I can only describe this as a sort of able-bodied
workhouse. It was clean, much cleaner than
most institutions in Russia, and the officers
seemed very much on a level with the officers
of a casual ward or able-bodied institution in
this country. But as for a prison ! It was a
little difficult to understand where the prison
came in. In addition to seeing the particular
prisoner I went to see, I saw lots of others,
and what astonished me most of all was the
sort of freedom of conversation and the attitude
of the prisoners towards their jailors.
The Governor was a young man—I should
think about thirty-six years of age. He could
not speak English, but was a very well educated
man, indeed, much better educated
than the average workhouse master I have met
in this country, and certainly superior to the
old gentleman who had charge of me during
the few days I was in Pentonville prison some
years ago. But prisons and prisoners in
Russia are not looked upon with quite the
same feelings as prisoners are looked upon in
more highly civilised countries. There is a
kind of allowance made for the causes which
bring them there, which appears to me to
affect their whole treatment.
Who would have dreamed from what we have read of the brutality of these Bolsheviks that the prisoner whom I went to see would be brought to me in his own clothes, permitted
