The Washington herald., 1915-09-19

Gno f0VOluI1On8Iy mOymOut, anu tu0
indefatigable worker for the people
Az the short day drew to . close there
was a stir round the oil hre; questions
hastily asked, whispered answers. And
at evening the figure of an old. tired
woman, supported by Vladimiroh. hob
bled from his hut to her own. and
crawled into bed.
Three days later Madame saw the
lights of Yakutsk, which mean access to
the Arctic port and safety. She knew
that telegraph wires leading out from
Kirensk had been cut; all along the line
sympathizers would be ready to ohef
her aid. .-,
But all her care and the hardship Of
the 60O-mile journey went for naught
Cossacks came up from the south ana
put her in chains. Once again she saw
St. Petersburg.
THE SENTENCE.
The cell in the fortress Of Saint Peter
and Saint Paul was above the river: in
the afternoon a bit of sunlight lay on
the gray stone floor and crept along the
gray stone wall. Half way up it be-
gan to dance. That was when it No
longer shone directly through the grated
window, but into the water. Slowly 1t
stone ceiling. Then it went out and
night fell.
Every day that the sun shone for four
years the Grandmother Of the Revolu-
ton watched the light on the wall; on
other days she watched the clouds
through the bars.
She had her memories, too, the old
woman beloved of the oppressed. She
thought with happiness ~ her visit to
hn hoA
for the cause, and of her work among
the peasants of her country. She re-
-.-~..-.A. too. her last term Of servi-
tude in the mines of Kara; four years
, of back-breaking, heart-breaking toll:
'the twenty-three years she had been .an
exile; and her betrayal by Azeh. the
Judas Iscariot Of Russia. She had been
q prisoner four years with NO charge
placed against her. Then 1t waS an
nounced that she was to be charged
with being a member of an illegal party.
and given q secret trial -
What went on at thes trial only the
Judge and his assistants, one represent
ative each from the noble, citizen and
peasant classes, will ever know. One
attend the trials of political prisoners,
but Madame had no one. The news
papers, allowed to. publish only the YER
dict. told when 1t was over, that Madame
had been found guilty and was SON
fenced to perpetual exile.
Yakutsk is considered the Least de-
sirable of Siberian exile settlements. II
is inhabited by norther nomads, who
live in the yurts with eafthen roofs and
doors Of hairy hides. 1t lies on an open
plain. surrounded by lofty heights. to
the north the Tundras. to the south
the Yablonoi mountains. ~.s ar
Madame was sent to Yakntsk. But
no far-reaching il her influence that the
government feared her even in that aw.
ful isolation. And now she is to bs
taken to Bulun, on the frontier Of the
north pole region. where winter mists.
IiLe the breath Of Death, drift down
from the Arctic to corrode the bones
and the dozen yurts are only mornds
under the northern lights. And where
the wind shrfeks its paean:
~ am the Wind of the North. from
fields of dead ,ointer come, thin shrouds
NJ ,rbite sno,c' ,reape. to cover the bodies
~ men: ,rhite shrouds Of thin sno,o I
vpfold. thin snon set ,oith hodr1rost and
r;me to drire round the souls. sick rifA
cold that Hue in the bodies Of men, Nv
breath is the soaring Of fame. my los0A
n the shrek Of despair. hoo sohife drs
the faces upturned! Ho,o sAfsino tAeis
eyes-dh their eyes! I am the Wind Of
the North. from scdstes of dead sciafer {
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