The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1879-10-30
RUSSIAN PRISON HORRORS.
Horrible Suicide
A Lady's story OF Her Wrongs and

A Lady's story OF Her Wrongs ana
suTerinss.
The st. Petersburg correspondent of the
London DAILY Telegraph writes under date Of
the DIST OF September:
In the extraordinary desth-bed notes Of
the Russian Colonial Agent, who commit
ted suicide in Jhitomir by slowly burning
his spine, reference is made to a man who
had some short time previous to that awful
tragedy burned himself to death in Odessa
under peculiarly appalling circumstance
A the self-murderer alluded to was
Nihilist Of some local notoriety, who had
been apprehended by the Russian police,
and was lying in jail awaiting trial, his
suicide has been regarded in this country
az political incident OF no small import
ance as e1emplifying the stern stoicism
which would appear to characterize the
leaders Of the revolutionary
movement. Several, indeed, have
exhibited the most undoubted heroism at
the very foot of the gsllows, meeting their
death with perfect calmress-even, in one
or two cases, with obviously unaffected
cheeIfulness. 1t appears that Serge Somoff,
an ex-student of the Odessa University, had
been imprisoned for many months in the
jsil of that city, the case against him being
incomplete, and that the cell he was con-
fined in (alresdy in filthy state when he
first entered it, had never been clesnsed
during his tenancy. The accumulstions of
refuse and nameless denominations with
which its paved door was wholly covered
gave out 20 vile an oilluvium that he had
complained for some time before his sui
eide of suffocatien, resulting in giddiness
and fainting fits, and had repeatedly i'm
plored the prison officials visiting his cell
TO hasten on his trial, as the fortunes be
was niuring in the mephitic atmosphere
of his dungeon we're absolutely unbearable
The Governor OF the Jail, irritated
by his daily reiterated ILL
portunities, Caused corporal punish
ment to be inflicted upon Somoff
with terrible severity, and ordered that his
hands shou be tied behind his back with
q stout ropa, in which condition he was
left alone Ia his cell, stretched out upon
the sioping boards that constituted his only
sleeping place. Thus abandoned to his
miserable lot, bound, smarting from q BE-
we're hogsing, and utterly desperate, he
struggled into a position on his plank,
contrived to seize with his teeth the Pc
troleum lamp standing on a bracket above
his head, bit through the glass well con-
tanning the petroleum, which caught fire
from the still burning flame of the lamp
and allowed the lighted liquid to stream
down over his body, setting his prisou rags
on fire. Then he lay down again and
suffered the agony of burning without q |
cry or groan. Presently the stencil of his |
flesh made its way through the |
crevices of his cell door into the corridor, |
where sentry was stationed, who gave |
the alarm, and the turnkey, upon opening |
the door, beheld the unfortunate prisoner |
in fiery shroud Of lam
bent flame, Pickering dimly amidst 1
The clouds of thick and acrid smoke
with which the dungeon was filled. Sol
nof uttered no sound even when help ap
him, but regarded his tormeutors
with steady and coldly resentfuI gaze
The surface of his body was already carbon
zed; but he lived for three hours and a
lsif after the flames consuming him had
,een extinguished, and answered all the
lues,i ons put to him with immovable calm
md exposure. He stated that he should
ave been content to submit to the sentence
# any legal tribunal, and to pay for his
,oliticsl convictions with his life if con-
lemned to death in the usual manner; but
hat he had been unable to endure the
and iuhuman tortures which
lad been inflicted upon him BY his jailsr.
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.
Another terrible narrative Of the atroci-
les perpetrated BY the Russian police
authorities under cover of the "state of
iege," has Just reached us from Geneva,
'here . journal is published in the
russian language, called the O5scldchtjel
)jelo, and edited by Michael Dragoman
n ex Professor Of the Kew uniyer- q,
ity. This paper, although inscribed in
he Russian Index EKpurgstorius, finds I
ts way scross the frontier, in spite Of that {
with the utmost regularity. q
q the issue of the oath ult il prints Q |
eugthy statement made by Oiimpiada {
iafieros formerly provincial schoolmis. Z
ress in Russia, detailing the manner of I
er treatment at the hands of the "Third Z
ection." Early in the year Of 1877 Mdlle {
le6ero opened 4 school in the District Of {
yyschnyi Wolotschok, belonging to the 4
'wer Government, and taught the peasant I
hiidren for two consecutive years without 6
xacting any school fees from their par r
nts. On the 18th of last June che was A. '
ssted without any previous warning and !
arown into prison. Her narrative from 9
,is date may best be recounted in her own
ords. She writes a. follows: Il
"After had lain for few days in the 9
Ill of Wyschnyi- Wolotechok, the Gov d
rner of Tver, Sorrow, entered my cell one b
forming and acquainted me with the cause n
my arrest and imprisonment. Ac- q
,rding to his statement my a
fsnse consisted in having impaired in u
ructiou to peasant children, which is only Y
ermitted to male teachers, and in having, .
fteen years ago, been seen in . boat with {,
.versl students. For having committed v
,ese crimes it was the intention of the .
utboritiss TO send me across the frontier.
RON ysohnvi-W olotschok l was can d
eyed to IT. Petersburg, where l rem aimed e
" whole week in jail; thence was Z
ansported by rail, with fifty other pris-
ners, to wilma From the wilma railway b
alton We were all marched, late 1t night, +
} the prison, where, admission being re. g
1sed to Us On account of the latenss Of the c
our. We we're compelled to stand all night
'0g In IN open court yard under inoessApt Q
&