Show A SIBERIAN EXILE 4 A POLISH AMERICANS HORRIBLE experience IN RUSSIA RUMA A ate in the tb polish army fighting against the car he ho ivas tt captured I 1 and sentenced to tho the allot mine of f Sl siberia leria I 1 A Dep deplata cata fight tight pursuing the peaceful occupation of a brewery manager in thi chii city Is a well known citizen upon hose head a good price Is set het by ahe d he russian government and whose factory has all the horrors of and more intensity than the narrative of george hennan concerning the siberian exiles theodore cender bender manager of the cooperative brewery is a well known south side bide resident he ile walked into attorney bauders office last week cold morning he said by way ot of greeting tes yes responded the lawyer theres There 9 a touch of 0 siberia in this siberia ha lia ha ha hal laughed mr fr den bender v ivi could give you a few points upon that he ile was urged arged to tell his story and he be did 60 at about the time the civil war was raging la in this country the inhabitants inhabitant s of poland made their lant determined stand tor for freedom bender wag was a boy of eighteen years in 1661 1861 he entered the polish army and for a year and ft a halt half did not know what it was to sleep under a root roof in three great battles which were fought here he received wounds the troop of which he was a member was surrounded by the czars azars forces and a siege began the provisions of the besieged were exhausted and they were compelled to kill their horses for meat mr fr bender bays mys that young horseflesh Is as sweet as chicken after untold privations a break for liberty was made A bullet struck bender in the back of his head bead and he be tumbled from his horse home he remembered nothing until he recovered consciousness in a hospital when he had partially recovered helas he was confined nine months in jail A FIGHT WITH GUARDS no trial was given him but ho he was sentenced to twenty five years at hard labor in the mines of siberia in the nine months of his imprisonment he was allowed very little food and barely sufficient water to drink he ile asked for water to wash in but was refused and the slime of the cell was In crusted over his s skin kin and clothing finally he lie with over SOO prisoners men I 1 comeri and children were started for siberia under guard of sixty soldiers lie ile tramped through the snow for seven months every day some of the weaker ones fell from exhaustion they were I 1 placed on sledges which the other prisoners were compelled to drag at some of the villages the inhabitants took pity on them and gave the prisoners covering for their exposed feet food and I 1 water at other places the inhabitants pelted belted them with dirt and filth the soldiers I 1 offered them no protection at I 1 civilization having been left behind and escape being deemed impossible I 1 the chaine by which the convicts had been I 1 bound in pairs were removed in the prison 1 pen at this point the horrors endured by the prisoners are scarcely describable vermin t attacked them with the ferocity of I 1 hunger some of the creatures le it Is declared I 1 were as large around as an ordinary t I 1 lead pencil and half an inch long and they covered the ceiling walls and bunks completely I 1 ely one night of such existence added to the I 1 suffering buffering of the exiles in the previous pe ious seven months decided a number of the more t hardy of the men they realized that of those who endured the march few would survive the expiration of their sentence I 1 and a general agreement was entered into to attack the soldiers and escape or dio die in the attempt the exiles had no arms while the soldiers carried rifles and other effective weapons sticks stones and even bare fists were to be b employed by the desperate rebels to secure their freedom they waited until the train reached a spot where the underbrush was thick then eighty of the men dropped their heir burdens and rushed upon the soldiers some were trampled down at once by tho the horses I 1 others fell under the murderous fire poured into their midst by the solda soldiers irs as soon as they could bring their dunsto guns to bear A remarkable REMAL KABLE ESCAPE in all thirty or forty of the exiles were left dead upon the ground about twenty after alternately fighting and running tor for two hours got into the brush and left their purr pursuers mers behind the little band scattered to make pursuit more difficult A halt half dozen among whom v as bender kept together they skulked and starved for four months and seven days ai avoiding the towns and picking up a precarious living until the german frontier was reached in safety they were w ere kindly treated by the german people and bender spent three months in the empire assistance reached him from friends in new york and he took passage arriving here july 4 aw being well educated and intelligent ho he found nd no difficulty in securing employment and la is now well to do he ile has not of boase course ever dared venture v back to russia where the police would enforce severe punishment upon him for his escape he ile learned after his bis arrival that his father was a convict at the mines and later heard of his death there mr bender married after his arrival in this city elty his ills wife wag was a polish girl she had bad been possessed of information concerning a plot to again rebel against the rule of the czar she wits w as arrested and required to divulge all she knew she refused to give the information which would lead to the death or transportation of fifty or sixty of the conspirators and was sent to prison for a year and five months she was as starved and tortured in the filthy periodically she was subjected to examinations but invariably professed her entire ignorance ot 0 any conspiracy the russian of ficiala finally became convinced that she knew nothing and let her go she was required to take an oath that she would return to her home but did not hold herself bound by the extorted promise and came to america where slie she met mr fr bender Be benders riders experience la is barely outlined here the details are many of the them 1 I too shocking for print he ile declares that ken nans picture of life in siberia la Is not overdrawn cleveland world |