
TENDER, 1882. He writes:
1.-The yard of the Tiumen prison was
full even when we set out on the jour
ney thither. From the day of our ar
rival our numbers increased continual
ly, and fresh carav ans of exileS from
Perm and Ekate rim burg were constant
ly arriving. We were crowded ont of
our narrow prise MS, and at last when
we could no lon ger stand or crouch on
the ground, regularly lay upon one
another. This was also to be our fate
on the ship. Nine hundred persons in
cage in which there was not even
room for four hundred. Among fam
lilies the stronger ones during the hours
of rest always lay on the floor, and
served as cushions for the women and
children, otherwise they, like them,
stood or crouched about. The others
arranged among themselves to sleep
by turns on the floor and on each
others bodies. At night time the in
Oft 1o
pit on the field of battle where the bod
les of the fallen have been thrown one
on top of the other. The prison on the
ship reminded one especially of such d
sight. When the voyage was half
done nobody had any money left, and
everybody fought for the food. Many
of the slcepers were bleeding, and their
blood flowed upon those lying beneath
them. During the day the atmosphere
on the ship was vitiated, sitting and
filled with sickening smell of blood.
Then typhus broke out, and of nine
hundred prisoners scarcely seven hun
dred lived
The frontier of Siberia, at the spot
where Jaksakoff's party crossed, is
marked by a square pillar. OF this
place he writes:
Il raised my eyes to that gloomy
| RraVeSCOne OF nunOrC0S OF thousands
of cxiIes. Its sides were written
all over with signs and mes
sages, the words OF farewell of the
caravan which had passed it. One
of my companions, an old man with
snow-white beard and hair, gradually
read the different hieroglyphics. the
secret writing of the nihilists, and
while in the awful stiffness our cha ms
ratified now and again. his eyes were
filed with tears. 4 am coming, / am
coming, my son, my poor SON.. he
sobbed. Among the tangle of the mes
sages he had discovered the handwrit-
ing of his only son, who had been SEN
fenced the year before, and, without
his family being infor med, had been
exiled to Siberia"
On arriving at the mines 1.-The dwell
ings allotted to the prisoners were
caves cut in the sides of the mines and
closed by bolted doors, where eight or
ten prisoners slept on the bare, icy-cold
floor. They were not even able to
keep each other warm, as the wheel
barrows which were chained to then,
night and day prevented them. The