Books and Bookmen

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 25, 22 June 1907, Page 27

Books and Bookmen

THE LONG ROAD: John Oxenham (Methuen's Colonial Library).

There is, or was on view a few weeks ago, at the Grafton Gallery, London, a collection of pictures painted by a Russian artist, Alexander Borissoff. These pictures are said to depict with marvellous skill and fidelity the life and colour of the desolate tundra, or great mossland of Northern Siberia, a land that, humanly speaking, is totally uninhabitable nine months of the year, and an undesirable place to inhabit the other three. And the artist, revelling in the ■wonderfully luminous colour to be seen there, is said to be impatient to return to the contemplation and depiction of nature, as seen by him in that most desolate of regions—-Nature, inconceivable by the dwellers in torrid or temperate climes. But it is feared that one day, owing to the horrors', privations and dangers inevitable to his environ; ment, his life will pay the forfeit. In “The Long Road,” Mr. Oxenhani has deported his hero (“Stepan Iline”) from the Steppes of Siberia to this desolate tundra, there. to regain the mental bal; ance lost by reason of the great injustice, indignity, and the gross cruelties suffered by him at the hands of “Paschkin,” Governor of the Province of Irkutsk. “The Long Road” is a story of heroism beyond compare, of sufferings unmerited and unendurable, of man’s cruelty, so subtle as to be worthy of the Archfiend himself. And all rendered futile by love. “Ivan Hine,” Stepan’s father, had been forced to march along "the long road’ to Siberia for the enormous crime of snuff-taking. As was usual, the. exiles were entirely dependant. for food and shelter on the charity of the peasantry of the villages along the line of route, and Stepan’s strongest impressions of the fearsome journey, being only a little lad, were of the seemingly endless presence of sticky, slimy .miicf. the , Jiangs of hunger, and his mother's inteiisSe 'tea# of wolves. It was then, too, that he grew familiar with the long melancholy howl of starving wolves. Ami that, curiously enough, and yet quite comprehensibly, stirred him not to fear but to childish anger; for his mother. who was brave in the dark, and cared nothing for the icy mud —so far. as he could see, at all events —shivered at sound of ; the wolves till her teeth chattered, arid she' went in dread of them all day and airiiignt. And at such times little Stepan would forget his frozen feet and fingers f<«’ the moment, and would say boldly. . “Don.’t be afraid, little mother, if the wicked wolves ctmie, I will kill them!” And as the wolves never came near enough for Stepan to kill them, it was hatred and anger he felt for them, but ijo And that which was in him as a boy . was in him as a man. Passing through Sclemsinsk, a village about 400 miles from their final destination, a halt was made for the purpdsei of obtaining food and shelter for the night; and Stepan’s parents, being last, were refused the former, not from lack of charity, but because the peasants’ own scanty supplies were exhausted. Turning away, Stepan felt something slipped into his hand, and on looking down found it to be a freshly-baked cake. When halfway through it lie heard the giver soundly rated for Having given away her own supper, which could not be replaced. Stepan immediately offered the remainder of the cake to the little girl, its giver, but “Little Katenka” (the Russian diminutive of Katia), refused it, instinct telling her that Stepan’s need was greater than her own, and went supperless to bed. Stepan never forgot the gift or the giver. And there and then was sown the tiny seed of love that afterwards flourished so mightily in the heart of Stepan. When the exiles reached their final destination (Irkutsk) they found things tolerably comfortable “Dolgourof” being the Governor of that province, who was. contrary to precedent, tolerant and easy going, and Iline, being a first-class workman, quickly found abundant employment and soon became noted far and wide for the excellence of the agricultural implements he forged, and by his Tame as a shoer of horses. Profiting by his former experience he was careful

to say and do nothing likely to arouse the cupidity or the suspicion of the official powers, living very modestly, in spite of the fact that he was now what is known as a very “warm man,” and paid the heavy taxes levied on him without a murmur. Stepan by this time had grown up to young manhood, and so good a son was he that the only drop in his mother’s cup that was not all sweet was Stepan’s disinclination to marry and give her a grandchild to dandle in her arms. Then Dolgourof died, and Paschkin came to reign in his stead.

And so, when Dolgourof died, they sent Paschkin to Irkutsk, with orders to whip Ills province into the paths of virtue, and the full and prompt payment of its dues by any means he deemed fit. And the job was to his liking. He had been holding down the Khirgisn Tartars, and before he had done with them, the Tartars, whatever their original beliefs on the subject, were convinced of the existence of a personal and their devil was known by the name of Paschkin. Worried, mothers quieted their children by threats of Paschkin. “Stop it, or I'll send thee to Paschkin!” never failed to reduce a howl to a whimper, and - a whimper to terrified silence. “Paschkin get thee!” became the direst imprecation a man could hurl at his enemy. He was that Paschkin who kept his knouts steeped in brine in their short intervals of rest; that Paschkin who had not scrupled to knout women naked; that Paschkin who valued a man’s life at one-tenth that of a horse; that Paschkin who had proved himself able. r to keep order in a province when other men had failed. That he still lived, in spite of his brutalities, says something for his tenacity and courage, if little for the mettle of h:s subjects. No man ever qualified more fully for sudden extinction than did his Excellency; and yet he lived, and dealt out death all about him with liberal hand and in strange and terrifying fashions, and all mon trembled before him. ffc*Wdn'-sakl to be’art acknowledged offshoot of the royal tree, lie had pushed his head up through the mud that surrounded the tlu’pMSt staid his rapid promotion gave colour to the report. He made his way by sheer bull-force •of will and absolute heectlessness of life —his own or any other’s. He ran amok with life, and life gave way before him. If not —as the Tartars believed —the archfiend himself, he was undoubtedly at times possessed of many devils. He had a mania —one among many, and all alike detestab 1 * for odd and terrifying forms of punishment. He buried recalcitrant Tartars up to their necko : in”’ the sand, and galloped his Cossacks .oyer. them. He put them in holos head downwards, with their feet sticking out,and sent his men to tent-pegging with their lajuces. at the writhing feet. And when the wine worked off sooner than lie had anticipated, and he lay awake of a night, he spent, the time, pleasantly and profitably, devising new vexations for h’s people.” : His own way, wine, horses, and women — those were his objects in life in their proper order. Any thing or body who came in between was clearly marked for destruction. When the men of Irkutsk heard that Paschkin was coming, they shook in their boots. And some, whose thumbs pricked unduly, took warning thereby, gathered up their gear, and moved on into the wilder boss while yet there was time. Nature at its savagest seemed to them preferable to Paschkin. Under Paschkin’s guiding rule Ivan Iline walked warily, kept a quiet face and silent tongue, and paid his share of the increased taxes. But it would have required a subtler man than Iline to have escaped the notice of Paschkin, and before he had been in the province a week he had named Iline a member of his council, a dignity dreaded by every citizen of Irkutsk, as leading, sooner or later, to violent death. Visiting Hine’s forge one day, Paschkin sees Stepan, and gives him a commission to execute for him. The commission, not at first to the young man’s liking, proved to be the turning point of his life. Reaching the village some 400 miles from Irkutsk, ho found it to be the identical village where he had received the cake, and on reaching the home of the horse dealer to whom he had been sent, came face to face with lit tle Katenka, now named “ Katia.” ’l'he author’s account of the meeting, and the brief, ardent wooing, ending in the marriage being consummated before leaving Selemlinsk for the homeward journey, is delightful reading. The commission executed, even to the tyrant’s satisfaction, things went along ns

smoothly as things could under Pasriikin’s rule, Hine being careful not to arouse -the demon in Paschkin, though often put to it -sorely. But one unlucky day, when the non-arrival of a convoy carrying revenue from some silver mines was being discussed at the Council. Iline ventured to respect fully hint that tin delay was an unavoidable one, upon which Paschkin gives him the hideous task of proceeding to Versinsk. where the convoy had started from, and hanging as many of the principals of the mines as the convoy was days overdue. Paschkin further insisted on the heads being brought back to him.’’ A hideous task, full of risks, those of the road the smallest. But there was no escape from it. Departure held chances. Refusal was tantamount to a death warrant.'’ In a more civilised country, where natural feelings could be allowed fair play, death would have been infinitely prefer able. Iline departed, to the grief of his family which now included a baby “ Katenka,” and was novel again heard of. How or where he died was never known. Stepan, by order of Paschkin, traced him part of the way, and there all trace of him disappeared as completely as though he had never been. On Stepan reporting the failure of his search, Paschkin asked him if he had performed the task his father had been sent to perform, and, on Stepan answering- that he had not thought of it. dismissed him contemptuously as a dull, stupid fellow. But shortly afterwards, finding reason to alter this opinion, he made Stepan also a member of his hat. d Council, and on the convoy again becoming overdue unavoidably, set Stepan the task his father failed in But Stepan strongly objected, both to the task and the time given him to perform it in. Upon which, Paschkin persuades himself that Stepan is a dangerous fellow and a menace to his power mid determines to punish him in such fashion as shall serve as a lesson to the remaining members of his Council. “To this end he drank much wine,’’ and evolved a fiendish idea after idea, and at last, in the dead of night, an idea came to him. Ten days to go, five to do the hanging and decapitating, and ten to return, had been the limit set; by him to perform the horrible task, well knowing that the road, owing to the ilooded state of the country, was well nigh impassable. Ten days for the journey had been the point in dispute, and ten should figure in his punishment. When Stepan reached Versinsk he found that a messenger from Paschkin had reached there two days before, healing documents for him. On opening them he found the following decree:—“lt is decreed that the within named. Stepan Ivanovitch Iline, may travel where iie will within the bounds of Siberia, within the province of Irkutsk, but that he shall not be allowed to remain or reside in any one place for a longer period than ten days upon any condition whatsoever. It is enjoined upon the police to execute this decree with the utmost stringency. “ It was not the flagrant injustice of it that hit him hardest. Life under the rod inures one to in justice. It was not the decree of exile, the breaking up of his home, the ruin of his prospects. These things were too com mon to excite surprise. Siberia was wide. All governors were surely not Paschkins. Very slowly a dull comprehension of it all oozed through the tangle of his thoughts. Homeless, henceforth, until he died! A perpetual wanderer! Summer and winter, well or ill, living or dying, he must always be on the road. Friendless, too! For how could any man. so driven, make friends? And what of Katia and the little Katenka? llis heart died within him at thought of them. Before God. it was too much that any man should live to break his fellows like this.” Before leaving his home In 1 had resolved to get away from Irkutsk if possible, out of tlu* reach of Paschkin, but this decree nullifying the passports he carried made this now impossible. To the former end he had arranged with Katia (his mother had died broken-hearted soon after his father’s disappearance) how to dispose of his affairs, and where she would find an address to join him. And that she might be able to do this was now his only hope. During his wanderings he rendered a great personal service to an old Jew pedlar. ” Peter Krop,” who, in gratitude, provided him with the means to trade. A friendship sprang up between them, and the Jew, by dint of much bribery, at length contrived to get news of Katia, and finally, after eleven weary months, the married lovers were reunited. During these months Stepan, in his spare time, had built a house on

wheels, so-that his loved ones might tr*» \ el with him. Drring the midday halts, mid in the lou|| wiiit-r even 11:4s. when the journeys were >»io:t. ho v.-rocght <»t:t his ideas bit by bit, sawing and* planlag, and shaping and fitting. with careful hand and cunning device, working all h’.s heart s hunger into the little structure, and withal many a loving thorght of these he hoped to see occupying it before long. It took much planning, and many months of steady, hard work, before hr had all tli • parts complete and ready to bo put together. Ami then he went on one of his journeys as far as Kratiooiarsk, nrd stopped there Ills whole ten days, while Ivan Narasof, the famous builder of taranlascs-.. finished the work according to his carefully thought-out ideas. It was the most wonderful contrivance that country h.-id ever seen, and Ivan and his men scratched their heads nearly bald, and gaped to danger point nt the strange things they were calk :l upon to compass by St*p *i’s directions. And when it was finished the people caiee from far and near to see it, and to gape and scratch their heads also. The general impression prevailed that it was a travelling church, or a carriage for the conveyance of holy images. Ami so, in sooth, it was, but not of the kind they tlw.ftj’l. for whnt holier images may any nan tarry with him than his wife and child? It wafl Im:It <m a broad, wooden platform. and the superstructure was light, but strong and roomy. It contained a table, and seats against the walls, anti cupboards and shc'vos. And smoother bed than the floor no one need wish, when its asperities wore t-ofi(‘ii(‘d by hay-filled mattresses. A window of tain-shaved horn at the bark gave a certain light, hut the front door above the' horses’ backs would give both light and air, and a knee-high harrier there would furnish both a seat for the di!ver and a safe place of observation for a pair of merry blue < yes ’>elow a sun of yeih-w (iris and a ct ttmi skull cap. Tie* wheels wore broad and strong to combat rock a ml mu:!, and when flip snows can e they could be unshipped and replaced by ruuiK'i*-. Oh, it was all most marvel or sly <outri (‘d, and the wander it excited astonishment ia Narasof and ids men! They built the best tarantases in all Siberia, but tiny bviit with hand ami brain, and very much mor-* than those common things went t‘» the making' of Stepan's travelling church. Stepan’s astonishment and delight may he imagined when h.: found that a “baby Stepan” had been added to his entourage.. “Of that in. eting how shall any man properly tell? How they laughed and how they cried. How they clung to one another, as though defying any earthly power to part them again for ever.” The Altai mountains are very beautiful at that .time < >f.year; tmt had they been the starJ’.i'st desi they w.omd still v have been Imaven to these newly we’d tied souls, for we make own heavens am! carry tinm with us-wher.*? we will. Governor I’aschkin's decree liung lightly upon t.,lj • travellers,■ and gave i',iem as yet no cause for concern. Life, as though to make up for the breilks and shallows or the past, flowed smooth ami deep, am! their b»vo J p(;U<idi heights it had never • n< wn before Day after day wi.mi. i «dow ? v up among the hills, n z little wandering microcosm of pure, (lisfille/l ha| piness. But late had l not done her wor.-t with them. Forced tto..leave the shelter of a town while? a* terrible snow-storm was impending, thfcyi tare snowed up for t iiirty-one ( dJiys’..‘ Na ( Gire defying Paschkln’s decree, during'which time they are attacked by wolves, whom Stepan fought with axe and guh, BersOek-like, ami repulsed. Hunger, ,tpo F assailed them, and they were glad to gnaw the leather of the l.urmss, When the sr.o.v went Stepan werir.baek to the town they had left to get a fie.'jh supply of food nnd the aid his wife, so, needed, ?o seriously ill was she.Ji'b.ni exposure, flight and starxaliom But.’jf was refused them. So great was life /ear of Paschkin, the (dlicial mind choosing, to interpiet the decree a-, not permitting Stepan ever to return-again to any place he had hither to spent ten dav> in. Then Kati.i died, nnd shoitly after little Katenka, from kick of pi opci • lcarfc * ami attention, and finally bahv Stifrpail. who, too late, had been pkued und. i the rare of a kindly peasant woman. “Sime Kalia went the children had stood between him and much; and now the children were gone and he stood face to face with that dreadful thing that tilled all the place they had left.” But his impose never bailed. “His gun was always oiled and loaded his spear and axe were always <‘dge<| for slaughter.’’ The one an 1 only fear tie had was lest his enemy should t-scape h\ some other death than the one he held for him. “On-* blow he meant to give for K-.it ia. one for little Katenka, one for baby St pan.” and here sanity would leave him. 11 is opportunity came al bast; stopping one d-ay nt a way-side inn he heard that Paschkin had that morning passed through on his way to St. Petershurgh, w he e hi* hail been sent, for to reduce to < r.ler a refractory regiment of <'o.*»<uk<. Stopml

iiHiii*- h.i ? rlv *et out acroAA the steppes in p ’.-nit. in spite of blinding snow. Aner some hours hard driving he lighted hi* quarry, and. as he sighted it. the well renienibcicd howling of wolves burst upon his ears. Dashing forward, lie aim* upon Pasehkin's .-ledge, surrniinded by wolves, the coachman >e. ioiisly wounded, one horse half devoured, and the others wild with fear, while I’asehkin who. with all his faults, was no coward. \va* beating the wolves oil with his rifle. Stepan’s first instinct v is to tight the wolves Beisecklike, lb *rt to work, :m I in a short time hid p.l.ilightered them all. Then he turned io Paschkin and revenge Discovering himself to Paschkin. who had forgotten him. he is about to kill him. when out. of a bundle of rugs tumbled a little child, whom Paschkin. in a voice undreamt of for tenderness, calk'd Katenka. And, looking at the child. Stepan fancied he m *a likeness to his own little Katenka, and his arm fell powerless by hi* side and vengeance was loft to the God to whom ‘"vengeance belongeth.” llarno**ing his own horses to Pasehkin’s sledge, he conveyed both he and little Kaienka to safety and shelter, and then, not trusting Paschkin. returned across the steppes, taking with him two wolf cub*. left by one of the wolves he had slaughtered. Here he lost his memory, an I wandered into the great moss-land, still carrying his weapons and accompanied by the cubs, whom he Irad tamed. Ilis brain benumbed, the isolation mattered nothing to him. Instinct led him to build a hut for shelter; flint and steel he had always carried, and the time being siinuiier. food and fuel were fairly plentiful. But the time came when moss became his only means of sustenance. A terrible storm one day swept his hut sway. he only escaping with his life by Bing prone on the ground, his wolves escaping to the nearest thicket. Instinct egain made him build, this time so strongly and cunningly that the new hut delie I the elements. in it. he built a tiny fire-place, and stored fuel. Finding the raw moss unpalatable, he. after many attempts. constructed an earthen pot. in which to oook the moss, only just in time, as the day before he and his wolves had eyed each other greedily. ‘"But man and boast were spared that extremity. Lying one day in total darkness he was conscious of a wonderful change in the sky. I •»r. <>f a sudden, and in a strange and (solemn silence, the rim of the northern d.iiknvss began to pulse with tremulous hints of that winch was to come, as though some great quivering heart of light ■was travailing into life down there in the dark. 'i li-n. gathering force, the throbbing glow t<» »k shape in a nebulous haze, which rose and brightened till the top of h was a luminous arch, and from the arch streamed wavering tongues of tire, of colours innumerable, and of radiance unsurpassed. Now they were all blood-rod, and now they were vivid blue, and now lightning yellow. Thou, in a moment, the wavering flames all mixed as though a mighty breath had swept across them. and green and violet and orange quivered into the upper darkness and dyed the snow fresh colours every second. Then, as quickly, the blending tires shone dazzling white; and again, each darting longue flashed all the various tints throughout its length from base to tip. rod nt the base, and yellow at the tip, and all the rest fluttering along it from end to end in *t range fitful pulsations. s>. for hours, the mighty spectacle pla\c<l above him, and lie, enthralled and up dlbonnd. lay on his face in fear, and only dared to look up now and again, wondering dimly what it all might mean. Did they dance to some strange music, th s.- mysterious lights? It seemed to him there must be music, but his dulled senses conld not catch it. Up strained ears and leared t<» breathe, and at times it seemed to him that he came very near to hearing I’, nnd li thought it was Uke the singing of swinging bells- golden bells and silver And then, at last, the dancing lights wixed to their highest, and gathered in a lam cent coronal above the arch, and slowly died away, and left the dark world the daikor for their having been. 11.- crept back into his lair full of tears of wh •! might follow. But nothing broke the silence of his dim world, and lie was tilled •with winder and amaze, and as he lay in the darkness he saw the tongues of tire sti-1 quiv ring through his closed eyes, and in hi* . ars was the singing of the bells. H* lii l no knowledge to bring to the matter, nothing but a vague, awestricken •wo.ider; but. in some dim way, it seemed to him that Bod was in it. and his soul v.js straag<dy stirred. I he long iirclie winter went on, and Slfpans mental condition improvin’* little ny little, a chance accident—the saving of a reindeer from devouring ■wo’vo* set him thinking to such good purpose that his memory returned to him, and the tiling lie most remembered was 'li* love for his parents, ami K.itia, •nd his children. And the curse passed. And one day, memorable to hiiu uI ways,

he found that daylight had returned to the land, and he. threw himself on Ilia knees and thanked God for it. taking it as a sign that God had not forgotten him. Willi his return to sanity he longed for human companionship, -and the winter having passed, he set out for the haunts of men. t oming across a party of Samoyedes. with whom he made fiiends, and gentle and manly as always, won their confidence, teaching them also out of the knowledge of his own superior civilisation, and becoming a willing slave to their women and children. He grew passing rich in reindeer, and furs, and skins, increasing the wealth, too, of the friendly Samoyedes by protecting them from the rapacity of the. traders to whom thev sold their skins. Then he began to long for news of Krop, and one day set out for his old haunts, regretted sorely by his Sainoyede friends. Krop is delighted to see him, and, shortly afterwards dying, left the whole of his wealth to Stepan.. The rest of Stepan’s life was spent in travelling over the old ground. “He died as he had lived, on the road. And. literally, on the move. For one day the sweet-toned bells rang out his coming, anti the children ran to greet the white-haired old man with open arms and shouts of merry laughter, and for once he did not answer them. They tlooped along beside the house on wheels in murmuring surprise, till their elders came and stopped the horses, and climbed inside, ami found him lying dead, with a smile on his face; and, in the breast of his sheepskin coat, a little white owl, which blinked feebly and peeked remonstratively at those who, for his own good, drew him gently out. But the wolves which used to frolic in front of the horses were gone, and they were never seen again. He had turned his ho#s<?s towards ('hernsk when ho felt the end coming, and they buried him out on the hillside by the side of those he loved. But the little white brother lived on In that village for many years, cared for by all, and died at last full of wisdom and honour. And the boy who would have dared to throw stick or stone at Stepan Bine’s little white owl would have repented the deed in sackcloth anil ashes, and would not hi'e sa'. d wn in comfort for very many days. And the mothers of that country still tell to wide-eyed little Katenkas and Stepans the stories they heard from their mothers, which they again heard from their mothers, and they from theirs —as far back as you please—of the strange, good Stepan lime, who travelled the land in a house on wheels, with two gaunt brown wolves bounding before him, and a little while owl on its perch inside, and never stopped anywhere, yet brought a blessing wherever ho went. Mr. Oxenham is greatly to be congratulated on his treatment of a subject that in less competent hands might easily have degenerated into mere sensational narrative. The story is founded on absolute fact, the details worked in with such veracious knowledge of the condition of things in Russia as is known to be, and, as conceived by Kipling, in the lines — “And each in his separate star. Shall paint the truth as he sees it, For the God of Things as they are.’’ A more heroic creation was never conceived by author than this creation of Stepan I line. And the leaven that leavens the whole book is love, triumphant alike over sin, suffering and death. The reader will scarcely be able to contain his indignation (hat such a state of things can be in any country not purely barbarian. And the system of autocracy which alone is responsible for this terrible state of things, is doomed. The spectacle of its ’autocrats and bureaucrats living in insensate luxury and power, ought not to be tolerated by a civilised world, while its thinker* and patriots are treading with torn, and bl'stered feet “the long road” that leads to this modern “Gehenna.” Stronger things might be said, written and done, except for the feeling that prevails amongst right minded people that evolution is better than revolution, though le<s speedy. Meantime, the people of Russia are stifling the anguish of centuries and crying, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”’ DELTA.

HINTS ON TRAINING.

The latest number of Spalding’s Athletic Library, issued by The British Sports Company, Limited, 2, Hind Court, Fleet-street, London, is volume 2, No. 16, entitled “Athletic Training for Schoolboys” by George W. Orton. The author is a Canadian, and despite the fact that he was paralysed in his right arm, was champion of America at every distance from one mile to 10, on one Occasion beating the world’s record-

holder. Tommy Connell. He is the only Canadian who ever won an English distance championship, and also the only Canadian who won a world’s championship in a distance event, winning the Steeplechase Championship of England in 1897 and the Olympic Steeplechase Championship at Paris in 1900. In this book he gives general ideas on training. and then takes up separate branches of athletics, such as sprinting from the hundred to the quarter, tiie distance events from 880 yards, cross country, running the hurdles, high and long jumps, pole vault, shot, hammer, and discus. Over forty fnll-page photos illustrate the text and explain in detail Mie different correct styles for each blanch of track and field athletics. A book worth perusing by the expert as well as the novice, and it can be had at the low price of sixpence.