New-York tribune., 1905-02-19
LIFE ON SAGHALIEN.
Where Russian Political Prisoners
and Criminals Are Banish6d.

Seventeen cents day is said to be the cost
of Maxim Gorky the Russian novelist, to the
Russian government for food. Ciorky was re-
Gently arrested and mmured in a solitary cell
by the government for his completely in the
outbreak of the people. He is luxuriousiy
fed in comparison with the Russian political
prisoners and criminals on the island of Sa-
ghaIien. The allowance for these is seven and
one-half cents for the same period.
SaghaIien is an attenuated island lying off the
eastern coast of Siberia, In the Sea of Okhotsk.
Russia has used 1t as penal colony since 1863.
Among the people of Russia it is called the Isle
If the Lost 1t is we'll named by them. No
rerson who is sent to this island returns.
The government apparently desires to add to
this impression of hOpelessness by preventing,
IS far as possible any description of the life
lived there from reaching the people. 1t would
have an atmosphere of gloom hang over the
island. 1t would have exile to this forsaken
spot mean the crossing of a yawning gulf into
a world from which word can return There
a false passport is not worth the trouble of
Writing it Passport or passport. it makes
difference.
A few foreigners have been able to spend a
short time on the island in recent years It
fas usually been difficult to secure pictures of
the life there.
Only those who are sentenced to penal ser
vice for life because of some great crime, per-
sonal or political. sent to Saghalien- The
prisons are not great stone dungeons such as
those to which the American is accustomed
They resemble barracks, or great wooden ware
houses The stockades around the portion de-
voted to the incarceration of the most violent
of the criminals if constructed around r
chard would only add to the fun of stealing
the apples for American boy. Leaving the
prison. however, is like jumping from the fry
ing pan into the fire, the temptation to do
70 is not great. The main prison is divided
into three parts One is for the privileged
convicts. The workshops and cells for the
best behaved prisoners are here. The good con-
duct prisoners, who are permitted to go outside
in the day to labor, occupy the middle part
The northern quadrangle is surrounded by a
strong stockade and overlooked by a watch
tower. There are kept the most desperate
criminals, who wear irons weighing fourteen
pounds. All the prisoners are kept there through
the first year of their incarceration.
AS capital punishment is not part of Rus
sias criminal code, many of the prisoners are
murdererS who have been sent there to remain
for life. All the servants of the officers are
criminals
A visitor to the place says 'It is uncomforta-
BILE to know that the surly faced woman who
enters your room in the morning with light
breakfast is a murderess. 1t does not add to
your comfort to learn, when part of your beard
has been removed, that the barber is also a
murderer You are glad to have a revolver
under your pillow when you go to bed You
readily obey the injunction not to leave the
house after the o'clock curfew has been rung'
Women are privileged inhabitants the ISL
und They are relatively so few that they are
at a premium. When a male convict has earned
the right to live outside the prison walls in
small house of his own. he often invites one
of the women to live with him. She may be a
murderess, but that makes no difference. She
may have murdered two who occupied
the same relation to her that he does. This
fact, apparently. is deterrent A knouting
and solitary confinement are the only two pun
ishments which be inflicted. The women
are so few that they not in much danger of
being knouted.
MCCLELLAN STATUE At WASHINGTON.