The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-15


whipping as an insult, they merely dreaded
the pain. One director was opposed TO cor
poral punishment. 1 heard him say more
than once: THE courts have no right TO
impose upon me the duty Of whipping pris-
oners. 1 object TO brutalities, and whip
ping for forms sake is farce that under
mines discipline Needless to say the cap
tain was very popular among his prisoners
IN THE PRISON CELLS.
Among the $50 prisoners, myself and one
other alone laid claim TO education;
the rest were the scum of society, profess
sional criminals, murderers, robbers,
thieves, etc. for the most part. All my
cell-mates belonged to the latter classes,
as 1 soon learned by listening to their talk.
Despite this fact. however, our first even
ings in the cell were not particularly Of
fensive, as the inmates had bathed, and as
their clothes were still new and clean and
as all had plenty of tobacco. which may be
used in any form In Siberian prisons. Still
the ''kickers" were out in force, as the fol-
lowing scraps of conversation show:
Miserable hole-not even a mattress"
(The mattresses had not arrived. but were
promised for the day following)
God Furnishes us indeed by allowing us
to be incarcerated in this new-fangled
bandbox. It's the Doctors doings. They
are always shouting that order and clean
Illness promotes health
THE next doctor L see getting out.
will see neither myself or any one else,
after L get through with him."
Kill him with knife or pistol? That's
much too good for one of these scoundrels.
II ever have occasion to square accounts
with a doctor, will strip him and bury
him in ants hill"
"Pshaw," said Malakoff, why didn't
they send me back TO my former Siberian
summer and winter residence, Porowskojo?
1t was bully place, L assure you. No reg
ulation as to cleanliness and cards and
wotka and money in plenty. There was
knife in each cell, sometimes two or three.
We could buy milk or meat any hour in the
day"
How is THAR" asked.
well, the work we had to do in the
mines occupied us less than six hours, the
rest of the time we worked for the con-
tractors. Any prisoner willing TO work,
earned enough to buy coffee and milk and
wash it down with draught from bot
tie. L always had money for cards, too"
SOME OF THE REGULATIONS.
AS intimated, we were at liberty to smoke
or chew in the cells and while at work;
books were also permitted and we could
dispose of limited amount of money per
month sent by relatives or brought along.
A Kerosene lamp was burning all night
in the cell, but conversation had to stop
at o'clock. At we were awakened and
some minutes later the cell was opened TO
admit us to the Mushroom. There was
plenty of water and soap. but few prison
ers cared to avail themselves Of these
necessaries to any great extent. The prison
did not furnish towels, but they could be
had for a nominal fee from the cellmate
attending to the washing, a prisoner who
had nothing else to do but keep his nine
teen comrades in fresh linen. At the morn
| ing review the punishments decreed by the
director were publicly read
AS / received quite a sum from home,
was always well provided with permissi-
BILE luxuries and therefore able to buy from
my fellow-prisOners many sorts of favors.
L always got the biggest and the best piece
/ of meat; in the mines the easiest work was
\ allotted to me, and my comrades never OBJ
/ jected to aiding TO perform the little
| had to do when / was unable to master
the work because 1 had never done the
smallest amount of manual labor
! There was no lockstep. and silence was
never imposed except in the presence of the
officials and after a given command. We
ran from the Mushroom or cells to the
place of review pell-mell. and it often hap
pened that at roll call one or another was
missing, being asleep in his bunk. OF
| course his awakening was not particularly
/ gentle, but the keepers usually confined
\ themselves to giving the offender a sound
/ dig in the ribs. Actual maltreatment was
never complained of to my knowledge. The
| cell doors were left open after the char
acter of the prisoners had been sufficiently
/ tried; they were closed only at night, at 9
o'clock, the official bedtime. Except during
the hours from p. m to a. m. We were
allowed to seek the air of the courtyard,
but ii was forbidden to visit other cells.
| though no objection was made to orderly
! conversation between prisoners belonging
TO different parties. Strange to say, free
dom to go TO any part of the prison with
| in the Enclosure did not lead to any at
tempts at fights, as the prisoners felt in
/ honor bound not to abuse the confidence
except that they tried their utmost to help
comrades suffering solitary confinement.
These were always supplied with soup,
meat, tobacco and even with delicacies,
such as sugar.
ALLOWED TO SEE FAMILY.
Prisoners whose families had followed
them into exile were allowed TO see wife
and children once a week in the presence
of a keeper. but there were no dividing
walls, cages or grated Enclosures. Visitors
were also allowed to bring food. but only
as much as could be disposed Of during the
! meeting.
the day and consisted OF vegetable soup
with plenty of potatoes and cereals, and
| the meat cooked in same. This meat was
served separately with bread, the elder
being five or six Jumps of meat. each the
size of thimble. In the morning and even
ing we had tea, plenty Of IL. OF course the
tea was not good, but helped 10 digest the
meals were bad at times our own cook was
to blame The government seemed to give
out the right kind of goods and our repre-
sentative saw to il that we got the Legal
days like all Russians; there was no meat
on Wednesdays and Thursdays. On tive
other days of the week cow belly" lung
and liver were served instead of beef but
in much greater quantities, to make up fol-
the lack of nourishment The first day We