ALTAI 137 



and took a snapshot of the party from the rear. 

 I would nluch have preferred a full-face photograph, 

 but was afraid that the soldiers, who were triarching 

 with fixed bayonets on each side of the sledges, 

 would take possession of my camera. There are so 

 rSany convicts in Tomsk that these exiles passed 

 quite unnoticed by any one except ourselves. The 

 histories of soiHe of the residents of this town would 

 fill volunles. There are here some of the most in- 

 telligent and enlightened Rien in the world— men who 

 have studied and aittenfpted to bring about numbers 

 of reforms, and have been involved in numerous 

 conspiracies against the Government. The presence 

 of so large a number of offenders against the laws 

 of the Empire is a great obstacle in the way of 

 peaceful government. 



A story was told to me which I give for what 

 it is worth. It is said that the Czar Alexander the 

 First, disgusted with the failure of his plans to better 

 the conditions of the people, abdicated the throne. 

 While on a journey to the Crimea for the benefit 

 of his health, he caused ai. report to be spread about 

 that he had died at Taganrog. With the consent 

 of his successor, Nicholas the First, a corpse was 

 taken to St. Petersburg and there buried in state. 

 Alexander disappeared, and nothing was heard pi 

 hiiH until he turned up as a wanderer in Tomsk, 

 where he is said to have been recognised by a 

 nlerchant who had seen him under other circum- 

 stances. The secret was well kept, and it was not 

 till long after his death that it leaked out that the 

 old man who had lived at Tomsk in very humble 

 circumstances, and was known as Theodore, was the 

 great Czar. I should not myself be at all surprised 

 if this story were true, as the task of governing an 

 enormous empire like that of Russia, with its hundred 

 different races, must be a very trying one for 

 any man. 



