The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-05-05
THE long ROAD. by John oxenham
The Macmillan Company, $3.50
Fifth Avenue, New York. PIP. $50.

THE LONG ROAD. by John Oxenham
The Macmillan Company, 64-66
Fifth Avenue New York. PIP. 1856.
$3.50.
BY THE Long Road John oxenham
means the rond that stretches from
Ksznn, In Russia. to lrkutsh, in
Siberia. along which tragic companies
of Russian exilcs pass on their way,
through tho brief sunshine of sum
mer and the mud and ice and snow
OF frozen winter
The author knows how to draw the
picture of the road with master
pen. Every stroke fulfils n purpose,
aud the scenes during the weary jour
ney that the Russians tread are so
vivid that they seem to be taking
place before the eyes of the reader.
The story concerns itself specially
with the fortunes of Ivan lime. of
Kazan, his wife Marya, and his little
son Stepan. who was nine years when
he first took to tramping on the long
road and eleven before his tramp
was finished. The hardships on the
road and its small compensations APP
peal strongly to the heart OF the
reader The father of the little lime
family. honest, hard working and
contented. was uprootcd from his Rus
sian home through no fault of his.
After while. when he was once
that as far as in him lay. he would
give none even the slightest handle
against him again.
But the Governor of IrkutsiS died
and Patchkin. who had convinced the
Tartars of the existence of a per-
sonal devil. came to rule in his stead
No man might escape Paschkin's no.
tice He came to Hines forge and
named him as n member of his council
n doubtful and dangerous honor He
sent Stepan. now grown into likely
young manhood, to Selemsinsk to find
two black horses that Paschkin had
seen on the steppes and fancied. When
Stepan got to his journeys end he
found the owner of the horses to be
the father of little girl who had
been kind to Stcpan when he had gone
on foot through Irkutsk years before
and whose image had been bourne In
his heart ever since. Stepan persuaded
the young girl to marry him and took
her back with him to 1rkutsk behind
the blacks.
For little while the green shutter
ed house by the busy forge, where the
Hines dwelt, was n happy place. But
like the rest of the 1rkutsk people
the Hines lived on the slope of q
volcano that ut any time might break
forth And they knew 1t.
Calamity came when the half-year-
" amount due from the Nerkinsk
silver was week overdue, and Pasch-
kin. furious Mt the delay. sent Ivan
line to Verknsk to inquire into the
cause. The waters were out along the
travellers course and Ilne went, not
to Verkinsk. but to his death. HIS
wife did not long survive him.
Stepan assumed a mask of stolidity
and kept close within the green shut
tered house, or at the forge But
Paschkin at last found him. Then
he became councillor. as his father had
been before him, and the upshot of
the matter was that he's too. was sent
to yerkinsk But he did not go with
the joyful alacrity that Paschkin de-
mandcd. SO the tyrant's ingenult was
set to work to devise a punishment
that should TT the case. Paschkin was
pleased when he sent swift mes
senc,er nv shorter route than Iline
had taken to the chief of police OF
Verkinsk. The messenger carried ord
ers of exile from Irktutsk for Stepan
He might go elsewhere within Siberia
but was never to stay longer than ten
DAYS at any one place.
Then came the beginning of the
dreadful end. Stepan rendered a service
to a benevolent old jew named Peter
Krop, who sympathized with him. lent
him money and helped him to II out
wares along the road.
After while Stepans wife and
two children came to him They made
of the little wagon house on wheels
and away from the shadow of Pasch-
kins presence, they reioiced. But a
hard winter. even for Siberia. came
The wife sicliened and died, and then
the children, one by one. Then Stepan
hearing that Paschkin was about to
leave Siberia for Russia, pursued and
overlook him. Az he was about to
wreck vengeance on the monster he
believed to he the murderer of his wife
and children, a little girl, with the
name of lrL own. child, and eyes rs
blue as hers. crawled from under the
furs of Paschkin's sleigh and cried
for him to stop.
For the sake of the child stepan
STAYED his hand, He went into the
wflds of the farthest north and lived
for two years: then remembrance
stirred in his brain and he came back
Peter Krop left him money. and he
picked up the broken threads of his
life and spent the few years that re-
NAMED to him in trying to add to the
happiness of others, since he had mono
OF his own
HALF-HouRs IN SOUTHERN HIS.
TORY. BY John Leslie Hall, Phi