The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-02-11

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| ty had no attractions for her, and
young Katherine started a school and
began to teach the poor children. This
act brought her under suspicion, for
the ruling class considered it i'm. ,Offense
to spread education and refinement
among the peasants.
At 10 Katherine was taken to st.
Petersburg. 1t CHANGED that in the
same compartment on the train was
Prince Peter kropOtkin,, returning
from official duties in Siberia He had
already become revoutionist, and his
discussion Of national problems made d
deep impression upon her. At % kath-
crime married land owner and became
active as a Liberal. Her efforts to ed
ucate the peasants and encourage them
to exercise their suffrage for their own
class at local elections brought upon
her the enmity of the privileged class.
The workers had elected judges, arbi-
tiers and other officials from their own
ranks, for which a number were ex-
lied and many others were severely
punished with the knout
Despairing of accomplishing anything
by reform, she frankly asked her hus-
or death in the cause of freedom for
the people. and, receiving a negative
reply, they separated, and Madam
Breshkovsky went to Kief and joined
a revolutionary group. For several
years she Travelled among the working
people secretly organizing and educat-
ing them, logged constantly by police
spies. There were two thousand edu-
Gated men and women engaged in the
same work, and by 1874 the organized
movement had spread through IS great
provinces Of Russia.
In the latter year Madam Breshkov-
sky was betrayed by a prattling serv-
ant girl, arrested and imprisoned. No
tongue or pen can describe the awful
tortures that were inflicted upon the
young woman and some of her COM
rades when their imprisonment began.
The first night she was compelled to
stand in the center of the BLACK
Hole" the walls being covered with
vermin and the floor was soft. with ex-
crement. 1t was the beginning of Sibe-
ria.
usual farcical trial. Like several hun
dred revolutionists, she was kept in
solitary confinement Her cell was 9
feet long, feet wide and feet high.
This was her abode for two years.
Many of her friends went mad; 9TH
ers committed suicide; still others
died of consumption. The prisoners
used a clumsy code and learned to
communicate with each other by gen.
thy striking the iron pipe that support
ed their cots. In this slow, crude man
ner messages were sent from cell to
cell, and as new prisoners were
brought in the older ones soon learned
that the revolutionary fires were con-
stantly growing brighter.
Finally in 1878 Madam Breshkovsky
and her comrades were given a 'triaI'
that Is, those who were still alive,
over one third having died or gone in
sane, and for protesting against the
farce she was given an additional SEN
tence of five years at hard labor and
Siberian exile for life. The trip to the
frozen north, distance of 5000 miles,
occupied two months, and every mo-
ment of that time they were under the
surveillance of the police. Sometimes
they did not sleep for week at a
stretch, and their food consisted of
black bread and coffee or water. Occa-
sionally they were given brief rest in
"etapes," foul-smelling, vermin-infect-
ed and disease breeding wayside pris-
Ons.
Volumes might be written of the tor
lures inflicted by the brutal authorities
upon their poor, defenseless victims in
Siberia. Many attempts are made to
escape, the prisoners preferring to take
their chances of freezing or starving
to death while making their way over
land hundreds of miles to the Pacific
ocean.
Madam Breshkovsky and three COM
panions also made a bold dash for lib
erty, but after travelling 600 miles they
were captured, brought back and pun
ished severely. In burial hamlet,
near the Chinese frontier, Mr.. George
KEENAN,, the famous Siberian traveller
who wrote Darkest Russia met
Madam Breshkovsky, and. in referring
to her, says among other things:
The unshaken courage with which
this unfortunate woman contemplated
her dreary future and the faith she
manifested in the ultimate triumph Of
liberty in her native country, were as
touching as they were heroic. Almost
the last words she said to me were.
Mr.. KEENAN,, we may die in exile and
our children may die in exile, and our
childrens children may die in exile, but
something must come Of it at last!''
After ~ years of hardships and op-
preston such as can hardly be de-
scribed, Madam Breshkovsky, now an
old woman, was allowed to return to
Russia. She found conditions greatly
changed. The organized revolutionary
movement had become so widespread
and powerful that the active workers
could almost defy arrest. There are
now 100000 workers enlisted in secret
organizations, and their every effort is
put forth to secure freedom for the
people.
When it is considered that over one
million men, women and children have
been dragged over the Great Siberian
Road, to fall by the wayside and die
Of hunger and privation, or to live in