The Cairo bulletin., 1908-07-13
Too Late
Observation-Disclosures

Militopol received orders TO take
care OF the batch of twenty students
who had been arrested and sent TO
his city. The governor, a good-na-
tured general Of the guard was any
tn ng bat pleased
What the devil shah | do with
them" he asked himself,
Temporarily he sent them TO the
government prison, but they had
only been there few days when
they began to make m.sch.ef. They
absolutely refused TO live up to the
rules OF the prison and kept on sing
Ing and made all kinds of noises all
day and most of the night. there
fore influencing the other prisoners,
who had heretofore quietly subm t.
ted TO everything The noise In the
prison attracted a crowd OF people
outside, who had to be driven away
by the sold ers,
II was very unpleasant, and conse-
que thy the governor, after confer
ence with the inspector OF the prison.
the young lawyer of liberal tenden-
cies decided to take his advice and
send them to the smallest town in
! the whole district, Norossow.
When they are there they may
do as they please and nobody VIII
/ ever know anything about ii. he ar
! gued.
When the inspector of the prison
! in Norossow heard that he was to
| receive "A number OF students he inn
mediately informed his wife. who,
Of course, hurried to her most init
mate friend and told her the news,
after making her promise to keep it
strictly secret, and it Is hardly nee
essary to say that within two hours
the whole town knew of it.
The next morning an immense
crowd of people were at the railroad
station awaiting the arrival OF the
train. On the way to the prison the
students who were surrounded by
soldiers, began to sing revolution
airy songs, and their strong. we'll
traned voices made such an inn
preston upon the natives Of Noros-
SOW. that only their curiosity pre-
vented them from running away and
hiding themselves in Their houses,
for who might tell but that they
might be arrested for listening to
sounds of that kind? At the pr S.
on the soldiers were received by the
Inspector OF the prison, who In turn
IN n a FFd 10
and half an hour afterwards the
prisoners were IN their cells.
Now they have been staying in
the prison for over five months and
the inhabitants of the town are
feeling very friendly toward them.
A number of society ladies are send
Ing them dinners every day. and
with the dinner very often comes
bouquets of flowers. Hardly a day
passes that the students taking
Their morning walk in the prison
yard do not find books which have
been thrown over the walls. and the
wardens close their eyes and see
nothing All this tickles the vani- |
ty of the students but II does not kill |
the longing in their hearts nor !
make them forget they are in pris-
on.
None of them, however, feels the /
loss of liberty as much as the oldest |
student, Ivan Petroyitch He did 1
not even look forward with pleasure |
for the arrival OF the mail, although !
he nervously looked for letters every |
day Far away In Siberia his old 1
father was sick and awaiting the re-
turn of his son who did not come |
Instead came the news that he 1
had been arrested. The old sick
ness came back worse than ever and
be was forced to his bed. Lying on
what he knew was likely to be his
deathbed, he wrote to his son many
letters in which he said that, al
though he was very weak, he was
sure that he would soon be better.
The son, however, read the truth
between the lines, and he felt that
he must go home once more After
passing many sleepless nights and
struggles with himself, he decided
to ask for pardon.
Many months went by and no re-
ply came from the car. The news
from home was sadder than ever,
and at last the old man wrote frank
ly that he was very sick and that he
felt he could not last long. He
ended each letter with the words:
How | long to see you once more.
Wanna"
1t is a summer evening and the
students who have just returned
from their evening walk. are sitting
around a table drinking tea. The
door opens and the good-natured in
spector enters, holding in his hand
a telegram.
II am to set free one of you" be
said with his winning smile
who is it?Who IS it," all shout
ed. Ivan felt the blood rushing to
his brain, his heart beat like a trip
hammer
Listen. gentlemen" the lnspec-
tor said. and read aloud:
At the command Of the car.
hereby direct you to set free imme-
diately the former student Ivan
Petroyitch on the condition that he
uaFa~ auafv to - - .