SIBERIAN MINES.

Inangahua Times, Volume V, Issue 42, 12 June 1878, Page 2

SIBERIAN MINES.

Tho following: 'graphic description of the. workers in thoso rogions, belonging to '*• Holy Kussin," is ftora. the Pull Mnll Garotte :-— Tho oxilos who livo in thoso wincfl arc convicts of tho worst typo and political OiTondcrs of tho best* The B>mrderor for his Vil m y, tho intelligent end honest Polish rebel tor his patriotism, are doomed equally worthy of tb» pmiitih* mont of slow death. Tfajoy noiror soo tho light of day, but work and aloep all tho yotUJ round in th* depths of tho earth, oxtiMoting silvoa and quicksilver, under tho eyes of tasUnookors who hayo orders not to spare thorn* Iron gates, guardod by aentmos, olo»e tho lodo& or streets, at tho bottom, of shafts and tho min«w ore railed oss in gangs at twenty.. They sleep within Kvcossos hown out of tho rook— very konnols.--into. which thoy roust ! orcop, oa all fours. Princo Josoph ' Lubotntaski, who hrn authorisodi to visit tlu) niinoa of tho Oural at a fcimo whon it was, not wspooted ho wotjd puWisfe an acoount o* liih exploration in. French, has given nn appalling nocount of what ho gaw., Oonviota raokod with joi»t«pains, whiol: quicksilvOT produces ; men who»o hair, und oyeftrowa havo droppod 1 oflj' and who woro gaunt n& skolotons, wero kopt to hard, labor nnde» tho lash. Thoy hnvo only two holidays a yoar, Christmas and Enstw ; and alt obhor days, Sundays included,, thoy must toil' no til oxhauotod natmro roba thorn of thfr use of thoir limbs when, they are hauled 1 ap to dto in tho infirmary. Five yotrs io tho quioksilVpr pitftaro enough to turn a. mnn of 30' into nn apparent sexagenarian JiuJt somo hnve been known to struggle on for ton yoars. No man who hnaovor worked in the mines wns.allowod to return homo ; : the most lio enn obtain, in tho way of grnoo is loavo to come up and work in tho rond gangs, nnd it is tho promisoof this favor as a rowurd for industry which opcratos eyen more than tho lash to maintain discipline^. Women are employed in. the m!nos>as siftcro, and got no bettor treatment thati the men, Polish ladios^by tho dozen, havo been sent down, to rot und dio, whilo St Petors* bnrgjjmrnnlshavo boe^l doolaring that they wero living n» free colonists f : and more reqontly, ladies consigned* to the mines in,

pursuanco of a sontonco of hard labor. t It must always bo uudcrstood that a sonf touoo of Siberian hard labor moans death" Tho liussiaa Govornmcnt woll knows that to livo for fivo years in tho atrooious torturos oftho mines is humanly imposflible, nnd consoquouily, tho uso of a ouphomism to roplaco tho term capital punishmont is moroly of a picco with the hypocrisy of all official statements in ltugsia, Onco n week a pope, himsolf au oxilo, goes down in»o tho mino to bear tho tho consolations of roligion, undor tho form of iisormon cu joining pationoo, By tho samo occasion ho drives a littlo trado in vodkis. Tho minors who livo habitually on tsohi nnd blackbrond, aro allowed a koyook for a good duys work i nnd this sum invarialy goes in drink. Porhaps tho raw rancid spirits servo tokcop up thoir strength, anyhow tho intoxication it brings on affords tho unfortunates all tho comfort thoy can oxpoot on this oarlh. Ono shuddors to think of tho bottor educated raon who rcfuso tho conaolation of liquor. What must bo tho plight of professors, journa* lists, landowners, who had boon condmncd to dio by inohes for tho crimo of omitting liberal opinions, whioh in England brings a man to great honor on every sido P Perhaps ihoso English Liberals ( who feel kindly towards Russian humanitarinnism would pick up a notion or two if they could interview somo of thoir Muscovite oolloaguos earning tho roward for their progressive theories under* firound with a drunken roligios to wbiao I them homihes.