Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-05-01
The Russian knout.

There is probably no more terrible
instrument of punishment, or it may
perhaps be more properly called tor
ture, than the knout i'm the hands of a
Russian eXecutioner. Togive the read
er some idea of its form, the mode of adj
ministering it, and its horrible effects.
we quote the following from a recently
published work, entitled "The knout
and the Russians" Conceive a ro--
bust man, full of life and health. This
man is condemned TO receive fifty or a
hundred blows of the knout. He is
conducted, half naked, TO the place cho-
sen for this kind of execution. All
that he has on is pair of linen drawers
round his extremities. His hands are
bound together, with the palms laid
fat against one another. and the cords
breaking his wrists; but no one pays
the slightest attention to that. He is
laid fiat upon his belly, on frame in
clined diagonally, and at the extremi-
ties of which are fixed iron rings; his
hands are fastened to one end of the
frame, and his feet to the other: he is
he cannot make single movement, just
as an cells skin is stretched in order
to dry. This act of stretching the vic
tim causes his bones to crack, and dis
locates them-but what does that mat
ter? At the distance of ffive-and-twenty
PAGES stands another man: it is the pub
lie eXecutioner. Heis dressed in black
velvet trOwsers, tucked in his boots, and
colored shirt, buttoning at the side.
His sleeves are rolled up, so that
nothing may thwart or embarrass him
in his movements. With both hands he
grasps the instrument of punishment
"a knout. This knout consists of a
thong of thick leather, cut in a triangu-
lar form, from four to five yards long,
and an inch wide, tapering off at one
end. and broad at the other; the small
end of which is fastened to little
wooden handle, about two feet long.
The signal is given: no one ever takes
the trouble to read the sentence. The
executioner advances few steps, with
his body bent. holding the knout in
both hands, while the long thong drags
along the ground between his legs. On
coming to about three or four PAGES
from the prisoner, he raises, by Wig
orous movement. the knout towards
the top of his head, and then instantly
draws it down with rapidity towards
his knees. The thong flies and whistles
through the air, and descending on the
body of the victim, twine round it like
a hoop of iron. In spite of his state of
tension, the poor wretch bounds as if
he were submitted to the powerful
grasp of galvanism. The executioner
retraces his steps, and repeats the same
operation as many times as there are
blows to be inflicted. Where the thong
envelopes the body with its edges, the
flesh and muscles are literally cut into
stripes, as if with a razor: but when it
falls fiat, then the bones crack. The
flesh, in that case, is not cut, but crush
ed and ground, and the blood spurts
out in all directions. The sufferer be-
comes green and blue, like body in a
state of decomposition. He is removed
to the hospital, where every care is
taken of him, and he is afterward sent
to Siberia, where he disappears forever
! in the bowels of the earth"