THE REAL SIBERIA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 126, 13 May 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE REAL SIBERIA.

The Truth Concerning a Much Misunderstood Country. The stories we have read of Siberia — of long lines of prisoners chained together, and marching wearily along for about eighteen months at a stretch; the dying goaded on by Cossack whips, and the dead left where they fell in the snow; and then years of cruelty end incessant toil in the mines —have ’.eft an impression far from pleasant in the minds of freedom-loving Englishmen . But this is not the Siberia of today. according to Mr. S. Turner, whose book on Siberia (T. Fisher Unwin ; 55.) shows us that country as one of limitloss possibilities, being gradually settled. much as Canada is being settled, and promising as fair a future, per•haps, ns Canada itself. CORRENTED PREJUDICES. Mr. Turner, ns a member of a loading firm of provision importers, wont to Siberia on business: but he found time to correct manv of the prejudices Le had previously h -ld. in common with other people in EnMmid, and to do some exploration and mountaineering at ’.ho s-'me time. This is what he has. to say about convict labour in the mines: It is generally believed in England Hint the criminals thus employed in the mines are treated with barbarous cruelty ; that they are. in fact, frequently compelled to work while in a dying condition, or heavily fettered. and that they are often obliged to sloop while attached by chains to heavy wheelbarrows. . . . As a matter of fact, however. each convict has his own quarters. to whii’i In' ran mturn after his day’s work is done, and no miner is eve: Lent underground at night. Women prisoners, on the other hand, are only employed above the surface, in much th-? same way as women work in connecCon with the coal-mines in EngEnd. THE CONVICT’S LOT. Deducting holidays, the convict works for eight months in the yea:, his hours of lalxiur being from six o’clock in the morning to midday, and from two o’clock in the afternoon to seven during the summer, and from seven o’clock in the morning to four o’clock in the afternoon during the winter. There arc more severe conditions of labour than those to be met with in England It is possible for a prisoner, by good conduct, to become “a free command”—that is t;» say, he is obliged to wear the convict dress, but is only under polic? supervision, and is at liberty to make any money he enn by practicing a trade or engaging in business. He may n.arrv. and. if hr- has any private money, l:o is entitled to retain it. He is also at liberty to receive his friends. Escapes are more than frenuent. it appears, about a third of all th« criminal exiles succeeding in throwing oft alt control, and then they roam the country in bands, murdering and robbing. BRING YOUR OWN PILLOWS. Here is what Mr. Turner says of these pleasant fellows : Armed with a stick, to which is attached a strong piece of cord or catgut, they will approach the unwary traveller from behind, throw the cord found his neck, and quietly strangle him by twisting the stick, to rob him «t their leisure of whatever he may possess, or to secure his passport in < rder to make their escape from the country.

And. of course, it is up to the traveller to protect himself. But it is onlv fair to note that the political exile is of a very different (vpe from the criminal exile. Of course, the conditions of life in Siberia are very primitive, from the point of view of our own civilisation, even in the cities. Mr. Turner’s remarks about hotels are particularly interesting For instance : The hotel at Omsk is a very good cne: but. as in all Siberian hotels, the proprietor stared nt me when 1 asked for pillows and bedclothes, it being customary for travellers in Siberia to carry these articles about with them. The forces of law and order, too, are not the most up-to-date, as Mr. Turner found at Kainsk : The first tiling that attracted my attention was the noisy of the watchman’s rattle. I examined the instrument It is a hollow block of wood, not unlike a pulley block in shape, having a round piece of wood attached which, when shaken, strikes the side; bv string, which, when shaken, strikes the sides producing a most unearthly noise, calculated to give the thief or burglar warning fullva mile away. From his (the watchman’s) replies to some questions we put to him. he led us to understand- that be would have been highly offended with anv burglar who failed to complete his little job before he came on the scene! DOING A TRICK. A ready way to the Siberian peasant’s heart seems to bo to show him a trick. This was Mr. Turner’s plan at .me out-of -the-world place, and how admirably it succeeded his own words explain : The linguistic difficulty being praclicallv insurmountable. I endeavoured to allav suspicions which might be lurking in soir; rc r e s of the : r unsophisticated intelligences by adroitly balancing a paper funnel on my nose, and applying a lighted match to it. This impressed them very much. They said that they had never soon anything like it before. Th l ’ eight recumbent forms assumed an creel, position and a general expansive grin The Rus-ian has a way of his own of taking his bath, and the author givehi- cLset rations on th - first Russian bath lie had an opportunity of inspectEXHILAR ATING. This was a small but erected at some distance from th? dwelling-house. It ■ontained a rovglilv-constructed stove, in whiih wood is burnt until the stones of which it is composed are nearly redhot. Water is then thrown on th? stones. the steam thus generated filling the room .... The method .of using the bath is to raise some soan-suds in a bucket of hot irate-. A bundle of birch twigs with the leaves still on. called a "vevnik.” is dipped in the hot soap-rmd-wMer. and ih - body soundly I thrashed with it. The heat of the ■■polka” (a raised platform in the hottest corner of the bath-hut) is so’ intense that the Russian peasant frequently thinks nothing of coming outside in nudibus. and rolling in the snow. ( And very exhilarating, too, one would imagine 1 I