Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885Various
General
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
more, and an attached young wife and hundreds of friends, amongst whom
the writer of these words was one of the most attached, were “left
lamenting.”—_Gentleman’s Magazine._
(_To be concluded._)
A FEMALE NIHILIST
BY STEPNIAK.
I.
On the 27th of July, in the year 1878, the little town of Talutorovsk,
in Western Siberia, was profoundly excited by a painful event. A
political prisoner, named Olga Liubatovitch, it was said had miserably
put an end to her days. She was universally loved and esteemed, and
her violent death therefore produced a most mournful impression
throughout the town, and the _Ispravnik_ or chief of the police, was
secretly accused of having driven the poor young girl, by his unjust
persecutions, to take away her life.
Olga was sent to Talutorovsk, some months after the trial known as
that of the “fifty” of Moscow, in which she was condemned to nine
years’ hard labor for Socialist propagandism, a punishment afterwards
commuted into banishment for life. Unprovided with any means whatever
of existence, for her father, a poor engineer with a large family,
could send her nothing, Olga succeeded, by indefatigable industry, in
establishing herself in a certain position. Although but little skilled
in female labor, she endeavored to live by her needle, and became
the milliner of the semi-civilized ladies of the town, who went into
raptures over her work. These fair dames were firmly convinced—it is
impossible to know why—that the elegance of a dress depends above all
things upon the number of its pockets. The more pockets there were,
the more fashionable the dress. Olga never displayed the slightest
disinclination to satisfy this singular taste. She put pockets upon
pockets, upon the body, upon the skirts, upon the underskirts; before,
behind, everywhere. The married ladies and the young girls were as
proud as peacocks, and were convinced that they were dressed like the
most fashionable Parisian, and, though they were less profuse with
their money than with their praises, yet in that country, where living
costs so little, it was easy to make two ends meet. Later on, Olga
had an occupation more congenial to her habits. Before entering the
manufactories and workshops as a sempstress in order to carry on the
Socialist propaganda, she had studied medicine for some years at
Zurich, and she could not now do less than lend her assistance in
certain cases of illness. This soon gave her a reputation, and at the
request of the citizens, the police accorded to her the permission to
fill the post of apothecary and phlebotomist, as the former occupant
of that post, owing to habitual drunkenness, was fit for nothing. Not
unfrequently she even took the place of the district doctor, a worthy
man who, owing to old age and a partiality for brandy, was in such a
state that he could not venture upon delicate operations, because his
hands shook. She acted for him also in many serious cases baffling his
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