The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-06-11

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offered to take him on board BE eagerly
accepted the invitation. He had never
been on a ship before. He ran here and
there, clambered aloft and explored below
When he came back up on dock, the
ship was under sail. Cairo had b1en left
in the distance.
81 was on the ship six years and q half.
It was a pirate ship. It cruised in the
Black sea all the time. The men were
fierce and rough. They murdered and
pillaged and burned. They did not mis-
treat me or the little girl, but bloodshed
and robbery did not suit me. When I was
10, I determined to escape. / had taken
money every chance I got and had over
ST. 900.
lone day the ship landed at Nicoli.
With two suits of clothes on and my
money plastered over my body I went
ashore with members Of the crew and
when they were not looking made q break
for liberty"
After a year or SO of rowing he landed at
a coast town in Japan. He was then II
years old. His physical strength was Won
derful
He was standing one day looking in at
the door of a gymnasium. Becoming in
terested in the work, he took a OF
training and left at the end of six months
a wonderful athlete.
Then he resumed his wanderings and
went to Russia. In Odessa he Joined a
| company of nihilists and was eventually
arrested His great strength made him a
troublesome prisoner, and he made several
unsuccessful but daring attempts to escape.
In order to keep him quiet the prison SUI
p~erintendent allowed him to marry a
young N whose parents were nihil-
lists like himself.
They were as happy as people could well
be under such circumstances, and Skobel
made no more trouble for his keepers. But
by and by a child was born to them and
another and a third The frstborn, 3
bright boy, was 5 years old and was be-
ginning to understand why other children
drew away from him in the street. Once
he went crying to his mother and told her
the children had pointed at him in the
street and said his papa was q prisoner.
The next time Skobel's wife went to see
him she told him about it and mentioned
for the first time how she had been naade
to suffer also by unfeeling taunts.
When she had gone, Skobel sat q long
time and thought in gloom and bitterness.
When she came again, he told her she
must take the children and go TO America,
where the finger of shame could never be
pointed at them. Reluctantly she obeyed-
As soon as she had gone Skobel became
un~manageable again. He grew savage
and had to be watched constantly. Twice
he made futile attempts to escape Among
the political prisoners with whom he was
then thrown In contact was one mas
~prematurely aged whose days were clearly
1900 r. L.I - 1,n uN kolic<non
small piece of metal with the picture of an
| apostle on one side and a Biblical inscrip-
ton ON the other. He gave it to Skobel.
Before he slept another plan of escape
had come to his mind
The next night he crept under his cell
bench and set to work with his fingers dig
cling the mortar away around one of the
large stones in the wall. He dug enough
out to get a slight hold with his fingers.
Exerting his enormous strength he sue
ceeded in working the stone loose.
More dead than alive, he reached Ir-
katsk. The half wild natives cared for him
and V him clothing. He put his old
clothes and the shackles in a bag and final
1y reached Germany. The German Social
lists assisted him to get passage on a ship
for America.
H. landed in New York and rented a
room in the Jewish quarter. After weeks
of privation he secured an engagement in
a variety theater and began to perform
feats of strength. The papers printed coli
umns about him. He was the lion of the
hour.
In the meantime Skobel's wife had gone
from New York to Chicago and from Chi
cago to ST. Louis. She read about the
feats Of Skobel. That was not his correct
name nor the name under which she had
married him. She had never heard the
name before, but the papers said the strong
man had escaped from a Siberian prison.
She wrote a letter to a New York paper.
A reporter took it to Skobel.
He hurried to St. Louis, and there was
. joyful reunion in the house on Madison
street where he and his wife are now hv-
ms.