New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-11

PRISONERS OF RUSSIA A Personal Study of
5amin Howard with Preface by Brlgadnisear
ID. Appleton & Co.
DR.. Howard starts his account Of Russian
prisons at Vladivostock where Lansdell ended
his. two thousand miles further than KEENAN,
had penetrated He extended his travels and
observations far Sakhalin and Yezo and
was everywhere. as ii seems cordially received,
and given many opportunities for examining
the Russian prisons His inspection has given
him much more favorable impression than
has generally been spread in other countries.
He had a special interest in the prison at
Vladivostock, because that is the one and only
loophole in Siberia through which a prisoner
can escape, and, by smuggling himself aboard
foreign ship, become a free man. Both the
town and its approaches, therefore. are subject
to the keenest vigilance of the police. The i'm
preston at Vladivostock, as in Siberian prisons
generally, is of utter shiftlessness in man
agement. The prisoners maintain their sacred
right to be dirty.
DR.. Howard allowed TO talk freely with
the prisoners, TO ask them what he liked and
look at what he liked. The only warning given
him to the effect that he would discover
prisoner who would admit that he had done
anything. who knew what crime he had
been accused of committing, for the Russian
prisoner is certain to be a liar. From Vladivos-
fock DR. Howard went to Sakhalin, that isle
of the Lost for Russian prisoners. to which
he had the good fortune to be invited by the
Governor. though it is place almost unknown
even TO Russians. and the government rather
favors policy of mystery concerning it. The
place. consequently, has an atrocious reputation;
but Dr. Howards welcome extremely
warm and he has much to say about the
boundless Russian hospitality that
tended to him and Of the characteristic feat
ures Of the life in that lonesome colony, where
the chief difference between officials and con-
victs seems to be that between being assigned
and being committed. In the prison. which had
the ASPECT Of a large warehouse there were many
workshops. IN which the prisoners seemed to
work with brute restraint. Solitary cells there
were. but. instead of being an extra punish
ment they were granted as special conces-
isions to the more privileged prisoners. The
island itself is the real prison, rather than the
structure. Manv of the free convcts have
houses Of their own, and the liberty accorded
them. within limits, is surprising.
The author has chapter on the knout which
has many horrible features Owing to quite
exceptional combination of circumstances he
was permitted to the administration of a
hundred lashes with this instrument, and his
description exhibits of the few really barba-
sights ne witnessed in Siberian prisons
The knout is reserved for the absolutely in
corrigibie prisoners. The subject of the punish
1nent observed by DR.. Howard belonged to the
meanest most cowardy merciless and ire
claimable Of all the varieties of criminals in
Sakhaln three times murderer under pecul-
fairly atrocious circumstances" After the aogging
he was taken to of the best wards in the
hospital, and cared for in such a way to
make his condition a matter OF envy to some
of the other patients. DR.. Howard let's IT be
seen that he regards the arguments adduced in
favor OF the knout as conclusive. for the place
and the circumstances; the final outcome is
that for many prisoners the supreme fear of
the knout is the only deterrent.
The life OF the officials on Sakhalin is only
little less circumscrbed than that of the exiles
themselves; their occupations confined to
eating, drinking and cards. For servants they
have only their pick of the murdresses SEN
fenced to the island. The Governors parlornaid
had her murderous career so vividly stamped
upon her face, and her demeanor was so sullen
when she brought DR.. Howard his cup Of tea
that he never felt safe when she was about.
The handful of official families in fact, might
at any moment be helplessly overwhelmed in
conflagration and massacre
In view of these facts, DR.. Howard points
out that any official who should habitually in
hict needless cruelties upon the convict murder
ers would quickly find his own life to be in
peril.
The Sakhalin official who would dare to be Of
hcially inhuman must be officially mad. That,
nevertheless, some officials have been of that
sort, everybody is aware, but that some Of
fcials have been assassnated in consequence is
not so well known except to those concerned.
Though the power Of the Governor in Sakhalin
is and must be nearly absolute, the exercise OF
It turns after all, on a moral pivot.
The outcome of DR.. Towards study of the
Siberian exile system is favorable. Under 1t
the government does not waste even its murder
ers but protects society against them by remov-
ing and utilizing them. The prisoner has an
opportunity to make the most of himself and If
he does not it is his own fault. Upon the whole,
and in the long run the Siberian exile system
has been working out incalculable advantage to
the Russian Empire"
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