The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-27


 a matter of little money for incid- ental expenses. Friends one has ev- .erywhere nowadays. All through Si- beria the very peasants would do ev- erything they could to show their sym pathy with us 'politicals.' The times are changed from those days when our convoy had only to drop hint that his prisoner was suffering for having attempted the life of the Czar to alienate him from the common feelings of humanity That horse won't trot any more in Russia; ths people know too much. The modus loperandi of escaping from exile is sim ple and only requires little nerve at possibly critical moments. All 'po- llticals' for exile are sent to little vil- lages of the aborigines-about the lowest savages on earth-in Siberia, in small parties of three or four. The only thing that keeps them there is the distance from home and the inn possibility of traversing it without , considerable expenditure. So long as you are in the train or passing through towns you are always we'll guarded by soldiers of the convoy , commands or any other that may be at the disposal of the local authorities. They receive their prisoners with a sort of invoice, and must deliver them to the police officer of the succeeding district strictly according to the in- l voice. But at last you arrive at those waste parts of the earth where it is plain all civilization and authority cease.
 The last representative of authori- ty one sees Is tie 'ispravnik' (rural po- lice mastery of some townlet on the verge of this waste. In my own case this officer spoke to us plainly, made a bargain with us, and we duly kept it. Look here. my friends said he, there are about two hundred of you for va rious villages along the road yonder Now, from here you'll go on with my police-I haven't more than five men available now-as far as x, which is the limit of my district After that you will have only village elders or their assistants with you to guido each party of you to the village you are de- stined for. Now, I have treated you pretty decently, and I am sure you have no wish to make trouble for me, If any of you escape between here and x shall get dismissed I'm a mar ried man with a family and you know what that means in our service. There fore, if any of you intend to return to Russia, I have only to beg you to put it off until you get out of my district Tt seems to be the regular under standing there; as long as you do not make trouble for the authorities they will look the other way on your return if you return by the same way. Very often there is only one road, and you must return by it, and if there were not some sort of understanding like this with the police it would be impos- sible to get back unrecognized. You see, neither the treatment these po- lice officers get from their superiors, from the local governors right away to the St. Petersburg government, nor the pay on which they have to live, in- duces them to undertake anything more than their bare duty. Now when man escapes from the waste places of the earth he carries the first news of 1t himself It is not until he is safe away that the friendly police receive from headquarters behind them orders to find So-and-so, sand then, of course, they set about finding him. But why should they put them selves out of the way to recognize 6 man without special orders? The next party of pollticaIs' that came along would soon ake him regret any playing unfairly in this game. It is life and cath to us, and only matter of little extra chancellery core. spondence to him, so it works on the whole quite smoothly.
 we all kept fairly to the bargain until we reached K From there we tramped on and on, losing here ant there a party of five or ten, whc branched off into the wilds for theil several villages We talked all the time with our guides, the village cid. CTS, who are supposed to be responsi ble for us, and learned all we could aobut the local conditions of life About hundred miles beyond x the escapes began, By this time there were only thirty or forty men left ot the two hundred who had started from the last center of civilization together For myself, l simply got up in the night with another comrade, and went out into the village--we always spent the night at @ village, quartered in twos and threes on the inhabitants The guide could not be m two places at once, and if he is too jealous wC can always give him plenty to drink No one refuses drink out there undei any circumstances. There is no benev- olent government Drink Monopoly tC supply al you want, and Q good glass of vodka is rather prized.
 Well, to cut long story short, we just hired horses from a villager; played the role of a timber merchant and my friend was my steward. was supposed to have been out into the wilds to inspect a section of forest that I proposed to buy and cut down This proved a good role in severa ways, as the cutting of the timbe, promised work to the villagers and they were quite interested in us. It was the right time of year for inspecting timber, and I paid well on my way We met 8 police officer only once be- fore reaching the railway. and as was at the very moment engaged ir hiring men in village to go to my supposed timber-forest next month l kn aiA ,,nt ,,n.r t,niinl, ttn.-.i.,., ....