Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1915 — Siberian Signal Men. [ARTICLE]

Siberian Signal Men.

It is probable that nowhere save in Siberia are convicts employed in any service pertaining to the operation of railways. In that place of exile there are many “good conduct” men who spend their lives in little huts along the line of railway, always a verst apart, whose duty it is to signal with green flags that the road is clear. At night they signal with a green lamp. If the traveler stands between the railway cars at midnight he may tick off the green lights as the train spins along. Away down the black avenue will appear a tiny green speck. As the cars proceed this speck will become larger and larger, and finally the figure of a man holding up the lamp is distinguishable in the darkness. And there are thousands of these along the line. A signal started today in Moscow runs for 11 days, until it is broken on the banks of Lake Baikal, beyond Irkutsk.