Rock Island Argus., 1905-03-23
DAILY SHORT STORY
MY SIBERIAN PRISON LOVE.
lOriginaLl

| 1t was my first night in 4 Siberian
| prison. But twenty-five years old, on
the very threshold of life. and con-
demned to spend twenty years-from
| youth to the beginning of old age-in
| confinement
Tick, tickety. tick.
Some one is rapping on the heating
pipe which runs up to the floor above
/ All political prisoners know the code.
and 1 was not long in spelling out the
| remainder of q sentence. The begin
ming l had lost.
! so lonely"
must condense two years into a
! few sentences. The rapper. occupying
| q cell directly above mine, was girl,
Anna Vronsky, the daughter of a
university professor. She had been
sent to Siberia for teaching the peas
ants. She had been placed in solitary
confinement and at the time she made
my acquaintance was on the verge OF
insanity. To save her 1 eXerted my
self to the utmost, encouraging her.
telling her of escapes of which | had
heard aud of escapes 1 invented. For
this sympathy she was grateful, and
l was not long in turning her graft
tudc to love.
There is nothing like love to Stimu-
late both hope and endeavor. | spent
all my time in planning an escape both
for her and me. Escape was not i'm
possible. for the prison system was bad
and the prison officials corrupt 1t was
recapture that l feared. To gain time
after leaving the prison and by time
distance l hit upon the plan of having
dummies in our cells.
This plan l communicated to Anna.
suggesting that when the guard brought
her meals she should always sit in the
same position and answer no questions
This was to get the guard used TO what
dummy would be. Anna began the
process 1T once, as | did. BY our rap
ping code other prisoners told us that
there was an hour. supper time, when
one might walk out of the prison un-
seen; but, as Anna and | could not
rely upon escaping at the same time,
we were to meet, if possible, at u dis
tant town where eXiIes having served
their terms in prison We're permitted
TO live
l made dummy out of my mattress
and my bedclothing. Every time my
guard appeared / sat with my head
bent on my bed as though in melan-
chOly. / arranged by the code with Il
prisoner at the end of the corridor
that at three coughs from me he was
to shrek. one evening l gave the sig
nal. The guard, without relocking my
coll hurried fn fln / OF IN.
my dummy and walked out. 1 sue
ceeded in getting out of the prison
without being seen except by one man,
who supposed l was a privileged con
vict. 1t was very dark, and l hid in d
corner of the wall l had noticed from
my cell window place where one
could get on a low building with n
chance of escape. Finding a piece of
scantling in the prison yard, / used it
first to climb on the building and next
to reach the top Of the wall, from which
l jumped down and escaped.
My dummy must have worked sue
ceSsfully, for / was not pursued, ana
II pursued I should surely have been
captured. l went to the rendezvous
and waited there IS long as | dared for
Anna Nronsky, but she did not appear.
Then l reluctantly made my way TO
Russia, stopping just beyond the bor-
der, where l remained under an as
sumed name. Indeed, my identity with |
my former self was unrecoGniZaUlc. | |
made a living trading in furs and kept !
a lookout for escaped prisoners, from |
some of whom l hoped to hear some |
thing of Anna Vronsky.
1t seems strange that Il man should /
love and continue to love girl he has |
never seen, but there was more he /
tween me and my fellow sufferer than |
between most lovers who had been /
brought up together. And this is the |
reason why 1 remained in what to me |
was the most dangerous position in /
Russia. near the Siberian border
Six years passed. one day ! went up /
to Kara bay to make purchases and on |
my way back stopped for supper and |
the night at little farmhouse. the only |
occupants being an old woman and her !
niece. From the moment l saw the !
niece felt that she alone could take /
the place OF my imprisoned love l .
chatted with the two women till the /
aunt went to bed The girl was about .
TO follow her when l. fancying from
sadness stamped on her face that she ,
might have suffered as a political pTis-
ouer. tapped with a lead pencil on the
table from force Of habit, spelling
words that had often spelled in
prison:
Anna, | love YOU
The change in the girl before me was
astonishing She turned first white.
then Il rosy red. catching at the same
time at the table.
Are you
Yes. and youE"
started forward and clasped her in
my arms. oh, the happiness Of that
embrace, Except for our hearts beat
ing against each other there WAS 81 f.
lence Then l asked her If she would
love the real as she had loved the ideal I
She said she would.