Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1903-06-03

Russian conyicts are dressEl II uu-
'bleached cotton shirts and troT'crS,
with socks-or pieces OF clcIh Wt'uila !
around their legs, pnttce faHhloh--ai'rl
shoes. Over all they wear the "kli1-
lat" or long, uster-like friczn. All are
in chains. One degrading fo:m OF pun
ishment, that of claiming tie convict
to a whcclbarrow, which is never de-
tacled either by day or night, has been
abolished On the mainland; but on Six
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
escapinc. The clean shaving of half
tho head is also intended to render
escape more difficult and identification
easier.
Only one hundred out of the six hun'
drcd convicts in the worst prison were
being sent out to do hard labor III tie
mines or road-making; it was not sur
prising, therefore. that the dreadful
cnnui drove some of the remainder into
riskins attempts 1T flight. The night to
choose for an escape was when storm
was raging. 1t was OIL one such night
of nv stay that six in the AlcHan-
drovsb Testing Prison, under cover or
tho darkness and the bowling storm.
lassood the tops of the twcnty-foot
stockadc and. clambcring over. dropped
down and successfully evadcd the
patrols. The storm that night did Us
as good turn as it did the convicts.
for returning from Il seven hundred
mile Journey, mostly accomplished in a
dug-out clErc. we my interpreter ana
II had entered on our last stage wlHcll
took us through the forest into whicl.
these six cOivcts had plunged. There
were 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 lad
this advantage, that one had only TO
defend oneself from human-or, rather,
inhuman-assaiIa on one side. An
ey-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 cN-
convicts, and while he told us that they
were armed with guns more partcu-
lars he would not divulge. Seeing us
, still unpersuadcd lie backed up his
r statement by telling us how, the post
r which fave seen leaving AleXan-
! drovsk, twelve miles distant, carrying
beside the driver one armed official ant
, two soldiers with bayOncts fixed, was
r. held up on this road, q few miles ou
, of AleXandrovsk. SO VIC determined
! to take our chances of the rising tide
and try the beach route, though we
j. had just heard that the youth who live'
|, with us at AlcXandrovsk had been mur
!, dcrcG on tho sands for the sake of tl'
!, gun lie carried.
; We started in darkness with no IAN
:, tern, for that would have rendered III
q q mark. and the wretchcd tclega m0vct
along at a snails pace. We sat bacl
= I'm hack, revolvers and daggers hand,
;, i'm our belts and loaded rifles in hand
We had instructions from the polio
y to fire il we should see any movin
:. form. Little. indeed, could we max
A. out-though we could imagine grca
4 1caI-as we pccrcd into the dark fol-
# est ON our way to the beach. We lla
# dragged on at this miserable pace 70
~ about a mile and half, longing for
~ troika with It's gallopins steeds, WDe