Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/553

Rh correspondent adds, resolves itself into a question of money. If money be forthcoming, prisons will be forthcoming.

— Newspaper Vostóchnoe Obozrénie, No. 16, p. 8. St. Petersburg, July 15, 1882.

The following incident has been related to us as characteristic of our Siberian methods. A young man [well known in St. Petersburg] of incorruptible honesty, who had just been graduated from the university, came to a certain East-Siberian town to act as district attorney. Soon after his arrival he happened to be called upon to take the place of the procureur, and, in pursuance of his duty, visited the prison. He noticed there various disorders which were of such a nature as to render the police-master and the prison warden liable to criminal prosecution, and upon these disorders he made a report. It was read before the prison committee and made a very unpleasant impression. The chairman even said that the author of such a report had best look for a place in some other province. The report had no influence upon the fortunes of the prisoners, or of the police, but it had important consequences for the author, who was at once accused by the police of "political untrustworthiness." "What an excellent way," our correspondent adds, "to get rid of zealous young men who insist upon an observance of the laws!"

— Newspaper Vostóchnoe Obozrénie, No. 37, p. 6. St. Petersburg, December 19, 1882.

— Newspaper Éólos. St. Petersburg, December 10, 1882.

— Newspaper Sibír, No. 5. Irkútsk, January 30, 1883.

Not long ago the newspapers published a statement with regard to the unsatisfactory condition of the East-Siberian prisons, and the disorders said to have been discovered therein. We are now assured that, up to the present time, no particular disorders have been discovered. We accept this assurance willingly, but we cannot forget the official reports that we have seen of the provincial governors describing the extremely lamentable condition of the prisons.

— Newspaper Vostóchnoe Obozrénie, No. 8, p. 7. St. Petersburg, May 20, 1882.

A few days ago the Journal de St. Petersbourg printed a notice of the journey through Siberia of Privy-councilor Gálkine Wrásskoy, chief of the prison administration. ... We have received from a perfectly trustworthy source the following information with regard to the results of his observations. ... He inspected seven provincial, territorial, and district prisons, the convict prisons of Tobólsk and Alexándrofsk, the forwarding prisons of Tiumén, Tomsk, and Krasnoyársk, and seventy étapes and polu-étapes. We understand that they did not make upon him