The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1905-05-05
siberian
Prison Love
[original']


.i' nv hrst night in a Siberian
unt twenty-five years DID, on
~ threshold Of life sea and ron,
0 the beginning of old ase-ih
ment.
tickety, tick.
il rapping on the heating
,.an rms up to the floor above.
L.4saa, prisoners know the code,
not long in spelling out the
DER of a sentence, The begin
had lost.
lonely
st condense two years into a
.~tonces The rapper, occupying
d~iractly above mine, was a girl,
vronsky, the daughter OF a
~ professor. She had been
Siberia for teaching the peas
Che had been placed In solitary
oment and at the time she made
(ouaintance was on the verge OF
To save her ! exerted my
! the utmost, encouraging her,
bor Of escapes Of which l had
and of escapes l invented. For
rmnatby she was grateful, and
NOT long in turning her graft
10 love.
is nothing like love to stmu-
[oth hope and endeavor. l spent
time in planning an escape both
Dr. and me. Escape was not Inn
ble. for the prison system was bad
hp prison officials corrupt. 1t was
ture that l feared. To gain time
leaving the prison and by time
nee | hit upon the plan Of having
HES in cells.
nlan | communicated to Anna,
ksting that when the guard brought
reals she should always sit In the
nosition and answer no questions.
was to get the guard used to what
mmy would be. Anna began the
lss at once, as l did. BY our rap
code other prisoners told us that
was an hour, supper time, when
might walk out Of the prison I'M
but, as Anna and l could not
upon escaping at the same time,
Eere to meet, IL possible. at a dis
town where exiles having served
terms in prison were permitted
Ee.
babe a dummy out Of my mattress
my bedclothing. Every time my
d appeared l sat with my head
on my bed as though in melan-
| arranged by the code with q
bner at the end of the corridor
at three coughs from me he was
rick. One evening l gave the sig
The guard, without relocking my
hurried to the prisoner. l set up
dummy and walked out. l sue
ed in getting out Of the prison
out being seen except by one man.
supposed l was a privileged con-
1t was very dark, and l hid In q
Yer of the wall. l had noticed from
cell window a place where one
d get On a low building with a
ice Of escape. Finding a piece Of
ltling in the prison yard, l used it
to climb on the building and next
zach the top Of the wall, from which
mped down and escaped.
h dummy must have worked sue
fully, for l was not pursued, and
pursued l should surely have been
fured. l went to the rendezvous
waited there as long rs I dared for
pa Vronsky, but she did not appear.
n reluctantly made my way to
(sia, stopping just beyond the bor-
where l remained under an as
ped name. Indeed, my identity with
former self was unrecognizable. I
De a living trading in furs and kept
Pokout for escaped prisoners, from
be Of whom l hoped to hear some
pg of Anna Vronsky.
seems strange that q man should
and continue to love a girl he has
Ter seen, but there was more be-
Fen me and my fellow sufferer than
ween most lovers who had been
|ught up together. And this is the
son why remained In what to me
the most dangerous position In
Fsla, near the Siberian border.
X years passed. One day I went up
nara bay to make purchases and on
way back stopped for supper and
night at a little farmhouse, the only
'upants being an old woman and her
&c, From the moment I saw the
= { | 1elt that she alone could take
place OF my imprisoned love. I
'''eo with the two women till the
Went to bed. The girl was about
.0llow her when l, fancying from a
luess stamped on her face that she
gut nave suffered as a political pris-
H. =, tapped with a lead pencil on the
.s nom force of habit, spelling
sus mat l had often spelled in
Anna, l love you"
ne change in the girl before me VIZ.
y She turned first white,
. rosy red, catching at the same
'e at the table.
Are YOU
Yes, and your
'eaited Forward and clasped her IN