Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-01-27

The guard approached and passed my
door. His steps died away. Suddenly
Ticki-TicS, tickl--Tick, tick tickl-and
through to thirty-hvel Then slowly we
spelled out words, and by this clumsy
code the swifter code was taught me.
After that, for three years, the pipe was
almost always talking. How fast we talk
ed The pipe sounded So" Her gray head
bent over the table, her face was flushed,
her eyes flashed back through forty years
of danger and prison, and her strong, sub
tie fingers rolled out the ticks at lightning
speed. "Our club had over a hundred
members I'm solitary confinement some in
cells on either side of mine, some below
and some above. Did we tell stories?
Yes. and good onesl Young students,
keen wits, high splritsl" She laughed
merrily, becoming Babushka How some
of those youngsters made love! A mere
| boy two cells to nv right, vowed he
adored the young girl of nineteen five
cells to my left on the floor above, whom
he had never laid eyes on. l helped tick
his gallant speeches and her responses
continually along. They passed to the
| cell below hers and were licked up the
| heating pipe to her by a sad little woman
| who grieved for her babies. Did they ever
meet? An. Siberia is large as your States
| and France and England and Germany
| all together.
our club was not all club OF pleasure
| Some died Of consumption; others killed
! themselves. and others went insane. The
/ pipe raved sometimes. II spoke many
sad good-byes to wives and children But
| the pipe was not often so, for a ReVolu-
ZIONIST must smile though the heart be
! torn. We older ones continually urged
] the young girls to be strong. for they told
us how they were taken out and brutally
treated to make them give evidence. A
very few broke down. but there were many
young girls who endured mistaken months
| Of this brutality.
From new prisoners we heard cheer
ing news. The fire Of our Idea had spread
among workmen as well as peasants; in
| the factories many were arrested. some
| were imprisoned here and Joined our
/ club, but were soon condemned into exile.
still the Idea spread. In 1877 came that
| tremendous demonstration on the Kazan
Square i'm st. Petersburg. Hundreds were
imprisoned; again many Joined our club
and were condemned. sent us last words
Of cheer along the pipe, and so were
| rushed of to Siberia.
I'm 1878 we were tried. One hundred
had died or gone insane. We one
hundred and ninety-three were packed
into little hall over half had belonged
to our club. and l had a strange shock
as looked at these eliminates with whom
l had daily talked. White thin, and Grip
pled. but still the same stout hearts, We
nerved each other to refuse to be tried
for the trial we knew was to be a farce
the jury allowed us by law was not given
us; we had only jury OF seven, OF whom
but one was a peasant. Our judges had
been appointed by the Car. They
divided us into groups OF ten or fifteen:
the trials lasted half a year. When my
turn came, l protested against this farce
for this / was at once taken out and my
prison term was heightened to five years
at hard labor convict in the mines. This
is the punishment given to a murderer
gHEN.
for life
Secretly at night, to avoid a demon
stration. ten OF us were led out other
tens followed on successive nights In the
street below were eleven 'telegas'-heavy
hooded vehicles with three horses each.
Into one / was placed, a stout gendarme
! squeezed in on each side. to remain there
two months. Just before my knees sat
the driver. We went OF at gallop and
our five thousand mile journey began.
The Great Siberian Road was feelngly
described by Mr.. KEENAN,. A succession
OF bumps Of all sizes. our sprinGless tele-
! gas tolted and bounced: my two big
. gendarmes lurched: our horses continually
galloped. for they were changed every
few hours. we bounced often a whole
week without stopping over ten minutes
day or night; we suffered agony from lack
OF sleep. our officer ordered the gendarmes
/ never to leave us. At time we women
held shawls between the gendarmes and
our friends Three wives who had come
to share their husbands exile were
treated the same. We were all dressed
In convict clothes. The men had also
heavy chains on feet and wrists. their
heads were partly shaved. our officer
kept the money given him by our anxious
friends at home, and gave us each the
Government allowance Of about FIVE cents
day. For sleep We We're placed in the
etapes (wayside prisons) Mr.. KEENAN,
has well described the cells-reeking
crawling, infected with scurvy consump-
ton and typhoid. They had log walls
roughly covered with plaster. The air was
invariably noisome: the long bench or
which We slept had no bedclothes
. Through the walls we heard the endless
jangling Of letters. the moaning Of women
, the cries of sick babies. on the wall,
were a mass of inscriptions names OF
. friends who had gone before us news o
death and insanity, and shrewd bits OF
. advice for outwitting gendarmes. Som,
, were freshly cut, but one worm eaten low,
: | poem looked century old. For alonl
| | this Great Siberian Road over a million
men, women, and children have dragged
/, two hundred and fifty thousand since 1875
. and degenerates side by side with tendei
girls who were eXiled through the Jealous
wife Of some petty town official.
a III Is hardly necessary TO say that this recita
possesses unusual interest and significance OF
account of this weeks events in ST. Peters