The Escape Continued

     Charles had another experience that the guards did not know about. He recalled that his mother use to take him to the reptile house at the little zoo when you was young. Thursdays were his favorite visits, because  that was feeding day for the snakes. He remembered from his youth that it took about fifteen minutes for a snake to strike and slowly gnaw a mouse into its dislocated jaw to swallow. A rattlesnake cannot bite if it is in the middle of eating a field mouse, or rat. Charles suspected the dead man from the cell was in too much in a hurry and could not get his hand out quickly enough to avoid the poisonous bite.
     The guards must have fed the snake when Charles was outside during his afternoon fresh air excursions. That is the only explanation he could think of as to how the snake survived the winter months. The riddle was making sense. He knew he had to find a mouse to feed the rattlesnake before the guards gave it a meal.
     Charles thought of a clever way to catch a field mouse. He would lie down in the grass and pray that a mouse would smell the aroma from the smelly cheese in his pocket. He did this for weeks. Finally, as he lay on his back he took a cup from his cell room and slowly lowered it onto a field mouse that was chewing the stale cheese from his pocket. Now he had another key to the safe, but a few questions remained. One, what was behind the rattlesnake in a red velvet bag? Two, how was he going to get past the guard and enter the streets of St. Petersburg? He contemplated this for a week.
     Later, the guard slipped some timely news to Charles. The stage coach to Siberia was leaving on Monday, and he had orders to put Charles on the coach. This was certain death, because if you leave for Siberia  you do not return. The government puts you in a work camp and works you until you literally fall down to your death. He decided to find out what was in the red velvet bag on Sunday night, the beginning of a new week. A new chapter was soon to be written. It was sink, swim, or be bitten. Charles opened the first key, the wooden horizontal panel. Then the mouse dropped into the box and the snake swallowed the creature giving Charles about fifteen minutes to remove the red velvet bag from the box that housed the snake which was the second key. The third key stumped Charles for a long time that evening. He remembered what the royal court told him just before his incarceration, that HRH Catherine the Great would not tell him the answer. He knew that what the Queen said was rule. Charles went to the door and opened it. Looking back inside the prison cell, he noticed a full moon resting perfectly inside the frame of the window on the south wall. He knew it was about two in the morning by now. It was time to see the contents of the velvet bag from the snake pit which contained all the gems that belonged to Charles in the first place! He smiled and laughed as he tiptoed past the guard. Then he paused knowing that if he left quietly, he would surely get the guard to gather his team of guards to chase after Charles. He could not believe  what he was going to do. Without saying a word, he gently got down on his knees and woke the guard. He quickly took one of the smaller diamonds and placed it in the guard's hand and clasped all fingers together into a ball. He was betting that the royal court would let him go free if he had the smarts to retrieve his own gem collection. The guard smiled and went back to sleep without making a sound.
     Charles had just minutes to maneuver around town to get to the station before sunrise. He knew the stage coach routes and times. It was this time during his escape that he changed his name from Charles Jacob Sigismund Thiel to Charles Cist. He took the C from Charles, the J in Latin became an I, S from Sigismund, T from Thiel, thus the surname Cist was born. This proved to be beneficial because the authorities were looking for Mr. Thiel that ends with a T. The new name Cist shuffled him to different alphabetical groups when rounded up during check points through out Europe looking for fugitives. (My father mentioned that any person in the world is directly descended from Charles Cist)
Andrew C. Allen 4/16/13
513.638.7140
pewabic34@gmail.com

The Escape

Charles Jacob Sigismund Thiel had encountered a reversal of fortune. He had served as a doctor of medicine in the royal court of Catherine the Great in the mid 1700's. Now he found himself in a dark, damp, musty, prison cell in St. Petersburg, Russia. Fortunately, his youth and academic life at Halle University exposed him to live "outside the comfort zone" experiences that enabled him to survive his present situation inside a Russian cell.
The royal court had confiscated his gem collection; mostly diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. His prized possession, an eighteen carat diamond that was scheduled to be purchased for Catherine the Great had been confiscated during the coup. It was easier for the palace police just to take the collection which included thirty-seven diamonds totaling two hundred eighty-five carats. He wanted his collection back.
     Riddles were more prevalent in Charles' day of the mid 1700's. The royal court gave Charles a riddle and  if solved, he could use it to gain his freedom, collection, and a new life. If he failed; death. There were three keys to unlock the safe were the Halle diamond was kept. Charles nicknamed the diamond after his Alma mater, Halle University. Could he do it?
     As he sat in his jail cell, he noticed a human skeleton in the corner of the dimly lit room, and when he paced the floor he heard rattling sounds appeared, but from where? He was let outside in the afternoon three times a week. After weeks of this routine and thinking about his surroundings and controlled timed schedules, he thought more about the riddle and how the dead body was a sign from the cell. The human carcass would be the first key to unlocking the safe. After an entire season of cold winter blahs, a guard inadvertently showed Charles a mouse that he kept in his pocket during the winter months. The mouse would become the second key to unlocking the safe. All of this information was in Charles's head, but he made no connections until the sunlight poured in from the window up above the south wall. The sun position had to go through an entire season before he could begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together. By this time, Charles had lost many pounds and lost strength in his left arm. On a Thursday afternoon, rays of light beamed close to the skeleton and he noticed the wall had a slight bump in it. Charles moved the bones away from the wall. Fresh foot-marks were on the floor. All this had become obvious because of the sunlight. He was stooped. Charles picked away at the wall and instead of peeling away and peeling downward, he picked at the wall and pulled towards him. After many turns, this repeated motion revealed a horizontal wooden panel that was painted black. This explained why it blended into the darkness. Over time, the moisture had warped the wood to expose the box. As he pulled the horizontal panel towards him, a lever pulled a box down to the ground. The  box had a black hole on top of it and a clear panel in which you could peer into it. A rattlesnake coiled dead center stared at Charles. From his observations, he could see that the coiled mesh on top of the box served as a mechanism. It became clear to him after awhile that if you place your hand in the coiled mesh from above and tried to remove your hand quickly, the mesh would tighten and the hand would stay suspended long enough for the rattlesnake to strike a deadly, poisonous bite. Charles assumed this is what had happened to the dead gentleman that shared his prison cell. He knew he had to be careful. He slowly pushed the horizontal wooden box back into the wall and the snake filled box disappeared.
     I have an appointment. I will resume The Escape again.
Andrew C. Allen 4/15/13
513.638.7140
pewabic34@gmail.com

Oral traditions transformed into a blog.

My father and I have had many conversations about the life of Charles Cist. As a young boy growing up, it was not so much a conversation, but me just listening to his stories about his ancestors. My father worked at a law firm for forty years. I am thankful that he was home every night to share family time with his children. He taught me the importance of the oral history traditions and the validity of family history passed down from generation to generation. As he approaches his eighty-fourth birthday, it is still a pleasure to talk with him about Charles Cist. It is a connection that we have together. Now it is my turn to share questions about Charles Cist with my father. I share my questions, for example, did Charles Cist have any brothers, or sisters in Russia? Is there a side of the family over in Russia today that is thinking the same about us? Has there been an oral history passed down from a Russian family about an uncle that escaped to America? Perhaps, this blog can connect stories, reunite/start relationships, answer puzzles.
There are some challenges that I want to over come. Charles Cist had children. One of them was Lewis J. Cist from Cincinnati, OH, no offspring. He was a little eccentric  When he passed away he had perhaps the largest and best autograph collection in the world. The collection had autographs from poets, world leaders (ancient and new), signers of the Declaration of Independence, and so much more. The auction catalog is now a collector's item. Moving forward, the collection was settled and the proceeds were placed in a Cincinnati bank. The bank went under with the business cycles of financial depressions and prosperity of the 1800's. Well, it was told to me that the other side of the family on the East coast blames our side for the loss and the two sides have not been in communications for a very long time. Hopefully, the internet can get people talking and helping to complete the story of Charles Cist. People should realized that I was not even around during the 1800's and I had nothing to do with the outcome. Hopefully, this will work in my favor. As the older generation passes away, this can be an extension of a conversation in word art. Once again we are dealing with a life story that encompasses the ideals about freedom and painting a story about a man of individual freedom struggles, but also spent his life with the printed forms of  educating patriots during the American Revolution. The printers of Cist and Steiner's most famous printed pamphlet was Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
I will share my creative writing. I will specify that I am in dream mode. Dream mode is when I can imagine what could have happened based on the history that has been passed down. I will state the separations for the bloggers. For example, history has been passed down that Charles Cist escaped from Russia during the coup of Catherine the Great's reign. How did he escape? Who did he encounter? How long did it take him to reach America? How did he end up marrying General Jacob Weiss's daughter? General Weiss was a general under George Washington. These are a few of the questions that I have for this blog.
My next blog will deal with the Great Escape from prison and evading a long, lonely ride to Siberia.
Andrew C. Allen 4/4/13
513.638.7140
pewabic34@gmail.com