SIBERIAN PRISON HORRORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 30 May 1914, Page 17

SIBERIAN PRISON HORRORS.

mg g l , s mSBOVriXG STORY. ggS LOKGED FOR DEATH. EfBOMAN GAOLERS

«. tite of Siberian horrors has been M w before us. and her story has ! In narrated hy Ixnla Forrester. ™*W* from _ _«f the Rnssinu exile system is one ".even years she has lost "iSfflflitary prisons. Sft.was IT the %°%»." made tine ,o D g overlanei Z_ in tie uncled Hue in a little Sj np ,ear tbe Arctic Circle. ',IXIO Is any t™* '"" bnm " in Karka ' :1 ,___« of YUM Lilbnamii - >'o SIGHT LIKE THAT. 'And acre is do slsht in the world like efl-t" ike <ays. *" dark e - vps stul s " mbre 2_ tie Horror of that trip. -Do yon Z. »tet " *™ as ,v c hand "" ,s "' ,-njn bel»BS chained to each other, rcarov L oardrine day after day away from £i and perhaps tor life, be aose ttey 'Dave lifted up 'their feeble BOTSjfll asalMt the atrocities that crush 0e Heart <""• o£ mltiTe R " ?si:l '' ' marched *tth otter girls, some younger than my- £_£, aid trttb ns were feehle. old women and greylaired men. If we stumbled or Sell tbe Cosaaee-s used i hoir whips. -«ome eiteost envied them." En»__i eshe speaks hre.kenly, but nudergfjcdi welt A yonng Russian comrade, Gregory Yarros, interprets fnr hor when {be suddenly forgets and -piitirs om. a flood et frantic indignant Russian. Then, f.-r the instot, her slim figure prows rigid, her eyes darten, the brows draw down, nd fcerfi-UheantifuUv modelled lips seem jo speak Trords of fire. Then it passes aud Bbeis qaiet again, her shoulders drooping. lier iiands lying in her hip. "Host of tbe g'rl comrades arc from {le estndent or noble class," slip resumed. '■Iwas not My people are peasants. 1 have not seen them—my mother aud father, and seven brothers and sisters—since-IflOG. after ray first esrape. Seeing how hard they worked to get a bare living out. of their ■mid, and bow they were furorcr in fear of their rate, was it .any wonder that 1 grew to hate the Government that so oppress ß * its children ? "I wrote to some friends. teHiag what I though ol conditions. When a search was made of their home, my letter, were found. I rememt-f tbe day when they came for mc to take mc to -prison. I did not mind fo very ranch, only fetir my mother and father, I was glad to be one more voice nphfted against tyranny and crimp. FOR LIFE. tElesbrtem months I awaited trial in prison, ___ then when my turn came, ewas sentenced ftp life to exile in Siberia. Why?" Koe smiled an<l shrugged her Blender Shoulders. "I was a deaivgerous revol-tinnary peecson. It was different that Erst though. As an exile, I was Rllowed a certain amount of liberty in the vffluge, altbong. ..He soldiers are ail around you even time. Then after several y«ajs of patience and good behaviour, they did not watch mc so closely. Be.-sdes. T was not strong, ?-rh_ps they did not think I would dare to attempt tbe jenrney alone. "I told some of the comrades that I was Soin.3. Oh, yon don't know the hope that spiing! up when one escapees! It means that if one esocceedr. tie world will know the truth that is buried in those living P-vra. They all save mc mes-sapes to <arry 'hack to the dear ones left, behind, and one couple begged mc To taJtp their little eMM with mc. so that, it might he rated from that life. I was glad to. It was company lo mc. .in.l helped in my dlsegniee, for I said I was its mother. HORP.O_tS OF -RUSSIAN PRISONS. "We got away, bidden in a farmer's **S°n. It was .".00 miles to the nearest Place where I could find shelter with pomades who knew of my coming, but I found r «n?e at night In the huts of tie poor along the way. Miserable and hopeless as •Mr life is, they rejoice to help and pro<«t others. 1 thought often that we «onld freeze to death, the little one and Wf, bnt we lived, and I pave the child Wils grandparents iv Russia. "Perhaps I should not have gone to see »y own propio. b ,„ , did T , b ._ wor _ "raid of the secret polic. finding mo, so went oa to Paris to meet some of tbe combes to clye thf . m mes , ages from Steria, and to get instructions. . Tben, in igofi. came a tPrrtb ,. ontbreak a the so« h . The Genera, at Sabastopol, a the Crimea, ordered -hundreds of sailor. to e-shot down without trial for mn , inT **| Black Pea flPot Uis name w;ib *fc the danPhter of a Russian general • l «olf, ww tb . She 11, . Ti,t,o " r Uial within twenty-four 2 s ' ' *as arrested with others, and "Wfflced to Hf e imprisonment at hard ""OUT in Siberia. j US SiTIS vent one was Marie a writer. She was very beau-1 ■W- The Cossacks mistreated her. and ™ner*. She Is twenty-seven now. and -WUI i n Akatn| We were al]awp . "Mty minutes a day exercise. The rest of Som. im WaS Spent iD solit -ary confinement. •• Ml themselves, or go mad. hot most « M always hope to escape. There were only six women ln that of Z,Z2LV™ Gersbum. ese-jped In a barrel «_^" rb "- aml r "« ul were stricter •nerwards. That occurred in Win. Then a «■ 'etersburp official n _ e Vysotzkv came »M specially appointed to put down any WdUon. The day he arrived he ordered In tbe prison to be lashed by the narkß. Ten of tbe men attempted suikmt, 2, De iM ' He was Sazanoff, who cu al Plebve. SHE ESCAPES AGAtK. 7™* women -were ordered away to an- ■*■ prison, nine miles from there. It «M the dead nf winter, and we had to ■"*. two—another girl and myself— *edown with innnmmatlcn of the limps, ™« "on the prison doctor said we had 3 J not bo moved. But at night they * to ""• Marl ° Splrldnnoff and tnvsoir. "• fool; „a away. Oh, 1 cannot tell ynu ' o Wttertaj nnd misery of that march t'T ""> You long to dic-lheil had auide up -„y mind I would escape ' I had hpen very 111, and they sent ™ to tho prison hospital al Irkutsk for on •POtttlon, It was tllrhy ibere. After two J* I escaj.e.l. N„. 'j cannot .ell yon * h o helped m. t, • | -~. „„ . f „ U „ f i,„ T -« Cl arc si;-, , nt 7 hr niffht , /'"•» mou,!, , ~ hidden in the ,nw n * hSD they the,,.:,: , , i: ,. t = o„e o n A, *»» «• I * n srrotip enough lo trove:. 1 "»* disguise., aa.l -ri ~v ay into -Man ?*y Prom shanghai 1 was sent tt _ *7 of r.eamer. and £o reached I'ajii

"From there I went tn "London, hearing messages nnd telling what we bad all gone through. Everywhere we know we are hunted by the Russian spies, but what «f ii? When I think of those still hack there in those black prison holes of death I -would gladly give my life ito save them." She has very nearly given it, and nothing will ever take the haunting sorrow from her young face, for Marie Sm-loff is, as slit says, an "escaped voice" from those pathless Arctic wilds, that hide Russia's tortured children from tbe eyes of humanity.