Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-23
My Siberian
Prison Love
tOriginal.l

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 | was not long in spelling out the
remainder Of a sentence. The begin
ming / had lost.
$50 lonely"
| must condense two years into a
few sentences. The rapper, occupying
cell directly above mine, was a 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 l exerted my
self to the utmost, encouraging her,
telling her of escapes Of which | had
heard and Of escapes | invented. For
this sympathy she was grateful, and
was not long in turning her graft
o.
tude to love.
There is nothing like love to sthnu-
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 hit upon the plan Of having
dummies in our cells.
This plan | 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 at once, as l 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 I'M
seen; but, as Anna and l could not
we were to meet, if possible, at a dis
tant town where eXiles having served
their terms in prison were permitted
to live.
l made dummy out Of my mattress
: and my bedclothing. Every time my
bent on my bed as though in melan-
choly. l arranged by the code with a
prisoner at the end of the corridor
that at three coughs from me he was
to shrek. One evening | gave the sig
nal. The guard, without relocking my
cell, hurried to the prisoner. | set UP
my dummy and walked out. / sue
ceeded in getting out of the prison
without being seen except by one man,
who supposed | was a privileged con-
vict. 1t was very dark, and hid in a
corner of the wall. had noticed from
my cell window a place where one
could get OH low building with a
chance of escape. Finding piece of
scantling in the prison yard, l used it
first to climb on the building and next
to reach the top Of the wall, from which
I jumped down and escaped
My dummy must have worked sue
cesSfully, for l was not pursued, and
! If pursued l should surely have been
captured. | went to the rendezvous
and waited there as long as dared for
Anna Vronsky, but she did not appear
Then I reluctantly made my way TO
Russia, stopping just beyond the Dor
der, where | remained under an as
sumed name. Indeed my identity with
my former self was unacceptable.
made a living trading in furs and kept
| a lookout for escaped prisoners, from
some of whom / hoped to hear some
thing of Anna Vronsky.
It seems strange that man should
| love and continue to love girl he has
never seen, but there was more be-
! tween me and my fellow sufferer than
between most lovers who had been
brought up together. And this is the
reason why | 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
nv way back stopped for supper and
the night at little farmhouse, the only
occupants being an old woman and her
niece From the moment / saw the
niece | felt that she alone could take
the place of my imprisoned love. |
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 pris-
oner. tapped with a lead pencil on the
table from force of habit, spelling
words that l had often spelled in
prison:
Gamma, love you"
The change in the girl before me was
astonishing. She turned first white.
then a rosy red, catching at the same
time at the table.
"Are YOU
eyes, and y0u?"
I started forward and clasped her in
nv arms. Oh, the happiness of that
embrace! Except for our hearts beat
ING against each other there was 81
lence. Then | asked her if she would