Identifier: sidelightsonsibe00simp Title: Side-lights on Siberia; some account of the great Siberian railroad, the prisons and exile system; Year: 1898 (1890s) Authors: Simpson, James Young, 1873-1934 Subjects: Prisons -- Soviet Union Exiles -- Russia (Federation) Siberia Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel Publisher: Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: t by that padlocked gate, and the hut was well protectedby its ample case. One stooped in crossing the threshold,which lay on the left of the front exposure as you face thehouse, and thereafter became aware of a short passage thatended to all appearance in a recess. But off the right thereopened the single chamber of this house,—the home of himwhose memory is still revered. A window not 2 feet square admits through its dull glasswhat rays of light can penetrate the thick branches of thesurrounding trees and bend under the eaves of the protectingedifice. In the corner immediately to the left of the door is INTERIOR OF THE RETREAT. 121 the whitewashed brick stove, along a wing of which is placeda plank-bed with pillow to match. This is so arranged thatthe head is next the wall, and is of such a breadth that ittakes up almost all the spare room between the stove properand the door. From the free end of the stove to the oppositewall extends a shelf, now crowded with relics of the former

Text Appearing After Image: The home of Theodore Kiizmiteh. resident. On it you may see some sacred literature, the cowland garments of an anchorite, cooking utensils of the simplestquality—china cups, a metal teapot curiously enough, and aspoon. The wall above the bench is hidden by numerousportraits of the great monarch Alexander I., whom oneimagines to have been, perhaps, the special hero of the late 122 MONARCH OR MONK? A LEGEND OF TOMSK. occupant of this room, or, as is more likely, the reigningmonarch of his time. But these pictures differ from those inany ordinary Eussian house in this, that they represent theEmperor at different periods of his life. The apparent designof this hero-worshipper has been to collect as complete aseries as possible of the object of his adoration. Onesketch supposed to represent the monarch in death is par-ticularly striking, and you wonder why there is placed along-side of it the picture of an older man also in his last longsleep; and as you gaze at the two, you almost fancy

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