The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-12-21
ESCAPED FROM SIBERIA
REMARKABLE STORY AND THRILL.
ING ADVENTURES OF AN EXILE.

sian roles.
Here is the remarkable story of the
exile of Frank Grygiaszewski, who
was sent to Siberia on account of his
participation in the rebellion of the
Russian Poles against the Imperial
Government in 1S63-85, who are five
times wounded by Russian bullets,
who walked seven thousand miles
through Arctic Russia and Siberia in
chains, who escaped his captors by a
method almost miraculous, and re-
traced his steps for seven thousand
miles along the great Siberian road.
During the two years 1S63-1S64, -
said Mr.. Grygla, as he is now known,
sixteen hundred political prisoners
were executed in the prisons at War
saw. My two brothers, who were cap
tured, had been too prominent in the
revolutionary movement to remain
long unidentified At their trial they
were sentenced to die together, and l
stood among the Polish prisoners and
looked on while they were being shot
to death. My own trial came soon
after. When l was led out by the
guards l was informed that I had been
sentenced to life of Punishment in
Lublin-one of the uttermost provinces
of Siberia.
Late in August the transport left
st. Petersburg, and at the end of three
months we arrived at Tobolsk, just ov-
er the Siberian boundary line. Our
line of march was along the great
Siberian road, of which much has been
told and of which so much more can
never be told. The prisoners walked
in chains, and were tied to one anoth-
err to prevent any one escaping. In
front, to either side and behind the
guards marched, with loaded muskets
unslung. Their orders were to shoot
any who attempted to escape.
Following the main line of march
came the 'telegas' These were rough
wooden wagons without springs. If
a man tainted or dropped in the line
from sickness he was loaded on one
of these until the next 'etap,' or sta
ton, was reached. Here stop was
made for the night.
"Even during the journey of three
months in Russia there was much dis
ease and death in the transport on ac-
count of overcrowding in the prison
ers' rooms. But it was the hospitals
that we feared the most. Time after
time I have seen men drag on I'm
til they dropped dead in their tracks
rather than enter one of these hos
pitfalls.
Long before we reached Tobolsk the
horrors of what was to come had
dawned upon us. The pittance which
the Government granted us for support
was small enough, and permitted our
buying only the coarsest kind Of meat
and flour. But for many days before
our arrival at that city the officers in
charge had withheld the greater part
of the allowance, and no one received
more than three or four kopecks a day.
After we had talked among ourselves
I was selected to present the griev-
ances of the transport to the Governor
of Tobolsk. This did when occasion
offered He Immediately flew into a
most violent rage, and roundly abused
the officer in charge of our party.
Il was stripped to the waist, and
two soldiers were detailed to give me
a hundred lashes with the knout.
was beaten accordingly until fell in
faint from pain and loss of blood. AT
the conclusion of my punishment salt
was rubbed into my wounds and was
thrown on 'telega,' where / was left
to recover my senses. That the ex-
ample might prove even more efficient
the officer ordered that l receive on my
bare back twenty lashes with the
knout before the transport entered
every great town.
I'm the 'etaps' the vigilance of the
guards increased, if anything, and
under no conditions were the prisoners
ever allowed to leave their room. No
water was allowed, except for pur-
poses of cooking and for drinking. The
penalty for the infraction of the rules
was death
1.-THE women and the children num-
bered at first about two hundred. The
children died first then the women.
AS long as any of these unfortunates
could hold up they stayed afoot; then
they took to the wagons.
+ I'VE pushed on through the winter,
spring and summer of 1855. The pris-
oners had dropped off from 1000 to
1000, and with the coming of the win
ter of 1865 only about eight hundred
were left alive. One day the
prisoner next to me procured
a small knife-a mere play
thing, fashioned for wearing as a
watchcharm. With this he managed
to sever the arteries of both wrists.
AS he held it in his hand for a moment
while the blood began to flow,
reached for it and quickly concealed
it by sticking the blade in the bark
thong which bound me to the prisoner
opposite the dying man.
when the guards stopped the trans
port to drag the suicide away my
pockets were searched. No pointed
instrument was found about me and
the incident was soon forgotten. But
with the knife managed to slowly
saw away the thongs which bound me
to my neighbors on either side. On
the morning Of December 5. 1861
have always celebrated the day as my
Fourth of July-haying severed my
bonds and. awaited favorable oppor-
tunity. broke from the transport and
ran.
Il was muffied up in the same great
coat that had worn from the hospital,
and E,y feet and hands were heavily
/ cnrarad nc WAS nv head The