Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/652

632 of a more serious nature, but in it also thrift and brandy play the chief parts, the latter that of a propitiator. The custom prevails for the bridegroom to pay to his future mother-in-law before she will give her acquiescence a definite sum of "bride-money," the amount of which is regulated according to the standing of the parties. The Siberian youth, having thus made things all right for his future, escapes with his beloved by night and under favor of darkness, and with the scandal of the abduction of the daughter a second matrimonial candidate is out of the question. The mother screams and curses the couple for a little while, but the storm soon ceases. The bridegroom knows the people he is dealing with, and, after the first spurt of vexation is over, returns with a stout brandy-flask, from which he pours out to the angry mother-in-law till she is propitiated. Then the ruined daughter appears, and a general forgiveness follows, with a family wedding-feast, in which immense quantities of brandy are consumed.

The young pair go right to housekeeping, and in the course of ten years the former abductor will be able to stretch himself before the door of his own unencumbered residence. In the reception-room will hang waving tapestries, and in the bedrooms will rustle silken curtains and canopies. I have seen hundreds of such cheerful family pictures and rejoiced over them. The people form a splendid race, and are happy. "I am a Siberian!" sounds from the mouth of one of them like a shout of exultation; "I have nothing more to desire."

A similar happy future awaits the convict-exile, if long life and success are given him, and he is endowed with courage and energy. "He is consigned to the mines, and will die there by inches with chains on his hands and feet," is the current expression when speaking or writing of a Siberian convict. But here, too, as in other cases, the colors are too darkly painted. I do not feel called upon to deplore the excessive harshness of Russian justice, or to indulge in general criticism, but it is true that not only criminals, but also disagreeable persons, vagrants, and political oppositionists, are sent to Siberia under cover of judicial proceedings. What is now imposed in Russia as a punishment was also administered not so very long ago in Germany and even in free Switzerland.

Whoever, by a judicial sentence, or by an administrative measure, is exiled to Siberia, is first lodged in a district prison, whence he is transferred to a government prison. The transportation to Siberia is carried on by railroad and boats to Tobolsk, where a division of the gang takes place, and destinations are appointed for the prisoners according to the character of their offenses. Those who have been condemned to death, and had their sentences commuted to exile, are bound with chains and all sent together to the mines of the Altai. Formerly the convicts were driven in gangs, chained about two feet apart. So at least I have read and heard it generally believed. I was once myself a witness of a spectacle of this kind, but it was not