Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1897 — Men Who Go to Siberia. [ARTICLE]

Men Who Go to Siberia.

There is a popular Idea that the wastes of Siberia are peopled with men who have been unjustly exiled from Russia, and that the criminal Is really as difficult to find as the traditional needle In the bunch of hay. Facts, however, do not substantiate this theory any more thun they do the large majority of popular Impressions. A great sensation was created two or three years ago, by the finding of seven Russian exiles or prisoners who had made their escape from Siberia. They were in an open boat in the Pacific, and were taken to San Francisco, where they became the objects of popular commiseration, as well as the text for the denouncing of the Russian methods of dealing with political offenders. The Californians, ever ready with sympathy, gave them clothes and found them work to do. It now appears that, during the interval that has elapsed between their arrival in San Francisco and now, they have every one been punished by the law of the land. The last of the party has just been sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for burglary, while.one of his comrades only a short time back was hanged for two murders which he had committed. Investigations Avhich have been made show that every one pf these men had been sent to Siberia for reasons which would have earned him a corresponding period of exile from the haunts of his fellowmen, if, not absolute deportation from the country, lu any other part of the world.—Tid-Bits. Eighty years ago Spain's territory in the new world an*.anted to 5,000,000 square miles. Of tills empire Cuba and Porto *klco are the only remnants, 50,• 000 square miles.