Connecticut western news., 1873-01-24
Frightful Punishment.

In Roumanla twenty-nlne persons were not long since arrested for mani festing their ill-will toward an obnox- ious actress by hissing her, and, after lying in jail for nearly three weeks, were asked who the instigators of the conspiracy" were. They disclaimed, one and all, that there had been a con spiracy, but that they had acted only on the spur of the moment, and in accord ance with the well-known tendencies of public opinion toward the prefect of police and his operatic protege. Those | statements of the prisoners were con- | sidered very unsatisfactory by the ex- | amining magistrate, who, it afterward turned out, was on intimate terms with the chief of police, and he then ordered that each of the prisoners should receive | thirty strokes with what is called in Roumania ' the sand-sausage." This instrument of torture is narrow linen bag, three feet long, and filled with wet sand. If you whip a prisoner with it the pain you will inflict upon him will be excruciating, and yet the punish ment leaves no marks upon his body. Most of the men thus belabored tainted before they had received many strokes and they said that nothing could ade- quately describe the suffering it occa- stoned them.
 As the prisoners had nothing to con- fess. they remained firm, and on the | following day, having persisted in their denials that the scene at the opera house had been the result of precon- certed conspiracy, another very bitter cup was presented to their lips. This time the instrument of torture was "the ash bag" It is bag filled with ashes, into which the head of the victim is placed. The executioner beats on this bag with stick, causing thereby the ashes to penetrate into the mouth, the nose, the eyes and the ears of his vic tim. It may easily be imagined what the latter suffers during such horrible infiction.
 This mode of torture remained with out effect, and then the examining mag istrate, highly exasperated in conse- quence of the firmness of the prisoners, subjected them to two further torments. He caused them, first, to suffer the tor ture of the so-called truth-fnder, or ghicitoru." This barbarous instrument is made of wood, and resembles for | ceps, by which the hands and the head of the suffering culprit are compressed. | Those who made the acquaintance of this delectable " truth-finder say that it is by far better to die at once than to have ones temples and forehead squeez- ed by it. @
 The last infiction consisted of pecu- liarly painful description of bastinado. The prisoners were hung up by the feet, and the jailers were then ordered to belabor their bare soles with large birch rods for many minutes. The blood, rushing to the head of the tortured cul- prits, caused them pain enough, while the strokes they received on their bare soles made their sufferings absolutely intolerable. What wonder, then, that some of the tormented wretches con- fessed all that their torturer wanted them to say. sa5 | But no sooner were some of them set at liberty than they related the horrors they had undergone. The Hospodar, at first, refused to take any notice of the matter, but the indignant clamor of pub lie opinion compelled him to act. All investigation was ordered, and the cruel magistrate who ordered these atrocities to be perpetrated upon helpless prison CTS now occupies one of the cells iIl which his victims were confined, while Ostronlos, the prefect of police, has deemed it best to leave Bucharest fol parts unknown.