Untitled

Temuka Leader, Issue 1965, 5 November 1889, Page 4

ROMANCE IN bIBERIA. Now and again a slight lifting of the vi-il which hides the gloomy life of the wretched exile bejond the Siberian f.outier shows ns how pathetic is the 'alternation of joy and sorrow in 'he political convict’s existence. A Tobolsk journal briefly describes the marriage ceremony between a former Ku'ssian officer, condemned to ]0 yarns’ 'hard labour in the mines and lifelong bainishment, and a yonug and bean ifal| girl possessing an ample fortune,'fti her; own right, who had faithfully and wearily followed the foo'steps of her lover, j The bridegroom w*s brought to the altar ol the prison chapel in tbo soiled sgrey , clothes of a miner, his ankles bound by ‘chains livetted to the iron waistband. The marriage ceremony over, husband and wife bade each other a sad: but hopeful farewell—he to return to his .gloomy, toilsome life, and she to .wait wearily until her husband obtains th« freedom of a colonist. What the Tobolsk journal does not tell u# is jbow uncertain is the prospect that the convict bridegroom will ever survive the cruel hardships of his term of labor in ih»* mines. Knowing, also, what we do of Siberian penal settlements and the raor« s of their admihistrators we are left to our own reflections as to the added torture of mind this wretched convict must endure through fears for his young wife’s safety. .