eople were told of machines that would separate the cream from
milk instantly they declared that only a machine with a devil in it
could do such a thing. But an enterprising foreigner went ahead and
built a factory and about the time he had some of the separators ready
for delivery a mob gathered, wrecked the factory and smashed the
separators into smithereens, declaring that they would not have machines
with devils in them in their country. That was years ago, however, and
they have long since learned to use and appreciate these machines.

But the saddest sights I saw in Siberia were the trains loaded with
exiles. These cars were not much better than stock cars and had iron
bars across the windows. The sad faces within made one's heart ache to
see them. As I rode in a comfortable car with a good bed to sleep in it
was hard to keep from thinking of these unfortunate people who were
herded like cattle in cold, dirty cars day after day and night after
night for a month. Food was thrown to them almost as though they were
pigs and at best this food was of the coarsest and most unsavory kind.

But their journey, packed in these unwarmed and unsanitary cars was so
much better than what exiles had endured before the railroad was built,
that one can hardly make a comparison. Then the exiles had to make the
long four thousand mile journey on foot. It took about two years. Most
of the convicts wore chains on their ankles that weighed five pounds and
chains on their wrists that weighed two pounds. Sometimes these chains
wore the flesh from the bones and the pain, as they trudged along their
way, was simply terrible. Men and women were herded in droves like
cattle. They had to make so many miles each day through storm or
sunshine. Often it was midnight before they reached the sheds in which
were the sleeping benches. Here they had to lie down on bare planks
without any covering. There was no ventilation in these sheds except a
bare window or two in the gable. In summer they sweltered and in winter
they nearly froze to death.

As these unfortunate people slowly trudged along, the heartless guards
on horseback whipped them and often prodded them with bayonets.
Sometimes both men and women fell fainting and dying along the wayside.
As two were nearly always chained together, the living was unlocked from
the dead, the body kicked out of the way and even left unburied. In the
heat of summer the dust nearly suffocated them and in the la