RUSSIAN HORRORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 16

RUSSIAN HORRORS.

Press Association— By Telegraph— Copyright. St. Petersburg, February 10. Official baibarity is reported in the convict prison in Saghaliu, a small island off the east coast of Asia belonging to Russia. Convicts have been mutilated and beaten to death. Cannibalism is common owing to lack of food.

A Home contemporary recently predicted that Saghalin would soon be a name familiar to the world. The climate, according to authentic writers, is more severe than any part of Siberia. The island is known among Siberians as the "hell of Saghalin"— an expression which says volumes in the mouth of an expatriated Russian who knows the terrors of the far East. Up to the present time only the criminals with the worst records have been sent to Saghalin. From no place do so many try to escape— but few have ever succeeded. The runaways are known as "Brodjagan." Despite the accounts of terrible suffering and hardship brought back by unsuccessful fugitives, the Saghalin •' Brodjagan" increase in numbers every year. The hardships of Siberian fugitives are described as mild in comparison. Surrounded on all sides by the ocean, with the nearest land hundreds of miles distant, escape from the place is almost impossible. But despite all this, the unfortunate men are willing to risk quick death in the waves rather than the terrors of the island. As a rule, the " Brodjagan" try to escape in bands, numbering from three to 10. Those who try to get away in the summer, as a rule, take up their " abode" in the Tajga, an almost impenetrable forest. As long as their clothing and provisions last they are comparatively happy there despite their trials. But when the clothing is torn to shreds, when the provisions are gone, and when hunger and the bites of poisonous insects have weakened the poor fugitives, they soon die. A few reach the coast, where most of them are recaptured and taken back to the places of torture and torment. Those who choose the winter for flight fare probably the worst of all. In December the channel is frozen, and this fact lures many to destruction. They travel only by night, concealing themselves in deep ice holes in the daytime, in a temperature which cannot be described. But words fail to picture the terror and misery and suffering of these unfortunate Russian fugitives.