632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of a more serious nature, but in it also thrift and brandy play the chief 

 parts, the latter that of a propitiator. The custom prevails for the 

 bridegroom to pay to his future mother-in-law before she will give 

 her acquiescence a definite sum of "bride-money," the amount of 

 which is regulated according to the standing of the parties. The Si- 

 berian youth, having thus made things all right for his future, escapes 

 with his beloved by night and under favor of darkness, and with the 

 scandal of the abduction of the daughter a second matrimonial can- 

 didate is out of the question. The mother screams and curses the 

 couple for a little while, but the storm soon ceases. The bridegroom 

 knows the people he is dealing with, and, after the first spurt of vexa- 

 tion is over, returns with a stout brandy-flask, from which he pours out 

 to the angry mother-in-law till she is propitiated. Then the ruined 

 daughter appears, and a general forgiveness follows, with a family 

 wedding-feast, in which immense quantities of brandy are consumed. 



The young pair go right to housekeeping, and in the course of ten 

 years the former abductor will be able to stretch himself before the 

 door of his own unencumbered residence. In the reception-room will 

 hang waving tapestries, and in the bedrooms will rustle silken cur- 

 tains and canopies. I have seen hundreds of such cheerful family 

 pictures and rejoiced over them. The people form a splendid race, 

 and are happy. "lama Siberian ! " sounds from the mouth of one of 

 them like a shout of exultation ; " I have nothing more to desire." 



A similar happy future awaits the convict-exile, if long life and 

 success are given him, and he is endowed with courage and energy. 

 "He is consigned to the mines, and will die there by inches with 

 chains on his hands and feet," is the current expression when speaking 

 or writing of a Siberian convict. But here, too, as in other cases, the 

 colors are too darkly painted. I do not feel called upon to deplore the 

 excessive harshness of Russian justice, or to indulge in general criti- 

 cism, but it is true that not only criminals, but also disagreeable per- 

 sons, vagrants, and political oppositionists, are sent to Siberia under 

 cover of judicial proceedings. What is now imposed in Russia as a 

 punishment was also administered not so very long ago in Germany 

 and even in free Switzerland. 



Whoever, by a judicial sentence, or by an administrative measure, 

 is exiled to Siberia, is first lodged in a district prison, whence he is 

 transferred to a government prison. The transportation to Siberia is 

 carried on by railroad and boats to Tobolsk, where a division of the 

 gang takes place, and destinations are appointed for the prisoners 

 according to the character of their offenses. Those who have been 

 condemned to death, and had their sentences commuted to exile, are 

 bound with chains and all sent together to the mines of the Altai. 

 Formerly the convicts were driven in gangs, chained about two feet 

 apart. So at least I have read and heard it generally believed. I 

 was once myself a witness of a spectacle of this kind, but it was not 



