MEN WITHOUT NAMES

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 24, 11 June 1892, Page 605

MEN WITHOUT NAMES

In a work upon the prisons of Siberia, Mr Edgar Boulangier, a French engineer, who spent a long time in the service of the Trans-Caspian Railway, describes a strange class of beings in that country. They are the men who do not know who they are. No doubt many of these men merely assume this ignorance, inorder to mystify the officials, but their identity is in many cases totally unknown to the authorities and all their acquaintances. The prison of Alexandrovsk, Mr Boulangiei says, contains several of these singular people. Now and then, driven by hunger, a vagabond conies to the prison door and asks to be taken in.

‘ I have come to deliver myself up,’ says the vagabond. ‘ For what reason ? Who are you ?’ ‘ I don't know.’ ‘ Don’t know ? What’s your name ?’ ‘ I have forgotten it ; it was so long ago.’ • Where is youi passport ?’ ‘ I have none.’ ‘ Then you are a prodiaga—a. vagabond; you have escaped from prison. What crime were you in for?' ‘ I have forgotten. ’ Nothing more definite can be got out of him. Sometimes these vagabond exiles accuse themselves of crimes that they have not committed, in order to make interesting journeys at the expense of the government. Frequently their imposture is detected after they have been transported long distances, but who they really are the authorities seldom ascertain. They are kept under surveillance, and M. Boulangier is of opinion that they sometimes really forget what their names are.