The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1864-06-15
From the Continental Monthly for June.l
knout, PIete, and GantIet.

knout, Plete, and GantIet.
THE peasants of Poland do not seem
very amiably disposed toward the great
Russian czar. Having been already
emancipated by their own leaders, they
do not appear to be aware of his super
human benevolence in their behalf
They have issued a manifesto against
him. They propose to raise peasant
army of million of men, from the ages
of sixteen to sixty, to assault Warsaw
and other Polish cities held by the Rus
slams. They treat with scorn the offered
emancipation. and determine to resist
1.-The odious, fierce, greedy, and astute
Muscovite, and to organize en- nadsse un
der their own captains, while their own
National Government will designate the
day upon which the general movement
will take place" Having accomplished
their object-tlie deliverance of Poland
the peasants will elect chiefs to arrange
the repartition of taxes, and national
diet will undertake the management of
affairs of the country Prussia and
Austria will then be called in again to
aid in the subjugation of Poland. This
will throw the firebrand of war and revo-
luton over Western Europe, the oppress-
ed peoples will rise in their might, and
Liberty he inscribed on the banner of the
world. In the indignant refusal of the
! Polish peasants to receive as boon
4 from the foreigner what they already
! possess as a right from their own leaders;
! in the devoted patriotism they are now
evincing, they rob Russia of the vast ad-
vantage she hoped to gain in depriving
Poland of what has made part of her
marvellous force, the moral sympathies
of the civilized world For can any one
be weak enough to believe that the ukase
of emancipation originated in the mag
nanimity of Russia? The design was
evidently to divide the peasants from the
mobiles, to light the flames of civil war,
to murder by the hands Of her own sons
that unhappy country. which, deserted
/ by all the nations of the earth, has again
/ and again risen from her bloody grave to
startle her oppressors with the old hymns
/ of faith and triumph. But, if uncultured,
because the iron heel of the tyrant has
been on the heart of the murdered mother.
the Polish peasant is faithful and devoted.
He knows the nature of Russian rule. He
/ has seen women knouted, children muir
dered, boys imprisoned. and men expos
ed to the tortures OF Siberia. Have our
readers any true conception of what it is
to be knouted ? We will place before
&
three modes of punishment used by Rus
Sia.
The hnout is long narrow thong Of
leather, which is STEPPED and boiled in a
chemical solution until it becomes thickly
coated with the metallic filings and depos
it, Prepared in this way, the thong ac
, quires considerable weight and hardness.
Before it coolS and hardens, however,
they take care to turn the edges, made
thin for this purpose, up toward each
other. thus forming groove extending
through the whole length of the metal
coated thong, with the exception OF the
extremity. which is left Timber that it
NAV be wound round the hand of the
executioner, while strong iron hook is
appended to the other extremity The
scatfold on which the victim suffers is
called in Russian ''kobyla, literally a
mare 1t is an inclined plane, on which
the sufferer is tied, his back is stripped
naked, his arms embrace the higher end
of the plank, his hands are tied under it,
his feet are fastened on the lower end, all
movement being thus rendered impossi-
ble Hacking down upon the naked
back of the victim, the knout falls with
its concave side upon the skin, which the
metalized edge of the instrument cuts
like knife, the blades of the groove
burying themselves in the flesh the in
strument is not lifted up by the operator,
but is drawn horizontally toward himself,
tearing away, by means of the hook, the
severed flesh in long strings. If the op-
orator performs his part conScientiously
the sufferer loses consciousness after the
third blow, and frequently expires with
the fifth. Peter the Great fixed the
maximum of the number to be given st
one hundred and one-of course. this
was sentence of feath 1t is singu-
larity of the Russian laws that the mum
Der of blows decrced for the knout is
always uneven. As soon as the wretch
ed victim has received the prescribed
number. he is united. forced TO kneel
and submit to the punishment of the
brand This brand consists of the three
letters voR (robber. criminal cut in
iron points upon a stamp and is struck
by the exeeutioner into the forehesd and
cheeks of the sufferer While the blood
is still flowing, black fluid. partly com
posed of gunpowder, is injected into the
wounds. When the wounds heal, the
letters assume dark blue tint. and are
forever after indelible. After the inf'ic-
ton of the brand, it was formerly the
custom to tear ont the nostrils. but this
horrible barbarity was definitely abolish
ed toward the close of the reign of Alex
ander 1. l have, however, met more
than one Siberian exile thus hideously
distigured, no doubt belonging to the
time anterior to the publication of the
ukase. l have met an incalculable num-
ber of men bearing upon cheeks and
forehead the triple inscription voR- / do
not think the brand is applied 10 women: