and often enough the prisoner has experienced more
kindness at the hands of prison officials, than the free
man from his employers.” These testimonies, then,
wholly unsought by me, I leave to speak for themselves.
Besides the suspicions of friends, however, I have
been confronted with the Siberian chapter in the
story o f “ Called Back,” by “ Hugh Conway,” and have
been asked how that tallies with my account. Hereupon
I would first inquire, Is the story fiction or
fact ? As fiction, I have little to say to the novel,
except that the author has not learned his lesson
perfectly. When, however, he says, “ I expect to be
believed................ All else save this one thing I could
prove to be true,” does the author wish his readers to
understand that he really went to Siberia and saw the
facts he records? I f so, then I detect in “ Called
Back ” another of the series of apocryphal books on
that much-abused country, and can only regret that
the popular tale will “ carry the lie round the world,
while Truth is putting on her boots.” Still, I have
no intention of charging the author with deliberate
misrepresentation. He dipped his brush in colours
which I can well conceive he thought might be true,
and I fail to see in him the animus which certain
Russian writers betray.*
* W ill the reader be good enough to judge the grounds of my
adverse judgment ? The hero o f “ Called B a c k ” goes to Siberia in search
of a prisoner, and on arriving at Petersburg he s a y s : “ We received a
passport authorizing me to travel to the end of the Czar’ s Asiatic
dominions if I thought fit, which was worded in such a way that it
obviated the necessity of obtaining a fresh passport wherever a fresh
government district was to be traversed.” Again, “ A ll convicts were
first sent to Tobolsk. . . . whence they were drafted off at the pleasure
of the Governor-General to various \ places. . . . I f I wished, the
Governor of Tobolsk should be telegraphed t o ; but as I was bound
I now proceed to the articles of Prince Krapotkine,*
who permitted himself to say that, concerning gaols
and convicts, “ Through Siberia ” could only convey
false ideas ; and whose testimony has been set
against mine. How, then, stands the matter ? Prince
Krapotkine gets his information from three sources,
any way to go to that town, it would be just as well if I made my
inquiries in person ” ; and it was at Tobolsk the author expected to
“ await the pleasure of the Governor-General.” Now here is a small
pickle of mistakes to begin w ith ! For, a j> a s s j> o r t does not entitle^
the holder to travel by post, but a ft o d o r o jn a , which gives a claim
to horses between two points'; but it is immaterial whether, in reaching
one’ s destination, the traveller passes through one government
or half-a-dozen. Next, all convicts are n o t distributed from Tobolsk,
but from Tiutnen. It is here the author should have gone to make
his imaginary inquiries, and then he would not have been “ bound
any way to go to Tobolsk,” but could have driven direct to Tomsk.
Besides this, the Governor-General did not live at Tobolsk, but 700
miles distant at Omsk ! Next, our author’ s geography is somewhat
faulty, as is his knowledge of posting customs. He says : “ A trifle
of some 400 miles from Ekaterineburg to Tiumen” (this should be
204), and “ at the east bank of the Irtish, Siberia proper b e g in s ”
(this is wrong by 150 miles). Then he speeds on so fast that he “ left the
y em s tc h ik no time for refreshment.” But why should he ? Does he
think that the yemstchik, like an interpreter, accompanies one all the
way, or has he to learn that he merely drives the traveller to the
next station, perhaps an hour’ s run, and then goes back with his
horses? But a sentence most damaging to “ Called B a c k ” as an
authority on Siberian afEairs is this : “ We passed many gangs of convicts
plodding along to their fate. Ivan told me that most of them
were ip chains. This I should not have noticed, as the irons are only
on the legs and worn under the trousers.” Now, I have seen scores,
not to say hundreds, of Russian leg-chains, and I have a pair, with a
prison suit, in my own possession. I put them on and was photo-
* graphed, and the illustration in “ Through Siberia,” p. 155, of “ Convict
Summer Clothing and Chains,” represents “ your humble servant”
in all but the features, From this picture it will be seen that the
chain, 30 inches long, fastened to each ankle, c o u ld n o t be worn
under the trousers. Y e t our humane author adds, “ Poor wretched
beings, my heart ached for them !” And so, doubtless, has that of
many of his readers— especially ladies— but quite needlessly, for these^
chains worn under the trousers are but a hoax.
* I am indebted for information concerning Prince Krapotkine to