n like manner and on equal
terms. Some became wealthy and were able to secure the privileges of
citizenship.

[Illustration: TAIL PIECE--QUARTERS]

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The descendants of exiles are in much greater number than the exiles
themselves. Eastern Siberia is mainly peopled by them, and Western
Siberia very largely so. They are all free peasants and enjoy a
condition far superior to that of the serf under the system prevalent
before 1859. Many of them have become wealthy through gold mining,
commerce, and agriculture, and occupy positions they never could have
obtained had they lived in European Russia. I know a merchant whose
fortune is counted by millions, and who is famous through Siberia for
his enterprise and generosity. He is the son of an exiled serf and has
risen by his own ability. Since I left Siberia I learn with pleasure
that the emperor has honored him with a decoration. Many of the
prominent merchants and proprietary miners were mentioned to me as
examples of the prosperity of the second and third generation from
banished men. I was told particularly of a wealthy gold miner whose
evening of life is cheered by an ample fortune and two well educated
children. Forty years ago his master capriciously sent him to Siberia.
The man found his banishment 'the best thing that could happen.'

The system of serfdom never had any practical hold in Siberia. There
was but one Siberian proprietor of serfs in existence at the time of
the emancipation. This was Mr. Rodinkoff of Krasnoyarsk, whose
grandfather received a grant of serfs and a patent of nobility from
the empress Catherine. None of the family, with a single exception,
ever attempted more than nominal exercise of authority over the
peasants, and this one paid for his imprudence with his life. He
attempted to put in force his full proprietary rights, and the result
was his death by violence during a visit to one of his estates.

The difference between the conditions of the Russian and Siberian
peasantry was that between slavery and freedom. The owner of serfs had
rarely any common interest with his people, and his chief business was
to make the most out of his human property. Serfdom was degrading to
master and serf, just as slavery degraded owner and slave. The moujik
bore the stamp of servility as the negro slave bore it, and it will
take as much time to wear it away in the one as the other. Centuries
of oppression in Russia could not fail to