not Millbank or any other English prison, as the scene of labor. I have no hesitancy to say that personally I prefer prison life in Siberia to Sing Sing; and to set the stamp of my approval upon the prison, following the kindly invitations of the chief of police, I was about to transfer my baggage from the hotel of the rich Chinaman to the jail. However, though the prison tempted me by its superior comfort, better food, and bath-tubs, I had to give up the project. Interesting things were to be seen in the town and upon the great river every minute of the day, so I remained with Tai Phoon-Tai, only visiting the prison for my tub every day. As upon my first visit, I was always allowed to walk about the place and visit all the prisoners, and I saw nothing to change my opinion of the cleanliness and the humane condition under which they lived.

Just in the nick of time to complete the series of scenes of convict life in Siberia which I had witnessed, a prison-ship

arrived from Odessa in Vladivostok the day before my departure. It was the Voronzoff, a magnificent Clyde-built ship, with airy and roomy quarters. She was the finest-looking ship I saw in the Far East, and yet I was assured that she was not an exception, but rather the type of the magnificent twin-screw steamers which compose the Russian volunteer fleet. As she sailed into the harbor it was evident that she had experienced a tempestuous voyage. There was a flag flying from the peak, which we at first thought to be a signal of distress. It turned out, however, to be a request for water, as the supply on board was almost exhausted. Her arrival had been very much delayed by the head-seas of a northeast monsoon, and to escape from the track of a typhoon she had given Hong-kong a wide berth; the only stop for water and provisions in the whole voyage from Russia to Siberia had. been in Singapore. Water had run short, in consequence, and the convicts had been

placed upon a minimum allowance. It was indeed a sight to see them lapping up the water, now that it was for the first time served out to them in unstinted quantities. Thanks to Admiral A, and the use of his steam-launch, I went alongside and boarded the prison-ship well before she came to anchor. Though in from a voyage of nearly fifty days, and after experiencing severe weather continuously for the past two weeks, I found the vessel and the convict quarters as clean and as sweet as are the steerage compartments on our own Atlantic steamers at the end of a voyage of less than a week. Of course I would have these adjectives to be understood in a relative sense only.

There were no "politicals" on board. There were about 1100 convicts, and judging from their appearance, the great majority of them were criminals of the lowest and most degraded category. I could not conceal my surprise at the smallness of the guard that stood watch over them,

and the absence of fear that seemed to be entertained of the possibility of an outbreak. With the exception of three men, who, as punishment for misconduct during the voyage, were chained to the deck, the convicts were free to move about, it appeared, pretty much as they pleased. The guard of soldiers certainly did not number twenty men, who went about generally unarmed; and the sailors of the ship, who were not armed at all, seemed to be on the best of terms with the convicts, with whom they sat and talked, and even played cards. The convicts, judging from their faces, seemed all to belong to one and the same class of confirmed and hardened criminals, but ethnically it was the most varied assortment of types of the races of the human family that I remember to have seen. Among them the real Muscovites of the muzhik class, with their meek long beard and lamblike eyes, were in an infinitely small minority, but every other race of the conglomerate empire was strongly represented. There were Germans

from the Baltic Provinces, and the blond Finns with their bleached yellow hair, who certainly more resembled the German type of the days of Tacitus than do the Prussians of to-day, who look, particularly the East Prussians, quite Slavish, as they should from their origin. There were Chinamen and Tartars, and many varieties of Mohammedans, and Persians, and Turcomans, and Polish Jews, Ruthenians, Great Russians and Little Russians, Georgians, and the men from the Caucasus. As I looked upon this spectacle, in other respects so sad, I could not help being amazed at the facility which the Russian civilization seems to possess in obliterating national traits and characteristics, and attracting to it the loyalty and devotion of the most alien races-a gift which it has in common with the civilization of the United States. These men were, one and all, Russians, or claimed to be, though by blood and education they were as alien to her civilization

as

I. I remembered the instances furnished by our own history, and

more numerous

ly by Russian history of the last generation, of how quickly the two countries absorb men of power and convert them to their own uses. Ali Khan, the wild leader of turbulent central Asian hordes. and the determined enemy of Russia, after the last battle had been fought takes service

there, and to illustrate it by their presence. In company with the captain and the officer of police who had come from Russia in charge of the convoy, I visited every nook and corner of the ship; and though the voyage had been made under the adverse circumstances of bad weather and shortness of the water-supply, still everything was shipshape and remarkably clean, as a ship must be to pass through the tropics unscathed by disease. The sleeping-bunks were somewhat cramped and crowded, but they were no worse in this respect than a very great majority of sea-going vessels which carry steerage passengers in every part of the world. The police officer gave me a recital of the incidents of the uneventful voyage-of how the convicts, brought together from every province of the empire, had embarked at Odessa, where the bishop

with his conqueror, and begins a new and serviceable career as General Alikhanoff; and in a somewhat similar way-though the comparison may seem invidious, which it is not meant to be-we send not seldom naturalized citizens of recent date to foreign courts to represent our civilization

had in person given the members of the convoy his blessing, and had sprinkled the ship from stem to stern with holy water. For fifteen days after setting sail the prisoners all wear fetters and ankle bracelets connected by a chain, gangs of ten men being generally chained together.

On the sixteenth day, however, the armorer comes out on the deck and knocks off the manacles and removes the chains, so they are free men now as long as their conduct is good. They were all very docile and submissive, and seemed well fed and content. A kind of cabbage soup that was served out to them in great bowls seemed to me, after my experiences in the interior, very savory, and, upon the invitation of the police officer, I broke my morning fast with them.

Hardly had the convicts hastily bolted their breakfasts before I saw them crowding to the port side of the ship, climbing into the shrouds, gesticulating wildly in the direction of the shore, and asking all manner of questions of the officials as to the new land, the portals of which now lay open before them. In no other quarter of the globe, and under the operation

These hopes and the happy anticipations which they evidently entertained were, in my opinion, well founded; for many the life that was beginning, though certain to be attended with not a few hardships and many discomforts, and for some perhaps with considerable suffering, was certainly not the life of deadening hopeless routine of penal servitude under the cellular system now almost universal-that system which eats out men's hearts, and breaks down their spirit, and ruins them mentally and physically and in every way. Here in Siberia the outlook for the convict is very different. Each and every one of these men who looked so eagerly towards the shore, however degraded the category of criminals to which he belongs may be, or what his previous career of servitude to the brutal instincts may have been, was here as

of no other of the penal systems I have seen in operation in various parts of the world, can you see men approach the place where they are destined to serve out their sentence of punishment with such eagerness and with such an expression of hopefulness as I now saw depicted upon the faces of these men. They had rather the appearance of convicts who were about to be liberated than of men for whom the endless and interminable days of prison life were only beginning.

sured of a chance not only to begin a new life, but even to retrieve his fortunes. When I say, judging from past experience, that not a great number would have the strength to avail themselves of this opportunity, it is only admitting that they are human, and that, once having fallen, it is difficult to rise and fall no more; but I convinced

am

that the reformative effect of the system is most happy; that it results in returning to society a greater number of men worthy to be admitted into it than any other system of penal punishment that is practised.

The people and the press of Siberia are unanimous in their support of Count Duhofskoi's memorial to the throne, which aims at the concentration of all the convicts, of the criminal class at least, into stations, depots, and colonies on the island of Sakhalin. That the press of the country should be so outspoken in its op

position to the continuance of the present system is certainly a healthful sign, and I believe that the foreign critics, in leaving this long-controverted question in the hands of the Siberians, who are most directly concerned, and who are perfectly acquainted with its many phases, will do well, and perhaps then time might be found to ferret out and expose abuses which flourish nearer home.

While all classes in Siberia unite in asking for the abolition of the convict system as now in force, they are equally unanimous in denying the existence of the inhuman abuses which in the past have been imputed to it. In their opin ion, however, a continuance of the system would prove a great menace and an actual danger to the security and peace of the industrious settlements, which are springing up and entering upon a flour ishing and prosperous existence all through the country, upon the line of the Trans-Siberian and upon the banks of the Amur, as well as all through the Primorsk, or Maritime Province. This danger, they point out, arises from the ease with which often inveterate and

hardened criminals obtain, almost immediately upon their arrival in Siberia, a ticket of leave, and then show too often how unchangeable is the bent of their criminal character by the immediate commission of some horrible crime.

The details of the memorial of the Governor-General and the plan which he proposes have not been published as yet, but I am credibly informed that he asks that all men who have been tried and convicted of a felony or other criminal offence in Russia be first confined to the island of Sakhalin for a probation period of three years, and only then, if he should make good use of his liberty, be permitted to pass over the sea into the promised land of Siberia. The Governor-General points out clearly that as the voluntary emigration of the free laborer is rapidly increasing, and that as the construction of the railroad upon which so many thousands of workmen have been engaged will shortly be completed, and many thousands of men be in want of work, the disastrous effects upon the labor market, which at first view appear serious, will, in fact, prove infinitely small in compari