The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1883-08-11 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

MII•HUNTL4G IN SIBERIA. —Sorry, indeed, even when death does not come to put an end to his existence, is the lot of the convict who has suoceeded in escaping from the mines of Eastern Siberia. Without resources of any kind, he must beg or rob his way back to Russia. The alternative of seeking employment is one which often has disastrouS consequences. The convict of the lowest type regards the Siberian colonist as an inferior, and has a saying which describes him as "blind for three days after birth." But the colonist has his revenge. He works the supercilious convict like beast of burden, and gives him as little rest and as little food as possible. When wages are demanded the colonist has am original way of satisfying his labourer. The money is paid without demur, but before the convict can get clear, he falls *ld, killed by a bullet from the gun of his cruel employer. This method of payment is sometimes carried out on a large scale. It is adopted in the case of vagabond labourers, who having finished their autumn work in the fields, return to the neighbouring village to be paid off. The wages are forthcoming, and the labourers allowed to depart with their hardly earned money. But they have no sooner gone than the peasant farmer assembles his neighbours, and having provided them with horses and firearms, the whole party sallies forth in pursuit of the vagabonds. The retiring labourers are speedily overtaken; most are killed on the spot, all are robbed, the recovered sioney being divided between the farmer and his confederates. The only respect shown for authority is the prevalent habit, where robbery has been the motive of slaughter, of concealing the dead. The murdered convicts are usually cut up and mutilated, and the remains buried in out-of-the-way places: This hunting of the "hunchbacks," as the escaped convicts are often called in derision, has gone on for years, entering so deeply into the habits tf the people that it has escaped the attention of few travellers through Eastern Siberia. "Where are the men ?" was asked of a woman left in charge of a small village adjoining the highway. "Gone after the hunchbacks;" was the reply. Such is the prevailing demoralisation in this respect that the boys have been heard to ask their fathers to kill vagabonds in order that they may, see "how. the fellow will roll on his hump." In some of the governments it is certain death for a convict escaped; or still under supervision, to bel caught returning from the mine. Occasionally the soldiers imitate the colonists in their exploitation of the vagabond. The Cossack, as well as the ordinameolonist, covets cheap labour, and is in the habit of rewarding with an ounce or two of lead the convict who declines to pass from one condition, of bond slavery to another. During the colonization of the Transbaikal region the hunting ofi vagabonds was one ef the common diversions of ' the newly arrived settlers. From Tomask to , chid there is a locality that has rendered itself , notorious for the pursuit on a large scale of escaped' convicts. In the Tomask government itself wholet villages are described as living solely by the robbery of vagabonds. The liter Karmen has been so filled with the bodies of murdered convicts as to become putrid. Near Fingul open woods are known as a favourite ground for the slaughter. The whole of the district ;4 full of the memories and traditions of Siberian man-hunting. Heroes of the sport are still alive. Bitkev, Romanov and Zavorato were each expert in different ways. Romanov, for instance, gained celebrity in the village of Fingul, where he was in the habit of lying in ambush close to the highway, and shooting down. every vagabond who passed. In the autumn evenings Bitkov used to pick off stragglers along the banks of the river Auger. During subsequent sport along the Biryus there were individual Siberians who boasted that they had brought down as many as sixty and in some cases ninety vagabonds. Only upon one of these hunters of men do o the vagabonds seem to have taken vengeance. The vagabonds bled together, seized him and brought hin assem career to a close by plunging him alive into a caul, rl tan' ng°nle hconvicts. w h had been all dron of incandescent metal. Theyhi life selectede engaged g eodn in Pk  Providence, like a wise father, brings us up to labour, toil, and danger; whereas the indulgence o a fond mother makes us weak and spiritless. Affliction makes a wise man patient, strong, and' enduring. Love and passion are too often confounded. Thei are quite distinct. Love elevates and refines* ..... eiti ATI dearadee and depresses.