Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/411

Rh exaggeration to say that if all the money that had been appropriated for the construction and maintenance of these "tumble-down buildings" could now be gathered together, it would be enough to pay for the erection of a line of solid silver étapes along the whole route from Tomsk to the city of Irkútsk. Governor-general Anúchin himself says, in the same report to the Tsar from which I have already quoted:

Large sums of money have been spent in repairs upon these buildings, and 250,000 rúbles have recently been appropriated for the erection of new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál. I doubt, however, whether it will be possible to accomplish anything of serious importance without a change in the existing conditions. There is even danger that the new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál will share the fate of the étapes in the provinces of Yeniséisk and Irkútsk.

General Anúchin's foreboding has been fully justified. Both the inspector of exile transportation for Eastern Siberia and the assistant chief of the prison department in St. Petersburg admitted to me that the new étapes in the Trans-Baikál were "very unsatisfactory."

Our convict party spent Tuesday night in the first regular étape at Khaldéyeva, under almost precisely the same conditions that prevailed the previous night in the polu-étape of Semilúzhnaya. Half the prisoners slept on the floor, under the nári, and in the corridors, breathing all night an atmosphere poisoned by carbonic acid and exhalations from uncovered paráshas. Wednesday was a day of rest; and the exiles lounged about all day in the prison courtyard, or studied the "record of current events," on the walls of the étapes. The sleeping-platforms and the walls of every Siberian étape bear countless inscriptions, left there by the exiles of one party for the information or instruction of their comrades in the next. Among such inscriptions are messages and greetings to friends; hints and suggestions for brodyágs who meditate escape; names of exiles