Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1880 — Exiles in America. [ARTICLE]

Exiles in America.

The popular idea of the fate of prisoners sentenced to hard labor in the mines of Siberia is a somewhat exaggerated one. It is generally believed that & man condemned to ,woik in the Siberian mines is virtually condemned to death; that when he descends into bis mine he says good-bye to the light of heaven forever, being kept under ground until he dies; and that living as he thus does, amid unhealthy fumes, death is not long in coming. The correspondent of the London Times, having heard these statements before he went to Sibei ia, appears to have taken some trouble to ascertain whether they are true or not. After many inquiries, “common fairness,” he Writes, “compels me to say that every one denied that there was any foundation for them. “Even,” he continues, “the few Poles who spoke to me so bitterly of the government did not bring this to their charge; nor did I meet any of the convicts who said so much.” On the contrary, tLe silver mines were, so far as he could learn, worked on the twelve, and sometimes even bn the eight, hour system; while ia the gold mines, wlrch he himself visited, the men worked In summer from 8 in the morning till 7 at night, with intervals of rest .for meals. In the coal mines also, the men only worked' twelve hours a day, and an of. fleer informed the writer, that the amount of work allotted to each man per day ought to be got through by an energetic workman in about two hours. On the other hand it appears that flogging is not infrequently Inflicted In a bartarous manner in Siberia. At three stations, but apparently at three siatipns only—at Kara, Nicol&ievsk and Sagbalien—an instrument called the ”tlt)i<*atka, 0 or jJlait, is used. From twenty to thirty strip*) are usually administered, though the number may be made a hundred; and the writer adds that “when"the heavy* numbers are inflicted, the punishment must be little short of an execution. ’ Sometimes, in.fackr, the convicts do not recover from its etfects.”