Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-01-16
Five Hundred Counterfeiters on Trial
at Once s .r

In the whole history of criminal juris-
prudence there has probably never been
anything equal to the gigantic trial
which was concluded at Moscow, in Rus
sia, on the 21st of November, and in
which was arraigned five hundred pris
oners, upward of two hundred of whom
were convicted and sentenced to cruel
penalties. Among the accused were
persons of every station in hfe-gray-
haired men and youths, men and women;
among the latter some highly accom-
plished and prepossessing In appearance.
All the prisoners were charged with one
of the gravest offenses in the criminal
code of Russia-that of counterfeiting.
That code says: s'The person that coun-
terfeits the coin or currency of the lm-
perial Government shall suffer death.
Notwithstanding this rigorous provision
Russia has been flooded for several years
past with well-executed counterfeits of
the Government treasury notes. The
prompt execution of several who were
caught in passing the spurious currency
did not check the evil, and for the last
three years it became SO great that the
Minister of Finance was almost in de-
spair Offers of the largest rewards did
not lead to the detection of the guilty
parties. Changes in the appearance of
the treasury notes did not do so much
good either, for SO vast is the extent of
the Russian Empire that it takes the Inn
perial Government six months to COM
municate its DEGREES to the remotest
parts of the country.
At length, in last July, curious acci-
dent gave the Government the long
looked-for clue, which led to the dis
covery of an association of criminals of
both sexes, banded together for the pur-
pose of circulating spurious currency,
and which extended from the bleak and
Volga and the Black Sea. In the course
of the two following months 5000 men
and women were arrested, but after
preliminary examination $500 of them
were discharged, and about 500 were
held for trial Among the latter were
six Frenchmen, of st. Petersburg, who
had been caught printing the counterfeit
notes, and comparatively large number
of women. The prisoners were all con-
veyed to Moscow, where they were con-
fined in the vast vaults underneath the
Kremlin Palace. Criminal law in Rus
sia is barbarous at the best, and the
male prisoners were herded together like
as many dogs. They received the
coarsest of fare, and straw was their only
couch. The women were treated but
little better. .-.
On the Doth of October the trial
opened in the large hall of the Kremlin,
| which holds nearly five thousand per-
sons. The proceedings were protracted
for month, and the prosecution sue
ceeded in establishing the guilt of'nearly
one-third of the accused. Two hundred
and three of them were found guilty,
among them about fifty women. SEN
tence 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 Mountains
for life, or for ten years. The doomed
men and women burst into piercing
shrieks and howls, and well they might,
for, in case of the former, the sentence
included barbarous fogging and brand
ing on the forehead with red-hot iron;
while the women, some of whom were of
refined descent, shuddered at the idea of
having to do the most menial work for
life or ten years at the station house. In
their despair some of the unfortunates
threw themselves upon the ground, and
their piercing cries, mingled with the
clanking of their chains, produced q
truly horrible effect The excitement
and frenzy of the condemned grew from
minute to minute more intense, and the
Judges, in order to restore quietude,
had to call in the soldiers, who, with
their kantschubs, beat the prisoners
right and left, and then dragged them
back to the vaults of the Kremlin.