teamboats, and will very likely be done away with when the
Trans-siberian Railway is finished; but for centuries the horrors of the
convict train have piteously appealed to the charity of the world, while
the sufferings and brutalities which the exiles have had to endure stand
almost without parallel in the story of convict life.

The exiles are divided into two classes, those who lose all and those
who lose part of their rights. Of a convict of the former class neither
the word nor the bond has any value: his wife is released from all duty
to him, he cannot possess any property or hold any office. In prison he
wears convict clothes, has his head half shaved, and may be cruelly
flogged at the will of the officials, or murdered almost with impunity.
Those deprived of partial rights are usually sent to Western Siberia;
those deprived of total rights are sent to Eastern Siberia, where their
life, as workers in the mines, is so miserable and monotonous that death
is far more of a relief than something to be feared.

[Illustration: GROUP OF SIBERIANS.]

Many of the exiles escape,--some from the districts where they live
free, with privilege of getting a living in any manner available, others
from the prisons or mines. The mere feat of running away is in many
cases not difficult, but to get out of the country is a very different
matter. The officers do not make any serious efforts to prevent escapes,
and can be easily bribed to allow them, since they are enabled then to
turn in the name of the prisoner as still on hand and charge the
government for his support. In the gold-mines the convicts work in
gangs, and here one will lie in a ditch and be covered with rubbish by
his comrades. When his absence is discovered he is not to be found, and
at nightfall he slips from the trench and makes for the forest.

To spend the summer in the woods is the joy of many convicts. They have
no hope of getting out of the country, which is of such vast extent that
winter is sure to descend upon them before they can approach the border,
but the freedom of life in the woods has for them an undefinable charm.
Then as the frigid season approaches they permit themselves to be
caught, and go back to their labor or confinement with hearts lightened
by the enjoyment of their vagrant summer wanderings. There is in some
cases another advantage to be gained. A twenty years' convict who has
escaped and lets himself be caught again may give a false name,