The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1854-09-20
The Knout,

The following is the way OF administer
ing the knout. Conceive. reader, a robust
man, full Of life and health. This man is
condemned to receive fifty or hundred
blows of the knoat. He is conducted,
half naked, TO the place chosen for this
kind Of execution; all trat he has on is q
pair of simple linen drawers round his ex.
uemities; his hands are bound together,
.er; the cords are breaking his wrists, but
no one pays the slightest attention to that.
lie is laid flat upon his belly. on frame
inclined diagonally, and at the extremities
of which are fixed iron rings; his hands
are fastened to one end of the frame, and
his feet to the other; he is then stretched
in suoh manner that he cannot make a
single movement, just as an cells skin is
stretched in order TO dry. This act of
stretching the victim causes the bones to
crack, and dislocates them--what does
tha, matter! In little time his bones will
crack and be dislocated in very differ
ent manner.
At distance Of five and twenty PAGES
stands another man: it is the public ex-
eoutoner. He is dressed in black velvet
trousers, stuffed into his boots, and col
ored cotton shirt, buttoning at the side.
His sleeves are tucked up, so that nothing
may thwart or embarrass him in his move.
ments. With both hands he grasps the
instrument OF punishment-a knout. This
knout consists Of a thong Of thick leather,
cut in triangular form, from four to FIVE
yards long, and an inch wide, tspering off
at one end, and broad at the other; the
small end is fastened to little wooden
handle, about two feet long.
The signal is given; no one ever takes
the trouble to read the sentence. The ex-.
ecutioner advances few steps, with his
body bent, holding the knout in both hands,
while the long thong drags alongthe ground
between his legs. On coming 10 about
three or four PAGES from the prisoner. he
raises, by vigorous movement, the knout
towards the top OF his head, and then in
stantly draws it down with rapidly to-
wards his knees. The thong flies and
whistles through the air, and descending
on the body Of the victim. twines round ii
like hoop Of iron. In spite of his state
of tension, the poor wretch bounds as if
he were submitted to the powerful grasp of
galvanism. The executioner retraces his
steps, and repeats the same operation as
many times as there are blows TO be in
flioied. When the thong envelopes the
body with its edges, the flesh and muscles
are literally cut into stripes as it with q
razor, but when it falls fiat, then the bones
crack; the flesh, in that case, is not cut,
but crushed and ground, and the blood
|spurts cut in all directions. The sufferer
becomes green and blue. like body in q
state Of decomposition. He is now re-
moved to tho hospital, whore every care is
taken Of him, and is afterwards sentto ST.
beria, where he disappears forever in the
bowels OF the earth. The knout is fatal.
il the justice of the Gar, or of the execu.
TONER, desires it to be so. If the Auto
Gratis intention is to afford his psople q
sight worthy OF their eyes and their intel.
ligence; if some powerful lord, or some
great lady wishes to indulge in the pleas
ure Of viewing the sanguinary spectacle;
if they wish to behold the victim, with his
mouth covered with foam and blood, writhe
about and expire in sfrightful agony, the
fatal blow is given the very last. Tho ex-
ecutioner sells his compassion and pity for
hard gold, whom the family OF the miser-
able sufferer desires to purchase the fatal
blow. In this case he inflicts death at the
very first stroke, as surely as If il was IN
axe that he held in his hand. 1853
The Knout and the Russian.