The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-05-20

Russian convicts are dressed In un-
bleached cotton shirts and trousers,
with socks-or pieces of cloth wound
around their legs, puttee fashion-and
shoes. Over all they wear the "kha-.
lat" or long, ulster-like frieze. All are
in chains. One degrading form of pun
ishmept, that Of claiming the convict
to a wheelbarrow, which is never de-
tached either by day or night, has been
abolished on the mainland; but on SAX
halin to-day there are still two men
who are undergoing this miserable
punishment.
This form of punishment. the officials
say, is necessary to keep them from
escaping. The clean shaving Of half
the head is also intended to render
escape more difficult and Identification
easier.
Only one hundred out Of the six hun
dred convicts in the worst prison were
being sent out to do hard labor in the
mines or road-making; it was not sur
prising, therefore, that the dreadful
ennui drove some Of the remainder into
risking attempts at flight. The night to
choose for an escape was when a storm
was raging. 1t was on one such night
of my stay that six in the AleXan-
drovsk Testing Prison. under cover Of
the darkness and the bowling storm.
lassoed the tops Of the twenty-foot
stockade and. clambering over. dropped
down and successfully evaded the
patrols. The storm that night did us
as good q turn rs it did the convicts.
for returning from seven hundred
mile journey, mostly accomplished in
dug-out canoe, we (my Interpreter and
y had entered on our last stage which
took US through the forest into which
these six convicts had plunged. There
We're two roads before us, one travers-
ing the forest and the other being
merely the sandy beach. The latter
was impossible at high tide. and had
this advantage, that one had only to
defend oneself from human-or, rather.
nhuman-assailants on one side. An
ex-convict who had given us hospital
ity begged us not to take this forest
road. Now, Of course. there Is free
masonry among the convicts and ex-
convicts, and while he told us that they
were armed with guns more particu-
lars he would not divulge. Seeing us
still unpersuaded he backed UP his
statement by telling US how the post,
which have seen leaving AleXan-
drorsk fweIye miles distant carving
beside the driver one armed official and
two soldiers with bayonets fixed. was
held up on this road, few miles out
| Of AleXandrovsk. So We determined
to take our chances Of the rising tide
and try the beach route, though we
had Just heard that the youth who lived
with us at Alexandrovsk had been muir
dered on the sands for the sake of the
gun he carried.
We started in darkness with no Ian
tern, for that would have rendered us
a mark, and the wretched telega moved
along at a snail's pace. We sat back
to back, revolvers and daggers handy
in our belts and loaded rifles in hand.
We had instructions from the police
to fire If we should see any moving
form. Little, indeed, could we make
out-though We could imagine a great
deal-as We peered into the dark for
est on our way to the beach. We had
dragged on at this miserable pace for
about mile and half, longing for
troika with its galloping steeds, when