The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 29, 1899, Page 24

24 THE SUNDAY CALL The Sword of Long-Armed Russia H A SOCIARLIST EXILE NOW LIVING IN SAN FRBNCISCO NEARLY chazes WITH PER ECUTION Itves in fous h the Ked gate at the top Mel- ome 1 with bade him a cynical welcome for twenty ed upon his new life the its worst. He found prison more comfortable, mors elable than it hgd been in his fortress cell at Petersburg. He had some 170 men sociali: him- all well Th g was dreary enough ar , but there were cc yvided and the beds table stoves p be slept B this, the oners were allowed to recelve certain from home, so that a collection of books had gradu grown to almost 8000 volumes, were e lcal ttle orchestra to rattle away many no. ed like prison life made ialists_thought with pity gs in t criminal prison, n led the life of s at that. But their self pity before nine prisonment had worn nment took sudden alarm. was never known to the o barnlike walls. At any s summary. Officials 1 1 brought assistants. sleighs walting while they en- se books are to be taken away,” order. swept up the treasured olumes, read and re- erished, were load- instruments next.” y 1 went, flute » and all the rest. man’s clothes to be exchanged mak- i violin Ivery prison garb.” sh commanded and rough . har hurried. The citizen's clothing " which had been worn by every man with shut ar damp ). individuality which is part and parcel darkness. of honest le was exchanged for the It was he could pitter humiliation of shame-bearing uni- barely form. nen were given coarse underwear 1d made even the fef. The suit was almost covered by a ng gray overcoa The overcoat could bt be avoided. It ‘must e worn and with all its flaming taunts. For on its back was the dreaded yellow stamp. two diamond-shaped figures and b ‘Prisoner. nce a avy and awkward was an iron-seated c tressed bed. sIx mon w Each head must on tue side—the old-time stamp of cap- Atop the grotesque heads were prisoner’s not bad meals being the or right me, tivi s came a a of the six mo perched round gray caps, such as dub a the mc 1 life. Word man convict. And still the Government denly that ff was to be was not satisfled. s horiel o The word was “They have had a good time long not of a nature to be disputed. Melni- enough,” growled the wearer of much insignia. koff went. K hey must be tired walking so much. ra, a3 we spell it, or Kara, as the K g prefer it, was his destination. These wiil help them to rest.”” The offi- n stood dull and low and biack cer laughed as he sprung fast a set of ive of gr afternoon snow. yoked thick and close to the all directions was bleak, drift- land and dumb, blundering snow. chains. The chaining did not stop until it had gone the rounds of all the socialists in Kara prison. It was dealt out in differ- The prison of Karra stood alone. It ent degrees. Melntkoff's ankles were crouched low and groveling and leper- held by the distance of a short step like. It opened slow, cautious doors to apart. He was one of the favored. He saw hands as well as feet locked on all sides and he saw men riveted for all the its new occupant, and when he was once instde it shut the doors again surely. It long years to come to the comradeship of a wheelbarrow. Where they went the wheelbarrow must go until it rotted in its own fetters For eight years Paul Melntkoff's ankles ed to chafe under their burden. He wore the convict trousers that buttoned above the foot to make room for chains. He went and came among men who despaired and sickened and died. He walked, short of step and heavy of foot, within the limits marked by rifle-bearing soldiers. He lived with- out any greeting spoken except to and from men who spoke it in the same night- mare as his. Even work, for which they implored, was denfed the socialist pris- oners. The nightmare deepened and many went mad. “After awhile you grow to see one face— one face.” Mr. Melnikoff says. is the same with all the men.” The one kind of allowed their hands was cooking. and turn about, seven at a time, t oners worked in the kitchen. The fare was good enough. Russia allowed her victims a quarter pound of beef daily, besides black flour for bread, buckwheat and potatoes. The meals were eaten in the living and sleep- ing rooms, where men gathered at rough tables or leaned in the bunks which had replaced beds, or sank into thelr insepar- able wheelbarrows. X One small room was dignified by the name of hospital and here the sick were cared for by any of th alw wor Tu ir fellow prisoners who would and could. Melnikoff could laugh even then and he can laugh even now at the recollection of a dignified and philosophical list who tried playing dietist for the first time. “There was chicken soup to be made for a sick man,” relates, “and my philosopher friend plucked the chicken, prepared it and hung it against the wall while he went to boil the water. He seasoneéd it with great care, but when he took it to the invalid the man asked why it tasted so watery. My philosopher friend remembered that the chicken still hung against the wall.” Money might be sent the prisoners by thelr parents only, Some received good- sized sums, others none at all. A system of communism existed among them, and it was agreed that whatever money came was to be put together and used for the benefit of all. Newspapers and books were forbidden; there was no way to use the gifts except to add to the food pro- vided or to buy tc co. The money was intrusted to gendarmes, who made the little purchases. Smoking was the one luxury, and /it was constant. The money sent by par- ents kept the men in tobacco and cigar- ette paper. Mr. Melnikoff showed me a tiny, close-written budget of memoirs made of this very clgarette paper, which was the little s ping puper oners wr the K do: only kind permitted. On the s of it on scraps of wrap- cherlshed in secrecy the pris- a weekly newspaper called 1 circulated when guards atted me locked box which holds the memoirs holds also a bundle of letters recefved during those eight years. The soclalists could write to no one, but let- ters could be received by them after they had been carefully read by an officer in charge. Across every one of their pages was daubed the officer’s stamp in yellow acld. There came a time when reckless men entered a mad protest against thelr treat- ment and gave in feebly at last, as others had done before them. The provocation was the treatment of a woman in the woman's division of the soclalist prison. The trouble arose during the visit of the Governor General. When he entered a certain room one woman remained seated. “Why don’t you rise?” he snarled. “Why should I rise for you?” she re- torted. “You are the cause of our suffer- ing."” The man fumed. “Fifty lashes,” he or- dered, after haying a superficial examina- tion made by a physiclan who swore that fifty lashes were safe. The woman died. Whipping was unprecedented in the so- cialists’ prison. The Inmates were intelli- gent people who had always received, even at the worst, somewhat better treat- ment than criminals. They rose as one man and demanded justice. The only justice rendered was a imprisonment for the physic others concerned were exonerated. prisoners grew desperate. “Let us starve ourselves,” the leader said. ‘““We may frighten the powers in that way." Day after day they fasted. Four dled for want of food, and others, not able to endure the slow death, shot, polsoned or hanged themselves. In all twelve died. But the Government only continued to send food. And so the protest died out, and the great still despotism went on as before. There came a day when Paul Melnikoft, great sturdy Russian that he was, gave way under the strain. He had lived through his boyhood with a sound mind in a sound body; now he had nelther, Brain fever developed. There were days and nights of suffer- ing and delirfum, in which he burned the memoirs and novels that he had painfully written on slowly gathered bits of pa- per. When he woke he had forgotten even his name. Little by little strength and memory returned, and then came news that posed as generous. His sentence to imprison- ment for twenty years was to be com- muted. Now, when half that time had not yet expired, he was to be granted The sz brief 1 The MY (REW S7006 Arou ARMEL READY 70 REfcve i freedom as wide as the boundaries of S beria. le he must still remain. The chains were ned and they fell from weary an Paul Melnikoff stepped fo! past t rifle-bearing sol- diers for the first time in almost nine vears. He looked about him vaguely and 1ifted his feet as if they were yet heavy. Here was freedom, after a fashion, but what to do with {t? Those who set him free sald: “Go_to Amoor. That is the place for exlles. You can farm the He went to Amoor, but he did not farm. He thought over the things that e knew how to do, and he chos eaching. In the town he started a and girls, He found patr terprise throve. Then one day came the nerrt that he was a soclalist, When people heard this the withdrew their children from his classes. He must earn a living somehow. The way, came when he fell in with the cap- tain of a steamer on the Amoor River. He was finally made second captain., This lasted no longer than the school. Word came cing after him that the Government would not permit him to carry on the work. ext he tr: ed to Vladivostok. He had been given a passport when he left the prison—a passport that was good all over Siberia. He had been told then that he was free to go wherever it carried him, In Vladivostok he became manager of a railway station. The position was good, and as the weeks went by he began to feel the self-respect of independence return- ing. He met a Russlan woman who wa young and free and good to lock upon. He loved her and married her. He had been in the lway station for eleven mohths when the Government reached after him. ou must go back to Amoor and live y from all towns. Take a farm,” he was told. He replied’ by showing his passp which gave him the freedom of all S beria. ‘“That makes no difference. The Government commands, swer. Thea he grew bitter had been gloomy. “A r is treated better,” he s, are set free nobody hunts They are at least forgotten.’ Then followed one of the escapes that are famous the world over. It was made in disgu An American captain, in the year 1885, took on board a Russian and his wife who had outwitted the shrewdest of Russian guards. Melnikoff's use of French had enabled him to carry out his disgulse. He sailed for Manila, but found hard times waiting for him there. One hun- dred Mexican dollars pald his own and his wife's passage to Hongkong and there he worked for the ten cents a day which the white man must accept if he will com- pete with native labor. A friend whom he met there helped him to Singapore, and there Meinikoff opened a store and began to feel like a man once man. But it was not long before he learned that the Russian Consul at Slngflgfil‘e had received a letter saying that Paul Melnikoff, an escaped exile, was in his city, and he must investigate the matter and take action. Cautlously the Consul went about it * was all the an- where hefore he angs Over His H@ac AN EXISTENCE OF A Russlan ship from the Bering Sea arrived, and the captain sent to Melnikoft to bargain fof provisions. He agreed to have them delivered before time for the ship to sail. The capta told him that he must come himself for his paym ) Danger seemed in the air. Tt edge of the Consul's knowledge, ner of the captain, all whispe nd myste He consulted ishman who was well posted. Th 18! told him that he could not be arrested in the city, but on board a F sfan vessel he would be in the power of the Czar, Wh he went on board it was time for the ship to =ail. He took with him who were his friends, an were armed with knives. “If 1y one 2 tempts to hold me, fight,” he directed When he arrived on deck and the tain met him, there ensued a war plomacy that lasted il time r the vessel to leave. The otain first invited him into the cabin, then urged, then in- sisted. Melnikoff stood firm, that he could receive the monej as well_as within. He did not drin There was no furthe tween them. : For more than an hour the captain per- sisted, His excuses seem without limit. The dealer must come inside to receipt the bill, he persisted. # Melnikoff had an indelible pencil in his ocket. He could not be beguiled into egving his attendants and entering the cabin. So the vessel departed and he was safe. stesting on de care to business be- But the Consul very angry. : He could work darkly and prudently no longer. "He deliberately summoned his vietim. “You are an escaped exile and I will have you arrested,”” he announced. Melnikoff was prepared. He gave au- thority for the statement that he could not be taken—there was no extradition law to warrant such doings. The Consul was more angry. “I will have you arrested for vagrancy.” ““That will not hold in English territory, #ince I have a home.” CUTION FERSE: SINCE BOYHOOD far the agent of Russia was folled 1id not forget. He deemed Sing: He borrowed mone sco clothes. be happy Damocles ve tried to he replied of little import- always counted many Russian y. They are let ment says to them, ssports to return if ice to your list i5 al- ould al- s native Killing of a_sc such a service. My death some to return to at poisoning took fr in ill health had met and invited to his hc > prescribe for him He brought n e which the his wife took. Both 'levn:—k'\’ ‘“:dfll&fl and Late was in o a Russian drug cierk, who too 1 roundabout Ways to win the ¢ friendship. He trusted, and at last gave th: clerk & room to lodge in. He had b there some time when trouble occ Mrs, Menikoff prepared a kind of jelly one day, a Russian dish, and it on"the table, When she 1 'her b tack to the room they found ger tiere. He was al- ready eating. He did njt eat any of the ter dinner both hisband and wife taken viole: sick. Two dogs > remnants of the of them died. Ex- senic poisoning. the were sick and ¢ nation found a cause. Next day Mr. Mehdkoff told his lodger to depart. The man asked no reason, but left immediately. Peace settled fq man with a dark some time. Now & T antern is walking over Melnikoff's roof o nights and throwing H_gh! into his windsw. Men do not usuall: walk on roofs by #ay of a constitutional. Day after day thé man and woman stitch in their bag, clean little rooms and walt. For wha? They do not Know. But they know Yhence it will com Thank God ve have no children,” she gays. KATHRYN MARCH,