Boston Evening Transcript from Boston, Massachusetts • 16

16 BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT, SATUBDAY, JANUARY 18, 1896 SIXTEEN PAGES. VAMPIRES IN RHODE ISLAND TERRIBLE PRISONS. Where the French Are Behind the Times. "SERGIUS STEPNIAK. The Story of the Famous Russian Exile.

these stifling chambers Is execrable. Fro quentty, on arrival, they are half dead from fatigue and hunger, but they actually fare far worse In prison than upon the march. Coarse brown bread and shtchl, a thin soup made from cabbages, are the two principal articles of prison diet. The former Is thrown to them as to dogs, and as the rations are never sufficient to satisfy all a fierce fight for a morsel of food usually results. Men ravenously hungry struggle with one another to secure bread, while those too 111 to move are neglected and are left In corners to die.

The mortality In this prison Is enormous. As regards the dress of convicts, they are furnished with uniforms before leaving the capital, but if they perform the journey on foot they are in rags long before they reach Tomsk, and when they arrive the majority are almost shoeless and do not possess sufficient clothing to protect them from the intense cold. Clothing la only served out at stated Intervals, and those who wear out their shoes or coats are compelled to go without them until the next clothing day arrives. Those whose destination is Sakhalin are usually provided with new clothes at Tomsk, whereas those leaving for the Nertchlnsk district continue their journey in the same ragged uniform which they have worn on the Journey across European Russia. The vice and Immorality resulting from the Indiscriminate crowding together, night and day, of men, women and children.

Is horrible. So limited Is the accommodation In this prison that, although female prisoners are supposed to occupy another portion of the building, these cells are always full to overflowing and the remainder are put Into the kameras with the men. The position of women in the prisons and at the mines Is indeed terrible. By bribing the Cossacks with a rouble or two any prisoner can visit the female kameras. Enough has already been written regarding the horrors of the quicksilver mines where many of the convicts, after descending, do not again see the light of day until they are brought up to die.

Work in these mines Is nothing short of slow death by torture, as It Is Impossible to live underground for a longer period than four to five years, and many succumb In a much shorter time. Owing to the action of the metal upon the human system the hair falls off, the teeth drop out, and thO body Is racked by acute pains, which cause swelling of the Joints and intense agony. In the early days of the transportation system politics! suspects were tried by a court of five senators, specially appointed by the czar, but at the present time no trial is necessary, or if there Is trial the sentence is always for life. A suspect arrested, for example, at Moscow or Odessa, Is now conveyed at once to St. Petersburg, there kept In solitary confinement In the fortress for six months, and then, without even being informed of tha charge against him, sent with a convoy of all sorts and conditions of men and women to Siberia, there to drag out an existence which Is worse than death.

In innumerable instancee men and women are arrested and suffer the penalty merely because they have excited the animosity of some petty official, or more frequently the latter pretends that a propaganda Is being carried on in his district, and makes Indiscriminate arrests in the hope that his vigilance will be rewarded by promotion. Such was Siberia as Volkhovsky saw it. Such It Is today. Despite al professions of Improvement, the Russian penal system remains the same, and will, until the work undertaken by Stepnlak and bis colleagues Is carried to completion. Kakl vox Deixzi.

decay In their graves, being under the ban of the Greek Church. The cheerful notion was that they got out of their graves at night and pursued the occupation of ghouls. The superstition as to ghouls Is very ancient, and undoubtedly of Oriental origin. Generally speaking, however, a ghoul is Just the opposite of a vampire, being a living person who preys on dead bodies, while a vampire Is a dead person that feeds on the blood of the living. If you had your choice, which would you rather be, a vampire or a ghoul? One of the most familiar of the stories of the Arabian Nights tells of a woman who annoyed her husband very much by refusing food.

Nothing more then a few grains of rice would she eat at meals. He discovered that she was In the habit of stealing away from his side In the night, and, following her on one such occasion, he found her engaged In digging up and devouring a corpse. Among the numerous folk-tales about vampires is one relating to a fiend named Dakanavar, who dwelt in a cave In Armenia. He would not permit anybody to penetrate Into the mountains of Ulmlah Altotem or to count their valleys. Everyone who attempted this had In the night the blood sucked by the monster from the soles of his feet until he died.

At lost, however, he was outwitted by two cunning fellows. They began to count the valleys, and when night came, they lay down to sleep, taking care to place themselves with the feet of each under the head of the other. In the night the monster came, felt as usual, and found a head. Then he felt at the other end, and found a head there also. Well! cried he, I have gone through all of the SfiO valleys of these mountains, and have sucked the blood of people without end, but never yet did I find one with two heads and no feet!" So saying, he ran away, and never more was seen in that country, but ever since the people have known that the mountains have 800 valleys.

Belief In tbe vampire bats is more modern. For a long time it was ridiculed by science as a delusion, but It has been proved to be founded correctly on fact. It was the famous naturalist Darwin who settled this question. One night he was camping with a party near Coquimbo in Chile, and It happened that a servant noticed the restlessness of one of the horses. The man went up to the horse and actually caught a bat in the act of sucking blood from the flank of the animal.

It Is only recently that exact knowledge has been obtained on this Interesting subject. Wheras many kinds of bats have been Ignorantly accused of the blood-sucking habit, only one species Is really a vampire. It constitutes a genus all by itself. Just as a man Is the only species of the genus homo, so the vampire bat is the only species of the genus desmodus. Fortunately, it Is not very large, having a spread of only two feet.

This Is not much for a bat. The so-called flying foxes" of the Old World, which go about In flocks and ravage orchards, are of much greater size, and there Is a bat of Java, known as the kalong, that has a spread of five feet from wing-tip to wing-tip. The body of the true vampire bat weighs only a few ounces. The stories formerly told of this bat were appalling. Indeed.

Acoordlng to report. It was accustomed to come silently by night and search for the exposed toes of a sound sleeper. Its Instinct told it when an Intended victim was In deep slumber. Poising Kself above the feet of Its prey and fanning them with Its extended wings, it produced a cool atmosphere which In a hot climate aided In soothing the sleeper to a yet more profound repose. Then It applied Its needle-Ilke teeth to the foot, and Inserted them Into the tip of a toe with such adroitness that no pain was caused by the tiny wound.

Its Ups were then brought Into action, and the blood was sucked until the bat was full. Then It disgorged the blood just taken and began afresh, continuing to feed and disgorge alternately until the person attacked perished ftom sheer loss of the vital fluid. No wonder that naturalists were disposed to reject a story of this kind. It was a gross 'exaggeration of the fact, but there was truth behind it. The bat does suck the blood of animals, and of human beings when It can get at them, but the bites are not fatal and usually cause little Inconvenience.

The creature almost Invariably selects the foot as the point of attack In a human being. At the same time. It seems to have a very capricious taste. One person may sleep In the open air with impunity where vampire bats are numerous, while another will be wounded almost nightly. A naturalist named Waterton, being enthusiastic for personal Investigation, slept In an open loft for eleven months, occupying a hammock.

The vampires entered the loft every night by dozens, but not one of them ever attacked him. Yet an Indian, sleeping a few -yards away, suffered frequently from their bites. A young English lad In the same house was bitten one night with such severity that the wound bled until morning. Fowls on the premises were attacked and killed by the bats, and an unfortunate jackass died by Inches from loss of blood. The vampire bat ranges through tropical America as far north as southern Mexico.

It is plentifully distributed over Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Nearly everywhere In that part of the world the bloodsucking bats are very numerous, and It Is not surprising that natives and whites should dread them greatly. With singular audacity they creep into houses and seek the exposed feet of any sleeping occupant who has neglected to draw the coverlet over his legs. When they attack quadrupeds, the creatures generally fix themselves upon the shoulders or flanks. Cattle which have passed the night In pastures are apt to be found in the morning with flanks and shoulders covered with bitea The vampire bat Is mouse-colored.

In many respects it Is notably unlike other kinds of bata In each Jaw it has two teeth of a very remarkable shape, being specially adapted for making Incisions In the flesh. Its intestine Is very short, because blood Is easily digested. Most bats are very awkward on the ground and never, unless compelled, place themselves on a level surface. Vampires, on the other hand, are able to run as swiftly as rats, while they fly through the sir as easily as any bird. Rkke Bachs, Ha Was tha Son of a Prince, and Hla Real Name Was Serge Mikhailovich Kravchinsky Some of Hit Sayings and Doings The Horror of the Siberian Exile.

The untimely defLth of Stepnlak" removes from the world the greatest Russian since Ivan Turgueneff. Doubtless that estimate will be challenged. There are those who reckon Tolstoi a far greater man, and others who would give that distinction to various statesmen, diplomats and generals. Chacun a son gout. No one, not Tolstoi at his best, writes with finer literary skill than Stepnlak.

No one has more power he fully affected the current of Russian thought and action. No one has so much opened the very heart of Russia to the view and to the sympathy of the world. There may he those who think of Stepnlak as a mere Nihilist, a would-be. If not an actual, murderer, criminal. That Is a great mistake.

He was a high-minded, humane, generous reformer, a true patriot and philanthropist, who will one day be revered as such all over the world. For many years this man's real name was unknown to the public, and even to this day there are many curious errors concerning it. Tho day after his death I saw an obituary sketch of him In a leading English paper, which stated that he was really BergJus Michael Dragomanoff, and It related the story of his earlier career as euch. The fact Is, Dragomanoff was a very different man, a college professor, who died at Sophia, Bulgaria, more than a year ago. Others say that.

Stepntak's Identity has never been disclosed. That, too; Is a gross error. Five or six years ago he cast off the veil of secrecy, and let it be known, to all who cared to know It. that his true name was Serge Mikhailovich Kravchinsky. another curious notion Is that he was a sort of half-breed, from the 'statement that his father was a "White Russian" and his mother a Ukraine woman.

That statement Is true, but must not be misinterpreted. Both his parents were pure Russians. A White Russian" means simply a- man of White Russia, or Western Russia; and a Ukraine woman is a woman of the Ukraine, or Little Russia. They are both of the same race, and of absolutely pure Russian blood. Stepnlaks family was noble.

Ills father had the rank of prince. That does not mean a member of the Imperial family, of course, nor Is It a title of very great distinction. Princes in Russia are about as plentiful and as distinguished as counts In Poland, and squires in England, and lairds In Soot land, and oolonela in Kentucky. Nevertheless, this family was one of culture, and wealth, and social and political influence. Stepnlak was born In the Ukraine about forty-three years ago, and was educated for a military career.

He served. Indeed, for some time In the artillery. But he was early Impressed with the wretchedness prevailing among the teeming millions of the Ukraine, which Is at once the most fertile and most densely populated part of the empire. Presently he determined to devote his life to the service of his fellow-countrymen, If by any moans he could improve their condition. It was In the army that he began his propagandist efforts on behalf of this vast chained democracy; and it was to the army that he long looked with especial hope for aid.

He was one of the first of the effective missionaries to the peasantry, one of that devoted band of cultured and well-born men and women, who. sacrificing every worldly prospect, went to live In the villages to help the moujlk to rise to his opportunities and to spread the seeds of democratic thought. Like many another he was arrested on uapictlon while so engaged; that was In the summer of 1974. IIo was sent to the nearest prison under guard, but managed on the way to win to his aids one of his custodians, who aided him to escape. He then reached Odessa, where hs was harbored by tho heroic partner of his later, as of his earlier struggles.

Felix Volkhovsky. Stepnlak was at this time only twenty-two years of age, and had Just begun writing for the people such political and social tracts as his famous Story of a Penny." He was, of course, after his escape from prison an "illegal man," an outlaw, moving about with a borrowed passport, or with none at alL It Is typical of his sincerity and Indomitable courage that though, he had often to adopt disguises he would never alter his facial appearance. As the "White Terror" of the final years of Alexander II. reached Its height all hope of anything like constitutional propaganda was crushed out violently, and the awful era which culminated In the murder of the czar was ushered In. Stepnlak affected especially by the news of prison tortures and outrages upon old comrades threw himself Into the hideous combat with ail the fire of a new Prometheus, and all the capacity of a horn conspirator.

The time haa not even yet come when the story of his expedition to St. Petersburg, and his operations there in 1875 and 1870, can he fully told. He It was who organised the escape of Prince Kropotkin from the dreaded fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul; he It was who arranged the romantic but fruitless attempt to rescue Volkhovsky In the streets of Odessa.

In a campaign of vengeance though vengeance In the name of outraged humanity a man of so much resource; yet of such genuine moral worth, could not but make himself felt. He became one of the leading members of the Revolutionary party, was entrusted with Its most desperate ventures and Its closest secrets such as the whereabouts of Its wonderful printing office. In the heart of the capital, and under the very nose of tho Third Section. In 1877 he had become so urgently wanted" by the police that a short period of quarantine In Geneva waa considered advisable; and at last, when the Terrorist period had culminated, and after being Implicated In one of the most dangerous and daring affairs of the Revolutionary campaign. It became a question of choice between capture and emigration.

On the pressure of his colleagues, Stepnlak chose to leave the country and devote himself henceforth to rousing tho Western world to sympathy with the victims of the autocracy. The English and American Societies of Friends of Russian Freedom are tangible evidence of the success of this enterprise. To the world at large, Stepnlak is well known by hla writings, which are notable both for their literary excellence and their political significance. His best-known work The Parlor City OF FLORIDA So called because of hs cleanliness and beauty, is Is Underground Russia," which he wrote after going Into exile In 1880. About the same time, several other minor sketches.

Then came "The Russian Peasantry, Russia Under the Tsars," The Russian Storm-Cloud," a novel called The Career of a Nihilist, which was to some extent as It Is" a transla-. tlon of some of his Russian pamphlets, with an Introduction by Dr. Spence Watson and "King Log and King Stork: A 8tudy of Modern Russia. The last-named work was Issued only the other day, and It gives the most accurate view extant of the ripened convictions of Its author on the destinies of Russia, and shows the modifying effect upon his opinion as to methods which consideration of various other Influences, including English sympathy, has brought. Stepnlak was a great lover of art.

A few years ago. In conversation with a visitor at his humble house in the outskirts of London, he exclaimed: Ah, music, painting, poetry! those are Indeed what I would devote my time to. Perhaps we cant judge, hut I feel that If circumstances had not pushed me Into this whirlpool of political life, I should havo been a poet. Here are my favorite hooks and he turned and laid his hand quietly on two or three volumes of Russian poetry that were on the corner of the mantlepiece, nearest his writing desk. And then he said, sadly: I get little time now to read what I most enjoy novels and poetry; for I am a very slow Even newspaper articles and the lighter sort of literary work I go over several times, while more serious works, such as Important chapters of my books, I have cut and pruned, and copied and recopted fourteen or fifteen times.

It Is nt the language that troubles me; for It Is the same If I am writing Russian. It is the arrangement of the Ideas, tha sequence of the thought which I am now trying to Improve and make mors clear and striking, that eat up the time." He was fond of English and American literature. Among poets, he said, after Shakspeare, I consider Shelley the best, excepting perhaps one of the modern Italian poets, Honavre. So iquch of the real beauty of a poem is lost If you are not entirely at home In the language, the rhythm Is so destroyed If ones awkward foreign tongue gives a single wrong accent, that I feel none but the fellow countrymen of a poet can judge or truly appreciate him. For this reason I am more devoted to English prose than poetry, and In prose my favorite field is the novel.

Of all American writers, he preferred Emerson. He sees," he said, deep into human nature. I am especially fond of his English traits. Leaving quits apart his Interesting philosophy and suggestion, beautiful style, simply judging by the ability to convey to another facts that give real Insight Into national character, I find that one paragraph of Emersons book Is worth the whole of Max O'ReU's on English life." Stepnlak was a very hard worker. He spent ten or twelve hours every day at his desk.

Usually he began work at half-past eight or nine; and kept at it till two, when he had dinner. Then he went at It again until half-past seven, when supper was served. After supper, he would work for two or three hours That was his dally routine, year after year. He took little exercise, seldom even going for a walk. Ono might naturally expect to see this voluntary prisoner bent, with lagging gait, and shrivelled, sallow skin.

Not at all. Ho was broad shouldered, erect man, of nearly six feet, carrying his massive head proudly with Its shock of dark-brown crinkled hair. The complexion was olive, and no color was in the cheeks. But this did not come from lack of health. He had what you might call a lion-like countenance, with a broad, high forehead, eyes bright and far 'apart, the usual flat Russian nose, and a curly brown beard.

He never used tobacco or any alcoholic drinks, simply because he did not like tho taste of them, but he consumed vast quantities of tea and coffee. Stepnlaks wife Is a dainty little creature, a typical Parislenne In manner and ap-pearanca Their limited means threw the burden and toil of housekeeping upon her, and thus prevented her from developing her literary ability. This fate she bore cheerfully, though she wished they might leave cold, foggy London, and lived in her much-loved Paris. She also wished that they might have children; a dosen of them," she once declarde. But that blessing was denied them.

A few years ago Stepnlak clearly set forth his political opinions and aspirations In an article In a leading English review: With the existing constitution of parties In Russia only two courses of events are possible either political terrorism on all sides, or a social revolution of tbe starving and desperate masses of the population. There is only one way of escape from this dilemma that the revolution shall convert an Integral part of the Government, that Is to say, of the army, the ministry, the imperial family itself, or the officials nearest the throne. Without abandoning this latter hope, he had lived to see a widening of the revolutionary movement, with a corresponding abatement of its violence. And with this opening prospect he was able. In the last days of his life, to welcome the partial endeavors of the Liberal Opposition.

Its programme," be said. Is not ours; but we wish It Godspeed, because It Is exactly on the same lines sa ours, only stopping a little short In Its aim. And our sympathies are not passiva It is on Important and most promising sign of the times that the two sections of the Opposition are working hand In hand. The Nihilists, the Revolutionists, have printed abroad the Liberal addresses, and are spreading them in thousands of copies among the Russians, and nobody was warmer in their praises of the civil courage and patriotism of Liberals. Our friends are taking the' same attitude In Russia." He was killed, as announced, by a train at a railroad crossing, close by his own house, while on his way to a conference of his friends at the house of Felix Volhovsky.

The latter Is well known for his exposure of the horrors of convict life In Siberia, with which he became familiar by several yehrs of personal experience. He has given an appalling, but not at all exaggerated account of the great forwarding prison" at Tomsk, which Is about as much like hell as any place on the surface of the globe. With the exception of the few prisoners who remain In the province of Tobolsk, tha whole of the exiles, numbering from 18,000 to 20,000 annually, pass through this prison between May and September, en route for the mines beyond Lake Baikal, tha Island of Sakhalin, and the various other settlements. The majority of the convoys perform the whole distance from St. Petersburg on foot, and tho remainder are conveyed by train and barge to Perm, and walk thence to Tomsk.

Small, dirty. Ill-ventilated, and with scarcely and attempt at sanitary arrangement, the prison Is crowded to excess during the five months of warm weather, and consequently typhoid fever Is constantly raging. There Is absolutely no accommodation for the exiles. The kame-ras, or public cells, are long, low rooms, disgustingly dirty. Into which the unfortunate ones are herded like cattle.

Around the walls are wooden shelves about seven fet In width, and upon these the convicts sleep, lying in rows with their heads towards the walls, but without either mattresses, pillows, or bedclothes, as they are never allowed such luxijj-ies, even on their long and weary march from the capital. These kameras are totally unfit for human habitation, and so densely crowded are they that only about half the occupants of each can sleep upon the shelves. The sufferings of the unfortunate ones amid this filth and disease are terrible. The number of deaths from typhoid average about twenty per week, hut often more, and in numberless Instances bodies of convicts who have succumbed to fever have been allowed to remain In the crowded kameras tor several days. Should a convict complain, he Is promptly knouted, and neither sex Is spared this punishment.

No notice Is apparently taken of Invalids, for the room originally Intended an Infirmary has been converted Into a common cell to accommodate the ever-increasing numbers. The food given the Inmates of for one must keep a little piece, at least, for night when you wake up hungry. The canteen service of the prisons of Paris Is all In the same hands; and If It does not pay the contractors handsomely. It is a pity; for It Is hard to Imagine a more dishonorable business. (1.) The Government provides the prisons, pays the warders and clerka (2.) A contractor agrees to feed the prisoners at his own charge in return for the privilege of profiting by their labor.

(3.) Therefore he jobs out their work, be it in making mousetraps, cleaning ostrich feathers, binding cheap books, or what not. The prisoners therefore earn their food, on the face of things. But the law, which Is benevolent even to the criminal, desires more than this for him. It says the prisoner shall be given in money a portion of what he earns. First convictions are to have half what they earn, the other half to go to their nutrition.

Old offenders have three-tenths of what they earn. Furthermore, the money thus due to the prisoner Is to be divided, half to serve his needs for little luxuries while In Jail, half to be saved up 'for him against the time of hla release in order that the State may not be obliged to give him help. Here Is a drain on the contractor. The problem la to get back again the few cents a day forcibly paid to the prisoner. (4.) Therefore the canteen.

In theory It Is a species of cheap prison restaurant, run without profit, destined to sweeten the existence of the unfortunate and encourage him In welldoing. Practically, by thA reduction of the given rations to a loss than life-supporting minimum. It becomes the prisoner's necessity for meat. In the book-binding department, which Is the best paid, the most expert workman can earn only eight cents a day. Of this he may spend four at the canteen.

A veal stew costa six cents. You may believe that the prisoners all work well at the Grande Roquette. By 3.3U P. M. the dinner Is over, and tho prisoners are promenading.

The Grande Roquette is constructed in the style of all old Infantry barracks four narrow buildings form a hollow square, which makes a vast Interior drill court. The Grande Roquette is simply this, with the addition of a wall. In the drill court the prisoners are promenading, four hundred men with hands untied, armed with heavy wooden shoes which are weapons in themselves, not to speak of the heavy files and other tools of the iron and brass-working ateliers. To guard them there are but four guardians and a brigadier. There are not twenty police, guardians and soldiers In the whole establishment.

The French are lovers of economy. The prisoner whose trade In the outside world gives promise of ability to handle papers, without spoiling or soiling them Is put In the book-MndIng workshop; the Inexpert are set at work cleaning ostrich feathers or cutting wire; while others, who appear to be allied to mechanics, are set to filing brass. In the work-si tops they are given places. Initiated to the labor, and then left to struggle clumsily. The hours pass on, the lights are lit, and It Is always work, work, work.

Whispered conversations Instruct the newcomer In this or that. Among table neighbors there Is a certain curiosity to learn what Is going on In the outside world for no one sees newspapers. The newcomer, not yet reduced to the average hungriness, la wheedled out of a portion of his loaf of bread. In return he is shown tricks In skimping work. Such newcomers as have mads appeals, or.

rather. elected to make appeal after their trans-ferrence to the Grande Roquette. are not required to work, but sit Idle. Each borrows a convict's library book, and feels content to lose himself In It. Rut those who know state that It Is a curious sight to see something like a meat food now and then.

7 P. M. sounds, with tho order to stop work. The convict leave regretfully In winter time, but joyfully In summer. Because, In the astounding system of the Grande Roquette, the prisoner has not a moment for reading or other self-improvement except that gained In his aelL These Mils are never lighted.

At seven o'clock In the summer of Paris it will still continue light enough to read for two hours and a half. In winter, on the other hand. It Is dark at half-past four. No difference Is made on account of this at the Depot des CondamnBs of Paris. It is now winter, and they go to bed In the dark, lying on their beds twelve hours out of each twnty-four.

There is nothing else to do, because the cells are too small to walk about In, and It Is too cold to simply sit up and stare into the danuieas. The building Is so damp tha it Is the practice to make up ones bed with the coarse sheets on the ouside, as you can almost wring the water from them. Dampness trickles down tho walls sufficiently to wet your hand. The more knowing resort to making a boat of the bed, which is really a kind of bunk. They take out the slats each night, let the straw mattress down Into a shallow bathtub-like cavity, so protecting themselves from the wind.

The prisoners are unlocked from their ceils at 7 A. M. They do not wash. The towels given to them for that purpose are found to be more conveniently used as mufflers. Congratulating each other on the return of day, the prisoners straggle in a weak-kneed rank past the bread distributor, Into the workshops.

From 7 till 0 A. M. It is work on bread and water. At nine oclock they take soup in the church. It Is vegetable soup, the vegetables being thin slices of turnip, carrots and onions.

In small quantity. Actually it la hot water flavored and made greasy with a certain amount of fat. And then begins another promenade of half an hour. Tho prisoners are back in their workshops. At noon a halt of half an hour la called, for the eating of bread.

Such can-tine delicacies qs tbe more fortunate possess are consuihed at this hour as welL The only distractions are (1) Sunday rest 'when we bore ourselves worse than on other days. In the cold church half the day and marching tha rest with the changing of library books and a few extra hours in which to read them; (2) letter writing and receiving, on Saturdays; (3) visits on Thursdays and Sundays; and (4) tha taking of a purge, on anyday. Thera Is a division of opinion as to this latter distraction. The doctor of the Grande Roquette will give dose of Epsom salts for every malad under the sun, except the itch. Those who by putting themselves on the sick list open themselves to the universal panacea, have the satisfaction of spending a morning away from tha workshop "among the old men," In a long, well-heated room, where hoary-headed criminals sit all day round a stove and grumble, never being asked to work.

The old men get now and then the butt of a cigarette from a good-natured gardlen, so that one may smell tobacco smoke If he Is lucky. When I was shown through tho Grande Roquette, I came upon this living morgue at the very moment when Sail 4, the bloody assassin, was there with the old men, on the morning of hla reprieve. He had been condemned to the guillotine, and the death watch had been set on film. Two soldiers always guarded him, he had tobacco, wine, restaurant food, and playing cards. He had naturally come to look on himself as a person of note, and hla manners, even that morning, were grave, consequential and pathetically funny in their self-importance.

Ha was an elderly man, with a benevolent-looking black beard and silver spectacles. But when the chief warder, to give a treat to the prison inspector and the visitors, sent for the barber, the dignified assassin started, looking rueful. He knew what It meant clipping and shaving; Hla tobacco had already been taken from him, his soldier-guard, his wine, his restaurant food, hla playing cards. He had become pnly a Ufa prisoner, doomed sooner or later to embark for New Caledonia. Now he sat In the barber's chair, and soon the deed was dona He had been a grave and consequential elderly man, with a benevolent beard and silver spectacles.

When he came out he looked like a poor, bald, weak-faced little baby. He tried his spectacles, but divined that they must be lneffectlva He shut them up, and put them In ils pocket. With a sigh he spit at the stove, took a seat on a bench, and became a common convict like tbe others. Brxuuro Hsiuo, Strange Survival of a Grisly Superstition in New England. Respectable People Digging up the Bodies of Defunct Relatives and Burning Their Hearts The Belief Is That Persons Dead of Consumption Leave Their Graves and Suck the Blood of Members of Their Own Families, Dooming Them to a Like Fate-Dozens cf Resurrections Within One Small District in the Last Few Years Some Facts About the Vampire Superstition in Earlier Times.

Special Correspondence of tha Transcript Washington. Jan. 17. Recent ethnological research has disclosed something very extraordinary In Rhode Island. It appears that the ancient vampire superstition still survives In that State, and within the last few years many people have been digging up the bodies of defunct relatives for the purpose of burning their hearts.

In one district comprising half a dosen towns. In the Immediate vicinity of Newport, scores of such exhumations have been made, the purpose being to prevent the dead from preying upon the living. The belief entertained Is that a person who has died of consumption Is likely to rise from the grave at night and suck the blood of surviving members of his or her own family, thut dooming them to a similar fate. The discovery of the survival In highly-educated New England of a superstition dating back to the days of Sardanapalus and Nebuchadnezzar has been made by Mr. George R.

Stetson, an ethnologist of repute, lie has found It rampant In a district which Includes the towns of Exeter, Foster, Kingstown, East Greenwich and many scattered hamlets. This region, where abandoned farms are numerous. Is the tramping ground of the book agent, the chromo pedler and the patent medicine man. The social Isolation away from the larger villages is as complete as it was two centuries ago. Here Cotton Mather and the host of medical, clerical and lay believers In the uncanny Ideas of bygone centuries could still hold high carnival.

Not merely the out-of-the-way agricultural folk, but the more Intelligent people of tho urban communities are strong in their belief In vampirism. One esse noted was that of an intelligent and well-to-do head of a family wpp some years ago lost several of his children by consumption. After they were burled, he dug them up and burned them. In order to save the lives of their surviving brothers and sisters. There is one small village, distant fifteen miles from Newport, where within the last few years there have been at least half a dozen resurrections on this account; The rjt recent was made two years ago.

In family where the mother and four children had already succumbed to consumption. The last of these children was exhumed, and the heart was burned. Another Instance was noted in a seashore town, not far from Newport. 'possessing a summer hotel and a few cottages of hot-weather residents. An Intelligent man, by trade a mason, informed Mr.

Stetson that he had lost two brothers by consumption. On the death of the second brother, his father was advised to take up the body and burn its heart. He refused to do so. and consequently he was attacked by the disease. Finally, he died of It.

His heart was burned, and In this way the rest of the family escaped. This frightful superstition Is said to prevail in all of the isolated districts of southern Rhode Island, and It survives to some extent in the large centres of population. Sometimes the body Is burned, and not merely the heart, the ashes being scattered. In some parts of Europe the belief still has a hold on the popular mind. On the continent, from 1727 to 1733, there prevailed an epidemic of vamplrea Thousands of people died, as was supposed, from having their blood sucked by creatures that came to their bedsides at night with goggling eyes and lips eager for the life fluid of the victim.

In Servla It was understood that the demon might be destroyed by digging up the body and piercing it through with a sharp instrument, after which It was decapitated and burned. Relief was found in eating the earth of the vampire's grave. In the Levant, the corpse was cut to pieces and boiled in wine. There was no hope for a person once chosen as a prey by a vampire. Slowly but surely he or she was destined to fade and sicken, receiving meanwhile nightly visits from the monster.

Even death was no relief, for and here came in the most horrible purt of the superstition the victim. once dead and laid in the grave, was compelled to become a vampire and In his turn to take up the business of preying on the living. Thus vampirism was indefinitely propagated. Realise, If you please, that at that period, when science was hardly born as yet and no knowledge had been spread among the people to fight off superstition, belief In the reality of this fearful thing was absolute. Its existence was officially recognised, and military commissions were appointed for the purpose of opening the graves of suspected vampires and taking such measures as were necessary for destroying the latter.

Vampirism became a plague, more dreaded than any form of disease. Everywhere people were dying from the attacks of the blood-sucking monsters, each victim becoming in turn a night prowler In pursuit of human prey. Terror of the mysterious and unearthly peril filled all hearts. Evidence enough as to the prevalence of the mischief was afforded by the condition of many of the bodies that were dug up by the commissions appointed for the purpose. In many Instances corpses which had been buried for weeks and even months were found fresh and lifelike.

Sometimes fresh blood was actually discovered on their lips. What proof oould be more convincing. Inasmuch, as was well known, the buried body of a vampire Is preserved and nourished by Its nightly repasts. The blood on the lips, of course, was that of the victim the night before. The faith In vampirism entertained by the public at large was as complete as that which is felt In a discovery of modern science.

It was an actual epidemic that threatened the people, spreading rapidly and only to be checked by the adoption of most drastic measures. The contents of every suspected grave were Investigated, and any corpse found In such a condition as that described was promptly subjected to treatment-" This meant that a stake was driven through the ohest, and the heart, being taken out. was either burned or chopped Into small pieces. For this way only could a vampire be deprived of power to do mischief. In one case a man who was unburied sat up In his coffin, fresh blood on his lips.

The official in charge of the ceremonies held a crucifix before his face, and saying, Do you recognise your Saviour?" chopped the unfortunate's head off. This person presumably had been burled alive in a cataleptic trance. The records of the measures adopted during that period for the suppression of vampirism are official and perfectly authentic. There is no doubt that the accounts which they give of the finding of bodies fresh and undecayed are true. How Is the phenomenon to be accounted for? Nobody can say with certainty, but It may be that the fright Into which people were thrown by the epidemic had the effect of predisposing nervous persons to catalepsy.

In a word, people were buried alive In a condition where, the vital functions being suspended, they remained, as It were, dead for a while. It Is a common thing for a cataleptic to bleed at the mouth Just before returning to consciousness. According to the popular superstition, the vampire left his or her body In the grave while engaged in nocturnal prowls. The epidemic described prevailed all over southeastern Europe, being at its worst In Hungary and Servla. It la supposed to have originated In Greece, where a belief was entertained to the effect that Latin Christians burled In that country could not A Picture of Life in a French Prison-Methodical Starvation Utter Neglect of the Moral Nature of Prisoners Survival of Medieval Crualty and Indifference.

Special CoRwpoudenes of the Paris, Jan. 1, 18WL There are six prisons in Paris besides the depot (the great Central Station, as It may be called, although Its service is most complicated), the conclergerle (used as a smaller depot for tho convenience of the Courts of Assises and Appeals), and the military prison, which Is an establishment quite apart. These six prisons are Masas, Salntd-PBIagie, Saint-Lasare, the SantB, and the Grande and the Little Roquette. Masas was originally prison established to make a trial of the solitary confinement system (known throughout Europe as tho Philadelphia plan). This purpose Is now abandoned, and Masas remains technically "a house of preventive detention." Preventive detention, in France, means the holding of an accused person for months before hla trial, which, may never coma off.

And Masas is no other than a modern Irresponsible hostile to serve the present governors of France. It Is able to hold 12t)0 detenus, each In a separate cell. The prison of SaintB-PBlagie, with a capacity for 030 prisoners. Is supposed to receive (a) journalists condemned for political or other Improper writings, (b) prisoners for debt (In the cases where such Imprisonment still exists), for non-payment of flnea, and frauds on Government monopolies, (c) and prisoners of ordinary justice condemned to terms of less than a year. In Salntd-Peiagle these three classes are kept separate, with a separate regime for each.

The prison of Salnt-Lazare Is exclusively for women. The is a comparatively modern establishment, the only one which the authorities dare show to foreign visitors without shame. It holds 430 prisoners, condemned to terms of lees than a year. The Little Roquette is a prison for little boys, with a capacity of 430. And the Grand Roquette, technically The Depot of the Condemned," is put down In the guide books as tho prison where are detained temporarily those condemned to reclusion or hard labor, pending their transference to the central penitentiaries, or to the penal settlements of Cayenne or New Caledonia." It has a capacity of 440; and as It Is, perhaps, the worst conducted prison In the world, a statement of the life led in It may be Interesting.

When the newly condemned criminal, pauper or drunkard Is waked at 6.30 A. M. of his last morning at Masas, and stands In a huddled crowd of others like himself, tight packed In a dark, stuffy room beside the greffe, 1. the bookkeepers' department, awaiting transference, he la preoccupied with but two things. The first is to smoke up and give sway what tobacco remains to him for there will be no smoking over there.

Over there, over there where? "A la Grande! the Grand Roquette! A groan bursts from the miserable party. Hot words of Indignation explode. It 'a not fair! They 've no business to take us to the Grande! No one here has twelve months even!" What do they care the aches! The prisoner's first day at the Grande Roquette begins with the last cigarette. Hla last day there ende with the first cigarette! hla first purchase on his release, his first and almost self-sufficient consolation. The new prisoners are huddled in another bleak, dark prison room.

Inside the Orande Roquette. Hours pass while they wait tha convenience of book-keepers and searchers. One by one they are called out, identified by cursory head-measurement, made to acknowledge that the account of the money found on them la correct, searched, stripped, and re-clothed. Those having lists than a month of prison to do are given liberty to continue en civil, all others must don prison clothes, shapeless, of rough brown stuff, to be taken In or let out for tbe individual by the prison sewing man. They are marched to a shower-bath, then marched to the central workshop where to make a Roquette holiday, they are both shaved and clipped, this In the presence of two hundred other prisoners.

Those having less than a month are again shown favor. They keep their hair. Here there la nothing of the completeness and smartness of an American prison. The central workshop where the ahaving Is done, beelde a rickety stove, whose fire Is always going out Is a leprous little hall, tainted with bad air and the accumulated filth of decades. Two hundred prisoners are cramped so closely together that they Impede each other's work.

It la the mark of the Grande Roquette throughout. The Grande Roquette of which the world has heard so much In connection with the present-day guillotine is nothing but an old barracks transformed In the most crimpy way into Its modem use. It has not even a rain-protected promenade tor the forced walks of tho day; It has no dining-room the prisoners must sat in the church, beside the alter; the sleeping cells have no heating apparatus, even In the coldest winter; the guardians are under manned and over-worked; there Is no attendant physician a doctor comes In tor an hour a day; every library book has lost pages, the library itself only numbering two hundred and fifty volumes; the compulsory education supposed to be laid down by the law haa been suppressed; and the sanitary conditions are those of a badly-kept prison of the middle ages. The new prisoners squirm uneasily on the benches assigned them, munching their loaves of black bread brought with them from Masas; holding up two fingers for permission to go to the bucket for a drink of water. In Imitation of the other prisoners, watching with a rueful humor the shedding of their companions' hair, beards and moustaches.

To one side fifty men are making wire mousetraps, working with a savage energy; to the left Is a gang which files and polishes brass jnoudllngs; farther on another gang is simply cutting wire. They scarcely glance at the newcomers. They work feverishly. There Is a look on their faces different even from the anxiety, regret and new-born misery shown In tho new mens faces. It Is a special look.

Its cause Is hunger. Everyone la hungry at tbe Grande Ro-quette, hungry while they work, hungry while they sleep. The clock has hut to strike the hour of 8 P. and you shall see them tremble, starting to their feet, poor white-faced rogues, it is the dinner hour the one meal of the day besides the soup. Now the newcomers merge into the general prison type.

At the tall of the pro-these readers cast aside their books In a few days, pressed by their stomachs cry for cession they march to the church. It Is across a great square, open courtyard, and the wooden shoes which all must wear clang In a resonant unison across tha Bel-glan-block-lald waste. Into the church they clatter. The sacred edifice Is filled with rickety, narrow tables, each with a dosen round tin basins filled with lukewarm beans or other vegetable. The altar Is hidden by a canopy, removed on Sundays.

They take their seats and tin basins in silence. There is a moments pause, and then begins the clatter of the wooden spoons. For each prisoner, for his sole outfit. Is furnished with (a) a wooden spoon, (b) a rough towel and (c)a red bandanna handkerchief. The food of this one meal varies.

Some days It Is a dish of beans red beans; other days It is rice, lentils or a general mass of scraps. On Sundays only Is a hunk of cold boiled meat thrown Into the beany mess. Meat once a week. At this dinner the other food Is bread. Each prisoner receives a heavy round -loaf of black bariey-and-rye In the morning on leaving hla cell door.

If he eats It all up in the morning, there Is nothing left for noon or night. Actually each prisoner carries hla loaf with him, never quitting It throughout the day, at work, at the lavatory. In the promenades, at meal time and going to tied at night ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. The New Invisible Light Which Penetrates Organic Substances. A notable achievement In science, having a direct bearing upon tho development of the photographic art.

Is reported from Vienna. Professor Roentgen, of the Wurzburg University, It Is announced, has discovered a light which, for the purposes of photography, will penetrate wood, flesh and most other organic substances. It Is the newest and one of the most astounding marvels of the advance of scientific discovery, and It is wholly credited by men of so great authority as Edison, while others think the accounts of tho present state of the discovery may be exaggerated, but regard the achievement as quite possible. The results of this new process are likely to be of the utmost value In medicine and surgery, while one can easily imagine that in malicious hands It might be applied to mischief. The story la this, that for several years Professor Roentgen of the Bavarian University of Wursburg has been experimenting with a light derived from radiant heat by means of Crooks tubes.

The Crook tube Is a vacuum glass through which an electrio Induction current passes, whose rays, the product of Intense heat, are thrown upon the object which It is desired to photograph. Edison says, as quoted In the New York Journal: The cardinal factor of the whole matter is this radiant heat, hut I am satisfied tho Wursburg Inventor has special rays thereof and special chemical plates. Radiant heat is the energy of heat transferred to tha luminiferous ether which fills all space and also pervades all bodies. The hot body sets the ether particles in vibration, and this vibratory motion. In the form of waves, travels In all directions and with a velocity of about 180,000 miles a second.

There is no essential difference between radiant heat and light, both being forms of radiant energy. the ether waves differing Intrinsically among themselves In wave length only, and thus producing different effects, heating, luminous and chemical, in the bodies or which they Impinge; according to the nature of those bodies. The waves whose heating effect Is generally the greatest are of greater wave length than those which most affect the eye light rays and have longer periods of vibration. The quantity of heat of a body or the amount of heat energy which a body gains or loses In passing through a different range of temperature Is measured by the quantity of water it would raise at one degree Fahrenheit. Results obtained by Professor Roentgen are described in the Journals article.

Ha photographed a mans ankle In which a bullet waa Imbedded, showing the bullet Just where It was lodged. He photographed a leather purse, showing the money In It with perfect distinctness. A human hand was subjected to the rays, and the result waa a picture of its bones, with the envelop of flesh only a shadowy form around them. The most startling experiment was the photograph of a young man beside a young woman, which showed nothing but a skeleton form. It Is also said that an Iron weight was photographed through a box, the box disappearing in the picture.

These experiments show. If they are correctly described, that the less close the contact of the molecules of a body, the more penetrative this light from radiant heat, so that clothing- flesh, leather, wood and other substances of comparative freedom of movement among molecules offer no Impediment to the process of this new light, while bone, mineral, metal and other close-packed substances remain opaque and are pictured. The picture, however, la not a negative, but a positive. The radiant heat cannot be described In terms of light, because In fact It is Invisible to human eyes. Invisible light" Is a curious concatenation, but that is all which one can soy about it.

One can easily see that the discovery, if It be confirmed, must be of great importance. Edison says It will put an end to vivisection, for there will bo no further excuse for It. The use of the radiant heat, when It shall have become manageable; wrlll reveal the presence of diseases, and will locate without error a bullet which has entered the body. At once we remember the terrible mistake of the surgeons In tha oase of President Garfield, and realize that with Ms method the exact place of Gutteaus ball would have been discovered at once, m( Garfields life probably saved. It Is by no pss ns sure that all that Is claimed for the new discovery can be borne out by facts, but there are further reports coming In.

For example, a professor of tho University of Pesth has even penetrated one metal, aluir'um. by means of radiant heat. GEMS FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURES Translated fr tha Transcript by Her. A. B.

Onmtart ths sxhobtatiosb axd rxomizs OF WISDOM. FBOVSSBS XX. My son. If thou wilt accept my words and wilt hide my commandments with thee: If thou wilt lend thine ear to listen to wisdom, and turn thine heart to Intelligence; then If thou wilt call for knowledge and wilt call loud and earnestly for understanding; if thou wilt seek for her as If thou wert searching for sliver, and search for her as If searching for treasures, then thou wilt comprehend the reverence of Jehovah, and the knowledge of God thou wilt find. For Jehovah glveth intelligence and skill In all things; from His mouth come Insight and understanding.

For the righteous ones He hldeth away the things that are real; He Is a shield to those who walk In Integrity. He guardeth the paths of judgment, and the ways of the virtuous He will keep. Then thou wilt understand virtue and Judgment and uprightness every good and perfect way. For the upright shall dwell In the land and the Innocent shall remain In It; but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and those that deal treacherously shall be rooted out of It. BROWN'S CAMPHORATED SAPONACEOUS Dentifrice FOR THE TEETH 1855-1895.

A POPULAR TOOTH POWDER, Recommended by Dentists and extensively used for Green Cove Springs In planning your winter trip we would like to have you consider Green Cove Springs, and if you like a comfortable, reasonable priced house to stop in for a day, week or longer, THE ST. ELMO will suit. A prettily illustrated book will gladly be sent by Judson L. Scott, Green Cove Springs, Florida. liew Jal8 The Folsom Galleries Wesleyan Building, 86 Bromfisld Boston.

Oil Paintings By Eminent Foreign and American Artists. For ssls st isatonsMs prices. SS0lWS8m 4 14 40 years. 89 CENTS. 38 BOLD 18tcllorS0 I 4 4 I.