The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1904-06-11
lSLAND OF SAkHALIN.
WHERE FOES TO RUSSIAN Gov
IRNNENT ARE CONFINED.
Chance for japanese to Libsrate Con-
v1ots Who Have Plotted Against
the czar-The siber-
ian System.

:
the Czar-rhe Sibsr-
ian System.
Japanese naval victories have al
ready demoralized Russia's exile sys-
tenn. and they soon might deal it a
staggering blow by throwing open it's
chief Siberian prison. After sinking
a few more Muscoyite ships Japan
would be able to land troops on the
convict island of Sakhalin, just north
OF the Japanese archipelago, and release
the 10000 men and women imprisoned
there. says the New. York Tribune of
recent date. Once free, <the murderers,
traitors, nihilists and revolutionists
who compose the population would be
able at last to avenge themselves to
some small degree upon the govern
ment which has doomed them to a liv-
ing death.
The convict island 10 situated at the
northern end Of the Japan sea, like the
Keystone Of an arch. Southwest is the
Astattc coast Of the Russian-Siberian
province Of Amoor and the seaport Of
Vladivostok. Southeast, across a mar
row strait, lies the Japanese island of
Ye2o. Although 600 miles long, SAX
hahn 10 80 narrow that it has the
shape OF q piekerel on the map. In
area it Is equal to the state Of South
Carolina; in climate it may be likened
to southern Greenland or northern
Norway. II dug up and laid down on
the Atlantic coast, between the same
parallels Of latitude. it would stretch
from Bangor, Me-, to central Labrador.
To this cold, inhospitable. remote
part Of the earth Russia banishes her
worst enemies of state When a peas
ant commits an atrocious murder the
penalty Is Sakhalin. When a bank
teller embezzles fortune he Is doomed
to exile III Sakhalin. Should some high
onc1al prove a traitor to his govern
ment, he exchanges his splendid st.
Petersburg drawing rooms for the log
huts OF Sakhalin.
There was a secret military confer
ence between Russia and France a it,
tie more than year ago, when the
Two powers agreed on a mode of at
tack on Germany should either nation
Ro to war with the kaiser Not long
afterward It was discovered that Ger
many by some mysterious means had
learned the stratagem. Col. Grimm. a
trusted Russian officer, was suspected
OF treachery, and in the face of indis-
putable evidence he confessed himself
traitor. It was estimated that the
changes In Notifications made neces-
sery by his trsachery cost the Russian
government $5,500,000 Yet he was not
hanged or shot. His fate was worse
He was banished to Sakhalin.
Since Russia has completed the con-
tinental railroad across her Asiatic do
main she has sought to change the
character of Siberia from penal COL
ony to great industrial province. She
has endeavored to wipe out the wretch
ed associations which haunt the name
OF Siberia because Of it's past, and
which has stunted it's growth. As long
rs Russia continued to found penal set
tlements within this region, to which
were condemned murderers as we'll as
refined men and 81 women banfshed
thither because of their political views,
voluntary immigration into Siberia
from the congested parts of Russia
amounted to little or nothing. For the
reason that the convict settlements
were adjacent to towns, Russian cit
lien Of good standing had no desire to
emigrate to such a community. where
his family must needs associate with
the outcasts of society.
Accordingly, Russia in recent years
has been sending her chief offenders to
the far distant island Of Sakhalin. The
war. however, has put stop to fur
rher deportation of convtcts to the is
land. If Russia attempts to send her
eonvicts by ship. as was once her Gus
tom, from the Black sea port of Odes-
"a. the Japanese warships will hold
them up somewhere along the Pacific
coast II she sends them by railroad
, to Vladivostok, the mikado's ships are
likely to capture them after they have
been put on board ships for the island.
Russia began sending exiles to ST.
IBERIA in the middle of the seventeenth
century. instead Of branding them with
hot irons, lmpaling them on hooks,
cutting out their tongues or amputat-
ing their limbs, as she had done before.
In the middle Of the eighteenth CEN
fury the Muscovites abolished capital
punishment, and, instead of executing
their worst criminals, they bapished
them to Asiatic Russia. They popu-
lated vast tracts with sparsely scatter
nj - SAtH nA%-
years 1923 and 1887 nearly 100000 men
and women were torn from their
homes in Europe and driven to fara-
way Siberian settlements.
! Sizing Up the Situation.
"A young benedict dropped into a
Brooklyn cate the other night in spite
Of expostulations from friends who tried
. to coax him home by assuring him it
-