The Irish standard., 1904-04-16
/, RUSsIA'S CONVICT SYSTEM
The Island of Sakhalin Where Thous-
ands of Enemies of the Govern
ment Are Confined.

ready demoralized Russia's exile sys-
TEN, and they soon might deal it
staggering blow by throwing open it's
chief Siberian prison. After sinking
a few more Muscovte 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 liy-
ing death.
The convict island is situated at the
northern end of the Japan sea, like the
keystone OF an arch. Southwest is the
Asiatic coast of the Russian Siberian
province of Amoor and the seaport of
NladivostOk. Southeast, across a mar
row strait, lies the Japanese island of
Yezo. Although 600 miles long, Sak-
halin is so narrow that it has the
shape of pickerel on the map. In
area 1t is equal to the state of South
Carolina; in climate it may be likened
to southern Greenland or northern
Norway. If 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 peas
ant commits an atrocious murder the
penalty is Sakhalin. When bank
teller embezzles fortune he is doomed
to exile in Sakhalin. Should some high
official prove a traitor to his govern
ment. he exchanges his splendid st.
Petersburg drawing rooms for the log
huts of Sakhalin.
There was secret military confer
ence between Russia and France lit
tie more than year ago, when the
two powers agreed on mode of at
tack on Germany should either nation
go 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 1t was estimated that the
changes in Qualifications made neces-
sary by his treachery cost the Russian
government $4,000, 900. 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 a penal COL
ony to a great industrial province She
has endeavored to wipe out the wretch
ed associations which haunt the name
of Siberia because Of its past, and
which has stunted its growth. AS long
as Russia continued to found penal set
Elements within this region, to which
were condemned murdcrers as well as
refined men and women banished
thither because of their political views,
voluntary immigration into Siberia
from the cong'ested parts of Russia
amounted to little or nothing. For the
reason that the convict settlements
were adjacent to towns, Russian cit
izen of good standing had no desire to
emerate to such 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
Their deportation of convicts to the is
land If Russia attempts to send her
convicts by ship. as was once her GUS
tom, from the Black sea port of Odes-
sa. the Japanese warships will hold
them up somewhere along the Pacific
coast. If 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. impaling them on hooks,
cutting out their tongues or ampmtat-
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 banished
them to Asiatic Russia. They popu-
lated vast tracts with sparsely scatter
ed colonies of convicts. Between the
years 1923 and 1887 nearly 100000 men
and women were torn from their
homes In Europe and driven to fara-
way Siberian settlements.
When You Get Shaved.
Every few men realize the manual
labor entailed in the operation of
shaving, aside from the constant care
and skill that must be exercised" said
the handsome barber, as he paused to
strop his razor. II didn't realize it
myself until the other day. The man
! was shaving was stranger to me
and he seemed a trifle nervous. When
! got through with him he said to
me: DO you know how many strokes
of the razor you used in shaving me?'
I looked up at the clock. It had taken
me nearly 20 minutes. 4 give it up
said. I never thought about it. WELL
said he, as he buttoned his collar, you
used just 459 strokes with the razor.
That's pretty fair for me, because I'm
nervous. have frequently been up to
nearly 600. You see, I suffer from in
somnia, and the only way l can get to
sleep at nights is to lie in bed and
count. In that way have got into the
habit Of counting the razor strokes
xuh voftipo chovod op1 ,,onl -