638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion of the several confessions Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians. 

 All the prisoners assured us that they had no complaints to make. 

 The few political prisoners confirmed these statements, so that their 

 condition, too, must certainly have been endurable ; for it is well 

 known that the political prisoners are the most discontented. A 

 school is connected with the prison, in which a young priest was 

 serving as teacher ; the only text-book was a Russian catechism, 

 which was used by Mohammedans and Jews as well as by Christians. 

 The great point was that all learned to read and write. The priest 

 received no pay, but was performing a work of mercy. In the same 

 place are a hospital for the sick and an orphan-house for the children 

 of those convicts whose imprisonment is prolonged. The foundation 

 of this institution was the work of a lady who gave her whole fortune 

 to it, and then devoted herself to the solicitation of means for its sup- 

 port. 



When one has studied these conditions on the spot, and has sat- 

 isfied himself that while the situation of the prisoner condemned to 

 death and pardoned to the mines is hard, it nevertheless depends 

 upon himself whether he shall improve it and make his children free, 

 independent, and prosperous citizens ; when one sees how the oppor- 

 tunity is given to all convicts, without distinction as to what their 

 crime may have been, to found by their own exertions a new and 

 honorable career, and that the Government aids the earnest efforts of 

 such persons with counsel and act ; when one, finally, contrasts the 

 magnanimity, fidelity, and touching sympathy, existing among private 

 persons, with the sad lot of convicts in Europe and America, he will 

 have to admit that there may be worse countries than Siberia. 







HOW SPELLING DAMAGES THE MIND. 



By FEEDEEIK A. FEENALD. 



LEARNING to read the English language is one of the worst 

 mind-stunting processes that has formed a part of the general 

 education of any people. Its evil influence arises from the partly 

 phonetic, partly lawless character of English spelling. Although 

 each letter represents some sound oftener than any other, there is 

 hardly a letter in the alphabet that does not represent more than 

 one sound, and hardly a sound in the language that is not repre- 

 sented in several ways, while many words are written with as many 

 silent letters as significant ones. There is nothing in any word to 

 indicate in which of these ways its component sounds are represent- 

 ed, nothing in the written group of letters to show which sounds 

 they stand for, and which of them, if any, are silent, so that a learner 



