Alfred Edmund Brehm

“ Yes, a new era has dawned over Siberia, and along the highways famous for "sighs, where night and day, with the frightful clang of chains, with lamentations, groans, and agony, the prisoners were driven on by the cruel knout," are now wending free men, joyous with hope, with their families and goods, going to build up a more comfortable home than the old one in the rich fields of the Southeast. ”

“ I can readily and with perfect conviction declare that, among the educated Russians of Russia, there are manifest a spirit of progress and a striving after better and higher things such as exist nowhere else, and that many of them afford rare examples of magnanimity and generosity. If we consider it from a purely geographical point of view, we shall find that Siberia is in no way, as a whole, a land of misery and terror. It is true that away up in the north are the immense ice-fields and the high moors, and the short, insignificant vegetation of the tundra does not offer an attractive picture ”

“ In bright contrast with the stereotyped complaints of the farmers concerning the too thick population is the fact that they are all proud of having a numerous progeny. The farmer loves his land, his cattle, his summer and fall, but he loves above everything a large family, while, notwithstanding his prejudice against strangers, he lives in the perfect conviction that the country needs men, and he governs his conduct accordingly. In every other country in the world there are foundling-hospitals; in Russia they are numerous, but in Siberia there are none. ”

“ I had already been told in Russia that prosperity was generally prevailing in Siberia, and shone in strong contrast with Russian poverty, and I am again obliged to say here that even Russian poverty is not so repulsively conspicuous as the misery in the German factory and mining districts. I do not go too far in asserting that the Siberians lead a happy life; and the best evidence in confirmation of this opinion is found in the fact that the idea of an independent Siberia, not attached to Russia, has already begun to dawn in a few speculative minds. ”

“ It is really impossible to treat the chimpanzee like an animal; his character and general behavior show so much of humanity that men are induced to commune with him in the same way as with their equals. In captivity he is perfectly conscious of his position, and subordinates himself willingly to the superior mental gifts and capacities of mankind, but holds himself better and higher than other animals, especially than other monkeys. Paying in every instance high regard to men, he likes children if they do not tease and molest him. ”

“ When in other countries the doors of the prison close upon a condemned man, the world is no more to him—all connection between him and his is severed; while to the Russian prisoner is left the comfort of his family, a strong anchor that holds his heart fast against the tumult of his sufferings. The released miner goes with his family to the settlement which has been designated for him. He has nothing but the bare land, his own strong will, and his energy inured to suffering. The village must extend a hand to him and advance the means for setting up an independent establishment. ”

“ Men have strong, well-shaped legs, walk constantly in an erect posture, and enjoy the faculty of speech.
The monkeys rank near humanity in the general organization of the world; they show in many instances much likeness with mankind, physically as well as intellectually. But a further concession would be a denial of positive natural laws. Nay! old Adam was not a monkey, not a baboon, not even a chimpanzee! ”

“ The company make choice of some leafless tree, which they climb with great dignity. Each member takes his place as he pleases, but one large bough is reserved for the exclusive use of the leader, who paces it to and fro, solemnly raising his tail, and begins to utter low sounds, similar to the grunt of a young hog. ”

“ Even if the physical and intellectual development and perfection of humanity throughout the succession of thousands of centuries is a fact, there is no authority for the inference that, eo ipso, a monkey-nest was the cradle of mankind.
Darwin's treatise on the variation of species gave rise to the ardent controversy of our days. Darwin used the wrong word. It is not "species" he ought to have said, but "varieties"; for species never interbreed with each other. Man and monkey, though belonging to the same group, represent two distinct species. ”

“ At once the old males rallied and faced the dogs, forming a wide semicircle, roaring, grinning, and furiously beating the ground with their hands. Their threatening attitude and spiteful glances frightened the hounds, which recoiled in amazement. The monkeys took advantage of this momentary failure of our animals and retreated in haste. ”

“ Every one treating him kindly he looked upon as a personal friend. He never felt more comfortable than when he was admitted to the family circle and allowed to move freely around, and open and shut doors, while his joy was boundless when he was assigned a place at the common table, and the guests admired his natural wit and practical jokes. ”

“ WHOEVER associates with the name of Siberia the idea of a vast prison is involved in as great an error as the person who conceives the country as an icy desert or an interminable tundra. The tundras, whose icy fields form a prominent feature in the polar regions, with the stunted vegetation of their southern parts, are no myths, nor is it a fiction that the Russian Government, following the example of France and England, has adopted a system of penal colonies, and has planted them in Siberia. But by far the larger part of this immense territory has been spared the presence of convicts ”

“ The alouattes are not poor climbers, but they never take bold jumps, and always keep their hold by the tail till their hands have grasped the next limb, and this makes them slaves to the trees. They seldom venture upon the ground or on rocks. The howling monkeys herd in troops and follow slowly and awkwardly in the steps of their leader, whose slightest movements are imitated by every individual. ”

“ When we consider that many children are mingled with the crowd, we can easily conceive what horrible scenes besides the physical torments are enacted there, and how brutalizing must be the impression they make upon young and old. In such cases the reproach of inhumanity against the government is fully justified, and it is not spared, for I have frequently heard the officers condemn the decrees of the courts. The journey by steamer requires ten times less time, but it is also ten times worse, more degrading, and more barbarous than the march on foot. ”

“ The contrasts between the positions which released prisoners may attain in Siberia and the offense which led to their exile are frequently quite comical. The child-murderer becomes a trusted nurse, the burglar an overseer, the thief a confidential servant! But a practical Christianity is exercised toward the fallen one. The Government and private persons rival one another in pointing out and clearing the way of reform for the wanderer. ”

“ It is a recognized fact that misery and wickedness pain the eye and the heart and provoke erroneous and unjust statements; particularly when, as is the case with the majority of the exiles in question, the conditions are complicated with politics. The situation of the ordinary exiles in the mines and of the settled convicts is relatively much better than that of the miners who are laboring under the despotism of capital in Germany. If one has no especial back-sets in Siberia, if he can and will work, he will be able under all ordinary circumstances to earn a most comfortable living there. ”

“ Great sympathy is felt in Siberia with the prisoners, who are never called by any other name than "unfortunates." Every one gives readily, and recollects that he himself, perhaps, or his father or grandfather, may have made the journey thither under similar circumstances. On the whole, transportation on foot is now quite well conducted. Such a journey can not be called a pleasure trip, but it does not in any way bear the stamp of inhumanity and the terrible character which the sensational reports would impute to it. ”

“ In the morning, when all the rest of nature is rejoicing in the new-born daylight, the troop of howling monkeys will descend gravely from the leafy tree where they have passed the night, closely gather in a huddled crowd, and, having secured some breakfast, will proceed to indulge in a kind of social entertainment which is as exempt from frivolity and impropriety as it well can be, but which well reflects the character of the participants. ”

“ The convict lives free and un watched, alone or with his family, and the only limitation of freedom imposed upon him consists in his being always shackled with chains, whether at work or at recreation, by day and by night, and in his never being allowed to go out of the bounds that are assigned to him. ”

“ The result of this inexorable popular justice is, that hardly any thieves are to be found in Siberia, and that no country enjoys greater security than this colony of criminals. But, one may ask, "Are not the people punished who execute this lynch-law?" It must be remembered that the mining district embraces an area at least five times as large as that of the State of New York, that the population is relatively small, and that in most cases no one cares for slain fugitives. ”

“ Every eatable thing suits monkeys—fruits, onions, roots, seeds, nuts, leaves, insects, eggs, young birds, snails—and they enjoy generally a copious, free board. Their notions concerning property are very defective. "We plant and the apes harvest," says the Arab of Eastern Soudan, with his natural apathy in the presence of facts and events that he can not prevent. Does not the monkey show in this a pronounced analogy with mankind who, since the existence of the world, though under severe penal legislation, find it so hard a task to observe the difference between mine and thine? ”

“ It can not be denied that the transported persons, so far as they do not work in the mines, are subjected to a very strong restraint, but it is in no respect more severe than that which is imposed in the houses of correction of our highly civilized lands. Siberia is regarded by the mass of readers as a country full of discomfort and misery, and it is very hard to controvert that view. It is too much the fashion to consider the Russians as barbarians, and to accuse them of inhumanity. ”

“ There is, consequently, a simple and irrefragable natural law refuting peremptorily the thesis of the enthusiastic propugnators of the pedigree rooting somewhere amid a grinning tribe gamboling in the wild forests of Asia or Africa. The criterion that the human race has large, round hands and blunt canine teeth would be sufficient of itself to establish the truth that no monkey-blood is pulsating in our veins ”

“ Real prisons with locks and walls are comparatively rare in Siberia, and form in all cases, unless the positively evil disposition of the convict prolongs his stay, a transitional abode between the unlimited freedom he enjoyed before his offense and the limited freedom that follows his sentence. Offenders are not cast into narrow cells for the full term of their punishment, but go around free after a short confinement, and are supported by the contributions of their former colleagues, while they are afforded full opportunity to found a new existence. ”

“ I took one of these baboons—it was a female—along to my home in Germany, because she had always proved to be of extraordinary sagacity, and actually exhibited a far greater intelligence than the average of the countrywomen of Thuringia, where I was living. Apes in general like other creatures, provided they submit to their caressing and fondling. My baboon at first concentrated her tenderness upon the children of the village, but, to her great sorrow, found no reciprocity. Then she turned to cats and dogs, and teased and tormented them in every way. ”

“ Finally, the prisoner has reached his destination, either alone or with his wife and children, and is allotted accordingly a larger or smaller hut for a dwelling—I am speaking particularly of those who had been condemned to death. The chains are not taken off from his hands and feet, but he must work with them on. It often happens that he dies shortly—that is his luck; or that he will not accommodate himself to the situation, and leads a wretched existence, and finally goes to ruin, unless he has energy enough left to escape. ”

“ Heaven is high and the Czar rich, but we have nothing to fear, for we are in Siberia." Not the farmers alone, but the officers also, are inflated with this air of freedom, and not unfrequently may we hear from the mouth of one of the latter such words as, "If you want to see slaves, you must go back over the Ural into Russia, where their home is." And these people speak with truth, for, although serfdom is legally abolished in Russia, it continues to exist in fact, even among the mercantile classes. ”

“ Among other mammifers the female element wields the scepter in family life, but in the realm of apes the male is invested with the sovereign power, not by general suffrage, but by the right of force. The oldest and strongest male of a troop proclaims himself chief and leader, after having vanquished all his competitors, viz., the rest of the senior males. The longest teeth and the strongest arms decide in the question of supremacy. All those who show some reluctance to submit are chastised till they come to political reason. To the strongest belongs the crown ”

“ One of the senior males, a strong, powerful individual, started from the other side of the valley, advanced quietly toward the block, pride and mischief shining in his eyes, marched straight to the hounds, which trembled under his vicious glances and threatening gesticulations, climbed the stone, fondled the young one, put it on his back and calmly returned, while we were standing there all startled. ”

“ Those who have been condemned to death, and had their sentences commuted to exile, are bound with chains and all sent together to the mines of the Altai. Formerly the convicts were driven in gangs, chained about two feet apart. So at least I have read and heard it generally believed. I was once myself a witness of a spectacle of this kind, but it was not in Russia nor in Siberia, but in Olmütz, in Austria, in the year of grace 1872. The worst part of the journey is when the steamers come into requisition. They are long boats with a high deck, designed to carry six hundred persons at once. ”