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

Dy all who are cOnVerSant with Sagha-
lien life, that not more than 30 per
cent. of these unions of murderers
and murderesses result in Offspring,
and in these instances rarely more
than two or three children are born
to couple. The total number of chill
dren is small, indeed, in comparison
with the adult population; in the TWEEN
ty-eight schools of the island less than
one thousand pupils are enrolled.
On reaching maturity the native
born boys become artisans, and the
girls usually become the wives of Off
Gals or of the more cultured among
the released convicts. The authorities
declare that the native Saghaliens are
not degenerate by any manner of
means, and in substantiation they
point out the fact that the islands best
artisans are the very men born of
these convict marriages.
Governed by Former COnvicts.
Not only are the trades, but most of
the affairs of the island, outside of the
work of administration, are in the
hands of former convicts who have
gained their freedom to the island
through good behavior. A teacher in
the school of Alexandrovsk was for
merly a captain in the Russian army,
and was sent to the island for killing
brother officer while al cards. All the
small shopkeepers at the various pris-
on and military posts, the Caucasian
boatmen who swarm the harbor during
the open season and, of course, the
peasants, are all ex-conVicts,
Many of these released murderers
nave become commercially prominent
ON the island and in VladiVostok and
Nikolaevsk, on the mainland where
they have settled after having secured
permission of the government And
strange as 1t may seem to the Occi-
dental mind, they generally have the
respect and confidence of the commu-
nifty. though even the wharf rats
know their bloody records.
Murderers Who Become Good Citi-
zens.
Two of every three of the fishing
fleets that put out from the southern
ports of the island are owned entirely
by me an who would not have become
wealthy thereby had they not taken
life in their home towns in European
Russia. Sea-cabbage grows in album
dance off the eastern coast of the is
land, and former convict whose head
quarters is VladiVostok has made a
fortune of half a million dollars by
gathering and marketing it in the
neighboring Japanese island of Yez-
20, where is is considered a great del
icacy and is eagerly sought after. One
of the principal fur trading firms of
Nikolaevsk is composed of three MUIR
derers from Little Russia, and many
of their furs come from Saghalien
where exiled peasants spend the winter
months trapping the otter, the sable
the brown bear, the fox and the SPUR
rel, all of which abound on the is
land in great numbers. The wealth
lest man in Alexandrovsk is also a
dealer in furs, and like his Nikolaevsk
rivals, has the blood of a brother on
his hands
Many Sent to Death.
These fur merchants have sent many
a fellow murderer to his death in the
wilds of Saghalien. Not that the peas
ant trappers cannot and do not with
stand the rigors of the Arctic winter
that holds the entire island in it's grasp
from the last of October TO the first of
May; but there is a standing reward
by the Russian government of five rou-
bles for the head of an escaped con-
vict, and when a Gilyak. or an Ainu,
or fungus sees a white man in the
forest he straightway endeavors to kill
him. He does not first make sure that
the white man has a permit to roam
at large. In many instances he is anx-
ious not to miss the opportunity of
making five roubles easily, and in 9TH
ers he recalls the atrocities committed
on his people by escaped convicts who
were leniently dealt with.
Disappear in the Forest.
So it happens every year that many
a peasant trapper disappears into the
animal populated forests, with high
hopes of coming out in the spring with
skins enough to make a fortune, for
Saghalien, and Is seen no more in his
part of the island. the reward for his
head being collected at some isolated
military post several hundred miles
away.
The natives make it particularly hard
for convicts to escape with any degree
of safety to themselves or hope of ulti-
mately reaching the mainland. The
only route for an escaping convict to
take is through the forest, northward
and then eastward to the straits of
Tartary, in some places not over five
miles wide. But the natives have their
villages in the forests, the military
warn them at once when a convict has
made break for liberty. they are
skilled in woodcraft. and thrice lucky,
indeed is that fugitive who manages
to elude five thousand pairs of watch
Iul eyes lOT lHG Two WtthS vi iiibi z
that hunted man must spend in MAX
ing his way to a secluded spot on the
eastern coast where he can fashion a
log raft or dug out" for the jour-
ney across the straits to the mainland
How Convicts Escape.
Some few convicts have actually
escaped in this manner; another
handful have been captured while out
at sea, the outlooks in the military
posts scattered along the coast sight
ing and overhauling them. But the
big majority of the fugitives who take
TO the forest never leave it alive. II
they escape the head hunting natives,
they are almost certainly doomed to
starvation after they have passed the
fringe of clearings made by exiled
peasants, who can be depended on TO
help their fleeing fellow criminals.
But the peasants have not conquered
many miles Of the forest, and the real
trials of the fugitive begins after he
has left the sheltering roof Of the