The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-03-13
TALES OF
HORRORS OF SIBERIA

The st. Petersburg Russ publishes
a letter dated last August, and writ
ten ION the Amur highway" The
writer tells of the awful sufferings of
thousands of eXiles banished to ST.
IBERIA during the present reign of
repression" A large number of
these exiles are from the educated
and cultured classes, and these suffer
more than the ordinary hardened
criminals.
The letter opens with the announce
ment that party of 120 exiles, twen-
ty-three of whom are State or politi-
cal offenders, have been detailed to
work on the construction of the Kol-
essnaya wheel road. They were sent
thither under Cossack escort from
the penal settlement of Irkutsk.
1--WE landed our barge on Aug 23,
at 6 in the evening"" the exile writes,
''and passed our first night in the
open on the shores of the Amur. We
were ordered by the escort not to
talk, not to lie down to sleep, not to
stir. No supper must be cooked. 1t
rained in torrents, and we were all
wet through. When morning came at
last our fetters were knocked off, and
we set off for the camp thirty-two
versts distant, dragging after us the
bags containing our luggage, for no
carts were provided for baggage tran
sport The fist verst was covered
without incident; but as soon as the
village was out of sight the escort
got to work with the butt ends of
their rifles, urging the party with
blows and curses. One of our COM
rades fell in dead
swoon. Another tainted soon after
wards. Both were lifted into a cart
provided for the use of the escort.
Eventually the tents came
in sight, and we reached the camp,
where most of us met old acquaint-
ances. Questions were showered up
on them, but the only words in an
swer were: We are beaten; it is
hard.''
The writer then describes his
comrades" "All the faces that
met our gaze wore an exhausted look.
All who greeted us were terribly
stung by the small mosquitoes which
swarmed hereabouts, all were un-
clean and attired merely in tattered
underclothiDg. The feet of many
were covered with wounds, and were
swathed in filthy bandages. In the
tents the sole topic of conversation
was the brutality of the Cossacks.
After a few days only we
became the counterparts of the older
occupants of the camp-dirty, un-
shod, unclothed and exhausted"
This is how the days were passed :
"Up every morning at 4, working un-
til or in the evening, and return
ing then, utterly worn out, for roll
call, prayers and sleep. Sleep! In
ragged and battered tents, open to
the rain, and dirty and damp within.
No mattresses, only sacks to lie upon,
sometimes stuffed with grass We
are already bitterly cold here, in Au-
gust, and in these same tents we
must live until the end of November.
''The food is bad" he continues
Every man is supposed to receive
twelve kopecks daily, but from May
to August sum equivalent to a to-
tai of forty-eight kopecks per man
was all that was received. Money,
sent by friends and relatives, is not
delivered.
'As for the sick, ley are utterly
hn1 {o1 I.
ten patients, the other sick prisoners
having to remain in their tents until
room is made. Most of the cases are
of wounded feet. The surgeon for
bids the men to go about barefoot,
but they must do so, for there are no
shoes.
THE work is hard, and the condi-
tions of work are harder; but the
hardest of all are the beatings. You
are beaten on the way to work, at
work, and on the way home-beaten
always and everywhere. Beaten for
unwillingness to give up your bed
ding to the Cossacks, beaten if you
put on clean clothing II beaten
for wearing spectacles or pince-nez,
beaten for no reason at
all. No difference what
ever is made between State prisoners
and ordinary criminals.
The writer then describes instances
of ill-treatment'' he witnessed. An
ordinary prisoner had two ribs brok-
en- by a Cossack's rifle; a criminal
was so beaten that his lungs and
liver were injured; State prisoner
had two ribs broken for refusing to
give up his pillow to the escort; an
other, complaining of illness, was
kicked out of his tent, thrown to the
ground, and had his face battered IN
with the inspectors revolver.
In order to remain in the prison,
men cut off their fingers, MAIN
themselves, or drink tobacco juice
Two men known to the writer cut
off the fingers of their right hands
Another crushed his hand beneath
wagon. And, in concluding, he
writes: Il know men whose sacred,
unattainable dream is to get into the
prison, to wash in the bath-house,
and to be allowed to put on clean