The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-11

and cases are on record OF Heh VIM
survived this journey, escaped from
prison after il, and made their way
right across Siberia to European Rus
STA, only to be captured there ana sent
hack again. Soon, however, land
transportation was abandoned, ana the
convicts were shipped in periodical
patches by steamers of the so-caIled
volunteer feet (Dobrovolny FlotO by
wav of Odessa and the Suez canal Inc
wretched condition of this traffic drew
much public attention in the early
sos. and afterward a better type OF
vessel was built Several years ago
the runlor that one of these prison
ships-ftted with cages for the pris-
oners and a hose arrangement py
which they can be boiled alive with
steam in case of mutiny-was beng
built on the Clyde reused a good deal
of feeling in England. The vessels
carry 500 prisoners tween decks, and
on}v twenty are allowed on deck at
time in fine weather.
Exile TO Saghalin. like exile to 81
IBERIA before it, had in the eyes of the
Russian government three objects. Inc
first. of course. was to get rid in the
easiest and most effective way of real
criminals and inconvenient people who
to the autocracy are the worst kind OF
criminals-poIiticaf agitators. The sec
ond was the profitable working of the
coal mines of the island The third
was agricultural colonization. The
first of these ends has been achieved
so completely that a man or woman
deported thither is lost to the world
'AH hope abandon, We who enter here
might in literal truth be written over
the portal of this hermetically-sea
island In its second object the Cars
government has been less successful,
for the coal is of poor quality, convict
labor is not cheap and markets are far
distant. In the third object it has
failed completely, and this failure is
the best indication of the cruel lot of
those who are condemned to existence
amid this abomination of desolation-
Except for a few weeks of uncertain
midsummer sunshine, the island is ice
bound and fog-bound, the climate is
harsh; even in June the hills are COW
cred with snow and the soil is frozen
20 inches deep; dwarf forests cover the
mountains, and the valleys, with few
exceptions, are narrow and marshy;
roads are made and kept with great
difficulty; there are no good harbors.
The novels of the few settlers who try
to make a living out of the icy soil are
depicted by DIR. Tchekhov as being like
the dens of wild beasts. The whole
population depends upon the govern
ment allowances of food.
No breeze of culture or freedom ever
reaches this terrible place. Even in st.
Petersburg public opinion is not strong,
and official outrages are frequent.
What happens in the dead isolation of
the Saghalin prisons, 5000 miles away,
where the jailer is more nearly SUI
preme and unfettered than perhaps on
any other spot on earth, cannot be told
in full. Every year or two some hint
of scandal or atrocity leaks out-Prince
Kropotkin mentions doctor who
wrote, abiding to the Korsakoff hos
pital, on the south coast: MY colleague
abandons his post; he can no longer
bear all that is going on there. The
chief of the settlement seldom visits
the barracks, he does not appear other .
wise than surrounded by armed ward |
ers. The governor of the prison dare /
not appear among the convicts." An !
in a ST. Petersburg paper, !
which shortly was suppressed, of dis |
orders discovered by the commander of |
the Russian Pacific squadron, shows
that the poorer convicts were compelled
to do the heaviest labor in chains, rich
criminals being kept in a privileged
position and hobnobbing with the au-
thorities. A few years ago news reach !
ed London through Odessa from East
Siberia that so terrible a state of af- :
fairs was prevalent on the island that
the governor had to interfere for the
protection of prisoners against minor
prison officials. /
Several convicts were said deliberate
~ to have manned themselves to get
free of certain cruel wardens. Others
fled into the impenetrable forest'-so
the message ran-"where they suffered !,
all the horrors of hunger In a satcheI
belonging to fugitive convict who had
been hunted down was found some
pieces of human flesh; and other cases
or cannibalism have been reported"
Such escapes sometimes are success
rul, the convicts getting across the mar
row strip of sea to the mainland in a |
BOAT or on rough raft, but more fire.
luently the wretched fellows are cap
Lured by the savage natives,-GiIyaks
Or Amos, who receive a regular reward
from the government,-or are drowned !
Or die of starvation. By a strange
this news was reported al
most simultaneously with the appear
ance in English of Korolenko's 1.-The
Saghalin Convict which is the story
of successful escape, full of terror
and pathos. The reality is again more
strange than the fiction; not even Ko-
rolenko. with all his grim power, dare
give to his readers that CHASTITY satchel
of human flesh. Yet there is more than
one well-attested story of cannibaIism
on Sagahalin.
1t must be remembered in every |
aspect OF the Russian penal system that
those who have been tried and those