Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/653

Rh in Russia nor in Siberia, but in Olmütz, in Austria, in the year of grace 1872. The worst part of the journey is when the steamers come into requisition. They are long boats with a high deck, designed to carry six hundred persons at once. The deck is inclosed and covered with strong grating, in order to prevent any attempts to escape. Fore and aft of these are the kitchens and hospitals, while the six hundred convicts are confined in a mass under the deck in a space which is far too narrow, and where, for lack of efficient ventilation, a stifling atmosphere always prevails. The Russian law allows a divorce to the wives of convicts sentenced to exile, but the communes, on the other hand, are anxious to cast off the burden of their possibly pauper families, and the government encourages this disposition by permitting the wives and children of the exiles to go with them. In most cases, the families are ready to share the fate of the father; the Jewish wife always goes with her husband. The relatives are also sent off with the prisoner. This measure has evil consequences on the vessels, where, as we have said, six hundred persons, including those of the worst character, are crowded into a single apartment, and can see, hear, and talk with one another at every hour of the day and night. When we consider that many children are mingled with the crowd, we can easily conceive what horrible scenes besides the physical torments are enacted there, and how brutalizing must be the impression they make upon young and old. In such cases the reproach of inhumanity against the government is fully justified, and it is not spared, for I have frequently heard the officers condemn the decrees of the courts. The journey by steamer requires ten times less time, but it is also ten times worse, more degrading, and more barbarous than the march on foot. When the change is made from the steamer to the railroad the situation assumes a little better shape. The prisoners, with their wives and children around them, cling to the benches along the bare walls, and the chains clink weirdly in the confusion of screaming, moaning, and cursing voices. Here also is a deficiency of space and air, and the conditions are hardly endurable. But the few observations of strangers are contradicted by the stereotyped view. "The farmers do not travel differently, and what they freely endure for themselves certainly ought to be good enough for criminals." Gangs on foot are still usual, but only the strongest men are taken in them, and the treatment is more humane than it was. The average day's journey is about seven geographical miles, and every third day is a rest-day. Complaints may be heard that seven miles a day is too much, but it seems to be forgotten that the soldier has to perform the same march, and he is encumbered with his baggage. At the present time the deportation takes place only in the summer, and the exiles are settled before the approach of winter.

At the beginning of the journey, each prisoner is given a gray cloak, and he receives daily for his maintenance from ten to fifteen