Albuquerque citizen., 1908-04-02

formed by which the fifteen issued
free Russian bonds. to be sold very
secretly at a low figure to sympathiz-
ers, and redeemable when the czar
should be overthrown. We were
about to begin their sale when a copy
was found by the police in a letter.
one of the fifteen was captured ana
in his possession was found the
names of three others and evidence
sufficient--in Russia, to convict them
Three were captured and sem
fenced to prison, where two Of them
died The other escaped and fled TO
America. He is now living In can
ada Convicted of the same crime,
though perfectly innocent, were four
prosperous and respected Russian
farmers. and none of these We have
yet been able to liberate. l was
warned that the police were in pos
session Of my name and fled at once
to the frontier and crossed to Ger
many.
But my liberty was not destined
to last long. ! had been in Berlin
but a short time when the Russian
police found me. As | had no pass
ports the German authorities con-
sented to my return and after lying
in a German prison for seven weeks
| started on q memorable trip to st.
Petersburg.
Rcmrincd -Four Years in prison.
Il vas in nine prisons between the
frontier and the capital and in eacn
he
When a large numOer of prisoners
were assembled they were driven in
irons into filthy cattle cars, fed on
little black bread and slowly moved
to the next prison city. Here they
were taken out and thrust again into
prison to wait weeks and months for
the next shipment. And SO it went on
like lifetime nightmare, one misery
succeeding another, and horrors all
around me.
AT last l reached st. Petersburg
and was placed in solitary confine-
ment in the dungeon of st. Peter and
St Paul, where with a six months
stay / rounded out four years OF i'm
prisonment without even the sem
blance of trial.
II soon found, however, that / was
being sgnalled to from the adjoining
cell. There was an intermittent tap
ping on the stone which seemed to
spell something. 1t came to me that
my unknown neighbor was using a
code that | was expected to learn,
and II did not take me long once ]
had caught the idea, to pick up the
prison tclegraphy which consisted Of
an alphabet much like your Morse
code.
Having mastered the alphabet |
soon learned that my ncighbor was
the young son of a high court official
He had been imprisoned on account
of the students strikes in which he
had taken an active part, and through
his fathers influence was permitted
for a few minutes each week to be
visited by his mother. | told him of
myself and there sprang up between
us in spite of two feet of solid ma
sonry, warm friendship which lasts
to this day.
Then Came Freedom Again.
My young friend told his mother
of me and she, on his account, came
to be much interested in my case. one
day she bribed my jailer to let her
visit me 1t was only for a minute,
but, oh, the blessedness of seeing that
fine motherly face, all soicitude for
my health and hope! She Dade me
keep up my spirits and told me that
all possible would be done to secure
my acquittal at the approaching trial.
She was as good as her word and
when my case came up Influence had
been brought To bear sufficient to sc-
cure my freedom.
Il wanted now to issue revolutions
ary circulars. but how were we to get
them printed? Every letter of type
was under government guard. and
printing tools We're contraband To
get type | became friendly with a |
compositor in the public printing Of
flee and finally persuaded MIN to lend
one letter at a time SO that none
might be missed. From this | made |
molds and roughly cast a supply OF |
each letter until in a month | had a |
complete alphabet. 4 rude hand
press, rollers and the other parapner-
malta We made ourselves as best we |
could ana then came the question of |
a location. About this we had to be |
very cautious, as we knew it would |
not be possible to issue the circulars |
without the police getting wind of it |
and then would begin house-to-
house search that must end in cap |
turc
The place we chose was an odd |
one--the cellar of the police station |
Itself. We managed to gain entrance |
to the basement Of this building and |
to dig out a little hidden chamber |
Here, where a voice could have been
heard IN the station, | began the nu-
cl"us of the great underground chain |
OF revolutionary publications that |
now daily supplies millions with read |
ing matter
AT first We could print only little |
circulars of a hundred or two hun
dred words. but We came out boldly |
for the truth and they We're eagerly
read i'm secret and passed on to 9TH
crs. We reached ueighburing villages
with old women carriers who CON