Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1903-03-01
Thirty-0ne Years in Exile is the Penalty
for a BOyish offence.
CAR At LAST RELAxES PUNISHMENT
Colonel Grimm is Another Example Of
Those Who Offend.
WAS ONCE PETTED DARLING OF SOCIETY
NOW Serving n TweIve-Year Sentence
in worst of the Russian Mines
in Remote Part of
Siberia.

Copyright. 1903. by Press Publishing Coz
PARIS, Feb. 2s.-(New York World Ca
blegram-Special Telegram.) "A royal eJGd-
pade which cost the delinquent thirty-one
years of darkest. gloomiest exile as expia-
tion is recalled by the czars order that the
Grand Duke Nicolas CorStantinovitch shall
be removed to BaIaklava in the Crimea and
receive the best medical attention.
Grand Duke Nicolas Constantinovitch. the
eldest son OF the Grand Duke Constantin
Nicolaievitch, handed in thirty-one years
ago his resignation as a lieutenant OF the
guard In order to follow q French sirger
with whom he was infatuated to a foreign
land. His means being slender, he took
money that was not his own to aid his
fight.
In spite of the culprit's youth (he was
only 22) and his high standing, Alexander
ii, then czar, proved inexorable. After a
scene with the young man and his father
he exiled him first to orenbourg, then 10
the Crimea. Feeling the horror of his dis
grace and his abandonment by his family,
Nicolas married the daughter of a police
man of Orenbourg who had little to recon-
mend her personally.
One day, overcome by the desolation OF
his position, he escaped the spies set to
watch him. disguised as a Cossack. but he
was captured and taken back to Tachkent.
His reason was shaken by this recapture,
and he has remained in q demented condi-
tion many years. He is now SO years old.
His sister Olga, the queen of Greece. who
has pleaded his cause many times with the
former cEar and the present one. has at
last obtained permission from Nicholas II
that the grand duke may be taken to Balak-
lava. where a celebrated specialist in
cerebral nSladies, DR.. Mercherevski. will
treat him. The car, It seems, has also
promised to see him and assure him that
his boyish escapade, after thirty-one years
explation. is forgiven.
Horrors of siberian Mines.
BERLIN, Feb. 2s-The horrors of a
Siberian prison are being terribly exempli-
fed in the case Of Colonel Grimm OF the
Warsaw general staff. one OF the most
scientific Russian officers, who was SEN
fenced to twelve years in the mines for
betraying to France and Austria plans OF
fortincatlons on the Russian frontier.
Grimm is at Nortchinsk, one Of the most
awful OF the Siberian copper mines, away
beyond the great lake, Baikal. His fellow
prisoners are the commonest sort OF Grim
inals. child murderer and two burglars
share his room.
Day and night the wretched Grimm has
heavy chains on his feet. to which are
fastened large iron balls. 1t is torture tc
walk and every movement at night awakens
him.
On his arrival in Nortchlnsk the right
side of his head was shaved and his beard
and mustache as well. He is dressed in
filthy costume and on his breast and bacl
is the number by which he is known. Ht
works ten hours a day in the mines, with
three or four intervals OF an hour each
when he is permitted to ascend to the
surface to dry his clothes. The mines are
wet, and the miners, in constant contact
with the copper water incur a variety o.
skin diseases, as well as rheumatism in
particularly violent form.
During work Grimm is not permitted Il
utter word and overseers are ever present
to see that he does not shlrk. He is al.
ready suffering from opthalmia.
In Warsaw Colonel Grimm was one O.
the darlings OF society. He led a luxurious
life, tiattered and made much of by beauti
ful Polish women.