Connecticut western news., 1873-04-04
Eichmuller's Fate.
A New Yorker Executed I'm Siberia--Nine Years of Exile.-Trial by . Military Commission and Speedy Death.


 In the year 1855 there emigrated from in Poland, to this country a young Jewish cabinet maker named Ignatius Eichmuller, who settle6in New York City and opened 8 shop on Sixth avenue. He was energetic and enter prising, and soon did considerable busi- ness. He accumulated in three or four years about $10,000 and in 1860 he be- came citizen of the United States. He young actress named Leah Thannheimer, who was at tached to the Stadt Theatre on the Bowery, and was respected by all her In 1862 Eichmuller be- came homesick, and returned with his wife to his native city in Poland, where he purchased an ninterestina @ large livery stable and horse dealing establishment. In the following year the Polish insur- rection of 1863 broke out, and among the numerous persons who were arrested in Warsaw as accomplices of the revolu- tionary leaders was Ignatius Eichmul- Ter. In the dead of night on the 17th of February, 1863, he was dragged from his bed, and, amid the heartrending lamentations of his young wife, taken in irons to the citadel. Next morning he was taken before the military tribu- nal and asked whether or not he had at tended the clandestine meetings of the conspirators. He denied it strenuously, and did not waver in his statements even when the Court ordered the lash to be applied to him. He manfully bore the sixty lashes that were inflicted upon him by a stalwart Cossack, and, when on the following .day he was confronted with police spy who pretended to have seen him among the conspirators, he told the man to his face that he was either mistaken or wilful liar. Not withstanding his protestations of inno- cence, the court martial found him guilty of high treason, with extenuating circumstances, and sentenced him to transportation for life to Siberia, with out hard labor, however, and with per mission to engage in what business he pleased at the place of residence the Government would assign to him in its vast Asiatic territory.
 Eichmuller produced his American naturalization papers and appealed for protection to the United States Ambas- sador at St. Petersburg, but without avail. So, almost with despair in his heart, and accompanied by his faithful young wife and two little sons, the un- fortunate man chained to another con- vict, set out on foot on the 2d of March, 1863, for Irkutsk, where he was to reside, subject to the surveillance of the police. After a long and weary march, during which Eichmuller and his family suffer ed untold hardships, and during which his youngest child died, they arrived in the of middle June at their place of des- tination. A log cabin was given to them to live in, and Eichmuller was told that he could do what he pleased, except that he must report every day at noon to the military Governor of the city, and must be at home at seven o'clock in the evening, and not leave his house after that hour under any pretext what. ever.
 Being an excellent cabinet maker the convict exile was not long in finding lucrative employment. The military Governor of Irkutsk at that time was aI intelligent and humane man, Gen Istevinof, who gradually took consider able interest in Eichmuller, and intrust ed him with several important Govern ment contracts, which the Israelite fill ed to his entire satisfaction. Thus Eichmuller lived nine years at Irkutsk and in 1872 he had accumulated a con siderable fortune. He applied for { pardon to the Emperor Alexander IT. and Gen. Istevinoff, his patron, promi sed to intercede warmly in his behalf Unfortunately for Eichmuller, the Gen eral died very suddenly on the 2d ot April in that year, and his successor Gen. Senelnikof, the new Governor ot Irkutsk, was a widely different man He treated the Polish exiles with the utmost harshness, and caused severa of them to be cruelty logged for sligh infractions of the regulations, whicl had never been enforced under his pre- decessor. Eichmuller had at that tim, contract for the carpenter work on tn, new theatre then in course of construc tion, and one evening in November las he came to the official residence of tn, Governor in order to complain of tn
 dishonesty of some of the Governmen officials who had to furnish him witt lumber. Gen. Senelnikoff, upon seein, the Jew, flew into pa ssion. "Un clean scoundrel, how dare you to b
 out after the usual hour of the night |?
 he called out to him in 6 voice of thun
 der.
 Eichmuller wanted to explain, bu
 the Governor not only refused to iste,
 to him, but, seizing very heavy cane
 began to belabor him unmercifully wit
 it. He dealt him several terrible blow
 in the face, and Eichmuller, stung b
 the pain and the brutality of the pun
 ishment, snatched the cane from tn
 hand of the General, and, breaking
 in several pieces, flung them in his face Uttering . howl of rage at this unez
 pected resistance, Senelnikoff rang hi
 bell. Two Cossacks made their appear ance, and at hint from the tyrar dragged the victim of his cruelty t
 prison. Next day Senelnikoff telegraph ed his version of the occurrence to tn Minister of War for instructions. H
 wanted to know whether he was to pu1 ish the offender as matter of discipline or whether he was to have him tried b military commission. The Gover1 . ment instructed him to persue the la ter course, and on the the 4th of b.
 cember, Eichmuller, who had bee treated in prison with the utmost rigol ! and whose food, despite the inclemenc of the weather, had consisted exclusiv, ly of bread and water, was placed b, fore 6 military commission compose
 of four army officers of low grade. I'll proceedings lasted only an hour, at th end of which the prisoner was foun guilty and sentenced to suffer death . 5 daybreak on the following mornin, l The unfortunate man threw himself an agony of terror and despair on h l knees and implored his harsh judges i ) heartrending tones for, mercy, but |; course without avail. He was dragge back to his dungeon, where his wife an :, children had most affecting intervie @ with him.
 During the night gallows was erec ed on the parade ground in front of u
 military guard house. It was 8 rougl
 hewn structure, the rope with whit
 the doomed man was to be strangled i. death dangling down from an iron hoo 5 in the crossbeam. At 7 o'clock A. l = the garrison of Irkntsk formed hnlln