on account of my warning), and second to give you notice that I sent you some time since a manuscript addressed … so that if you have not received it you may make inquiries about it.
You have probably heard before this time of the final suppression of the Siberian Gazette.[1] It is hard and it is shameful! You need not hesitate any longer to write whatever you like about it for publication. You will not injure the paper because there is no hope of its resurrection. . . .
My youngest daughter is still sick and has grown so thin that it is painful to look at her. She sleeps badly and often I have to be up all night taking care of her. This, together with constant fear for her life, disorders my nerves terribly, and undermines what health I have left. I am greatly disheartened, too, by loneliness, notwithstanding my children and my friends. The affectionate tenderness of a beloved wife is a thing that some natures find it difficult to do without, no matter what else they may have. It is very hard, sometimes, my dear fellow, to live in this world!
Since it became apparent that I should no longer be able to support myself by newspaper work,[2] I have been looking for some other occupation or place; but, unfortunately, the present governor[3] is expelling political exiles from all public positions, and even debarring them, to some extent, from private employment, by showing such hostility to them that private individuals dare not give them work for fear of getting into trouble. I do not know how it will all end. I have sent four manuscripts to St. Petersburg, but none of them has been published.
My dear George Ivánovich, may you be well and happy! I am impatiently awaiting your photograph and hope that it will have your autograph on it. With most cordial remembrances to your wife, I am Yours, Felix.
- ↑ The Siberian Gazette, the only liberal and progressive newspaper in Western Siberia, was suspended for eight months on the 3d of April, 1887, as the result of a secret report made by the Governor of Tobólsk to the Minister of the Interior. It survived this blow, but was finally suppressed altogether in the latter part of 1888. The only reasons assigned for this persecution of an able and honorable newspaper were first, the use by it of news and literary material furnished by political exiles, and second, the publication by it of an obituary notice of a political exile named Zabalúief, whose life and character had won the respect of everybody in Tomsk.
- ↑ On account of the suppression of the Siberian Gazette. Mr. Volkhófski had conducted the department of city news.
- ↑ Governor Bulubásh, formerly vice-governor of the province of Taurida. His predecessor, Governor Laks, was a comparatively liberal and enlightened man.
