The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-09

u
give up the southern half of the
island, the whole of Saghalien has
been used as a penal colony for Rus
sian murderers and other vicious civil
criminals. In all these thirty years
only one Americana am a natural
lied American citizen, born in Russia
has engaged in business on the
island.
1 have just returned to this coun
try after four summers spent in trad
ing among the various prison posts on
the southern end of the island and the
military posts that are scattered every
few miles along it's western coast to
guard the sole road running north and
to search the straits of Tartary for
escaped convicts making for the main
land in dug outs" or upon log RATS
Saghalien is no place for trader now
1t has been cut off from the rest of
the world since the outbreak of the
war between its owner and Japan. No
trader will be able to make his salt
there until hostilities cease, and it has
been decided whether Russia will keep
the island or will have to give back
" japan blldl WHICH SuS look from
the latter in the days of the little
brown mems weakness.
Life Among a Desperate People.
During my months of trading with
the military, the exiled peasants and
settlers. the convicts themselves, and
the native Gilyaks, fungus and Anus,
l was able to become intimately ac-
quainted with many phases of life in
what might be APPLY termed Murder
ers' Land but the condition that in
terested me most was that appertain-
ing to the women criminals.
Woman is exceedingly scarce on tho
island; her number is about 5000 to
$4,000 men. AS a result, her price is
far above rubies,' and her value is not
affected by the fact that back in Eu-
ropean Russia she killed her lover in a
fit of Jealous passion, or put poison
in the wine of the woman who was
Turing her husband or sweetheart from
her side.
So great is the demand for these
female criminals as wives and house
keepers on the part of the convicts
who have served their terms and be-
come peasants, with land tenures, or
artisans in the towns, that long before
convict ship arrives from Odessa
hundreds of applications for possession
of the few score women aboard have
been filed with the military governor
who sits at AleXandroVsk, the princi-
pal prison post.
The Last Cargo Before the War.
The last ship to reach Alexandrovsk
before the war with Japan cast anchor
In the harbor in June of last year. By
The time the convicts were ready to
dsembark the wharf was black with
claimants for the sixty odd women
among the 300 newcomers. Many a
peasant, having heard that the ship
was soon due, had trudged from the
interior over many miles of forest
paths to put in an application for a
helpmeet, and to look at more women
than he had seen at one time since TAX
ing up his few acres of land on his
release several years before from pris-
on or hard labor in a logging camp
or the coal mines of the north.
In the Receiving station.
Once off the ship the women were
taken to the convict receiving station.
The several hundred applicants for
them followed, each evidently confident
shat he would surely be one of the
fortunates to be designated by the Off
Gals as husbands to the sixty. They
waited patiently in front of the build
ing for several hours; in the mean
time those of the civil and military au-
thorities who wanted wives were bust
ly engaged selecting the best looking
and most cultured of the women for
themselves. Some twenty of the pris-
oners were reserved in this manner,
and then a minor official went about
among the crowd outside and told off
the murderers who were to receive the
remaining forty, for nine out of every
10 ncria1 in a
the brand of Cain upon their fore
heads. These men were let into the
room in which the women were con-
fined, one at a time. 1t did not take
long for any of them to make a selec-
ton; nearly every one was so anxious
for a wife that he took the first wom-
an he saw, without reference to age or
looks. AS result, some of the last
to be let in secured the pick of the
group left by the officers.
Settling the Wife Question.
In determining who shall receive
wives, the officials take into considera-
ton the applicants record since ar
irving on the island and the priority
of his application for helpmeet.
Bribery rarely if ever, influences the
selection. A wife-hunting peasant or
artisan has little enough to live on at
all times. and nothing at all to offer
as a bride except a personal favor,
and that would be very slight, indeed,
in most cases.
A woman convict has never been
known to refuse to accompany the
man choosing her as a partner. She
prefers semi-freedom, with even the
lowest of murderers, to prison life in
Saghalien, where hard labor means
the most gruelling sort of work for
twelve or fourteen hours a day, with
only soup and black bread and fire.
Quently the knout, for recompense.
The four great prisons on the island
have yet to shelter woman convict
over night.
Marriages Among Criminals.
Much comment has appeared from
time to time in various quarters OF the
world deplol1ng the governments
sanction of these marriages, on the
ground that a generation of degener-
stes viii result therefrom. But it is
remarkable fact, and one attested 10