Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/528

512 512 APPENDIX a large bowl of " shtchi " or cabbage soup, one pound of brown bread, and a basin of gruel daily ; a pint of " kvass," or spruce beer. In addition to this a prisoner may purchase, at his own cost, tea and pastry, cheese, butter, tobacco and other luxuries, but not alcohol. As regards clothing, he is allowed from the 1st of May to the 1st of September, three white linen suits, one sleeveless gray mezi great coat, two Glengarry caps of the same material, and every two months a pair of stout leather shoes. If on the march, these are replaced as soon as worn out. Only the most dan- gerous criminals wear chains. A pair of these is now in my possession. They weigh seven pounds and are worn over the trousers ; not, as has been stated, against the skin. Next the " Goubernski," and separated from it by a public road, is a smaller prison (also of brick and two-storied) for women, criminal and political. The matron, a staid, respectable person in black, conducted me round the " kameras." Save that they are some- what smaller, the latter are precisely similar to those of the " Groubernski," as light, clean, well-ventilated, and free from smell. In Siberia female prisoners do not wear prison dress, nor, with the exception of the sentry, are men employed in or about their prisons. The Century Magazine of 1888-89 contains a series of articles on Siberian prisons by a Mr. George Kennan. Space will not permit of my discuss- ing these further than as regards Tomsk prison. This is described, if I remember rightly, as being totally unlit for human habitation, a hot-bed of filth and disease, vice and immorality, engendered by the indiscrim- inate herding together, night and day, of men, women, and children. Upon the same writer's version of the treatment of prisoners I will not comment, having, in this letter, confined myself strictly to facts that have come under my own personal notice. As an Englishman, however, and consequently an unbiased observer, I venture to hope that my evidence will gain [in England at least] the credence that has been given to that of Mr. Kennan, an American journalist. Judging from the present state of things, I can only presume that a radical reform has taken place since that gentleman's visit and subsequent publications. If so, the Russian Government has indeed vindicated its evil reputation for procrastina- tion. Be this as it may, Mr. Kennan will doubtless be glad to hear that the Tomsk prison, as graphically described in the pages of the Centura Magazine, does not exist. Sensational accounts of Siberian atrocities appear almost monthly in the newspapers. The English press, with few exceptions, sides with the "oppressed exile," and publishes with avidity every canard floated at New York or Geneva by the friends of political prisoners. Concerning the latter, I cannot as yet express an opinion ; but in the face of what I have seen to-day, is it fair to believe implicitly all that we hear of the u diabolical cruelties " to criminal prisoners at Tomsk, Nertchinsk and Sakhalin?— Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 24, 1890.