The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-03-04


side by side the one, of mortal wound
the other, of mortal terror. The bear was
still black as Erebus the mules face was
already white with an indescribable agony
OF mortal fear.
The Greatest Criminal Trial on Record.
N the wholeh history of criminal jurispru-
Il dence there has never, probably, been
anything equal to the gigantic trial which
was concluded at Moscow, in Russia, on the
21st of November and in which were ar
raigned five hundred prisoners, upward of
two hundred of whom were convicted and
sentenced to severe penalties Among the
accused were persons of every station in
life-gray- haired men and youth, men and
women; among the latter some highly ac-
complished and prepossessing in appearance.
All the prisoners were charged with one Of
the gravest offences in the criminal code of
Russia-that of counterfeiting The code
says: "The person that counterfeits the
coin or currency of the Imperial Govern
ment shall suffer death" Notwithstanding
this rigorous provision, Russia has been
flooded for many years past with well exc
cuted counterfeits of the Government
treasury notes. The prompt execution of
several who were caught in passing the
spurious currency did not materially check
the evil. Offers of the largest rewards did
not lead to the detection of the guilty par
ties.
AT length, in July last, acurious accident
gave the Government the long-looked-for
clue, which led to the discovery of an asso-
citation of criminals Of both sexes, banded
together for the purpose of circulating the
spurious currency, and which extended
from the bleak and frozen shores of the
White Sea to the Volga and the Black Sea.
In the course of the two following months
three thousand men and women were ar
raigned, but after preliminary examina-
ton twenty-five hundred of them were dis
charged, AM about five hundred were held
for trial. Among the latter were six
Frenchmen, of St. Petersburg, who had
been caught printing the counterfeit notes,
and a comparatively large number of wo-
men. The prisoners were all conveyed to
Moscow, were they were confined in the
vast vaults underneath the Kremlin Palace.
Criminal law in Russia is barbarous at the
best, and the male prisoners were herded
together like SO many hogs. They received
the coarsest fare, and straw was their only
couch. The women were treated but little
better.
On the Goth of October the trial was open
ed in the large hall of the Kremlin, which
holds nearly five thousand persons. The
proceedings were protracted for o month,
and the prosecution succeeded in establish
ing the guilt of over one-third of the ac-
cused. Two hundred and three Of them
were found guilty; among them about
fifty women. Sentence of death was passed
upon the six French printers, and the other
convicted parties were condemned to hard
labor in the gold mines of the Ural Noun
tains for life, or for ten years. The doom
ed men and women burst into piercing
shrieks and howls, and well they might
for in the case of the former, the sentence
included barbarous flogging and branding
on the forehead with red-hot irons whilt
the women, some of whom were of fine
descent, shuddered at the idea of having Il
do the most menial work for life or ter
years at the station-horses, where the keep
pers of the male prisoners reside. In thei
despair some of the unfortunates threv
themselves ON the ground, and their pier
cling cries. mingled with the clanking of thei
chains produced truly horrible effect
The excitement and frenzy Of the condemn
ed grew from minute to minute more in
tense, and the Judges, in order to restor
quietude, had to call in the soldiers, who
with their kantschubs, beat the prisoner
right and left, and then dragged then
back to the vaults Of the Kreml in.