The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-07-26
A Russian Reformer's Fate.
lew York Tribune,


A man with conscience has suddenly
emerged from tho Russian civil service
This is Pavel Birwsnsk, an imperia
sate attorney, who has recently been
commissioned by the government to
make special investigation of Tire ju.
dicial and administrative abuses O,
0renburg. An account of his expert
enoe during the four months which bis mis-
sion occupied has been published ia the
Sleverny Viestnik and translate by the
Telegraph of London. tits aghastly record
Of magovernm mt, heartessnesa, tyranny
and bsrbsri,y.
The commissioner describes himself as
living in ian atmosphere Of appalling grosns
and heart-rendng signs" He liberated
Innocent csptives who had been secretly
tortured and closely confined for
years after they had been publicly
acquitted in open court. He re-
celved the sworn statement of peasant
women, whose flesh had been pinched with
red'hot tongs rs punishment for their pre-
sumption in pleading for their husbands
lives. He visited the state prisons, where
hundreds of prisoners draped in rotten rags
are condemned to lingering deaths
without ever being allowed to
know what has been laid 10
their charge. or who has accused them OF
wrong. The roofs Of these charpel houses
wherein they grovel are ready 10 fall in upon
them at any moment; the wslls are lined
with damp and clsmmy fungus, and
the air 10 these loathsome dens Is 80
rank and fetid from "the dirt of
ages and calculations from every SORT
OF soominaliou" as absolutely to stop the
visitors breath. He learned tina, absent.
minded prisoners, who used the familiar
form OF "thou' in place of you" In address
ing the officials In charge Of their dungeons,
were tied to q horses tail and
a,ogged with thorny rods steep, d
10 salt water, receiving som, =
Smes as many % one hundred and twenty
nVe blows. BE found 10 the inArmsres the
mslority Of the sick patients stretched upon
Me bare boards, and often among
she dead bodies Of their compsps
ions. 30 was Il revealed 10 me-"
s,.m s me Commissioners, Show our judges
sample the laws under foot; how cyni.
s.,, and wanton 10 the behavior of our
Ronoei how savagely brute force 10
la. W Vour upOn tn0 weak and friend.
Inc most shocking disclosures which tho
commissioners make relate TO the town iail
w. " hezk not far from Orenburg. All The
p,nohers had been led out on one occasion
~ public square. and not 60 much
'~h as "hslf hammered 70 death"
sSiuo,,m st the populsco swept
o".I As the details of this horrible
nr,n sge are recited, they were first logged
Su uM. .ney tainted; next they wore soused with
si u,ses OF water until they regained /.
r,,.slc,ss and then knocked about with
ns,,., Keys, iron chains and rins stocks; and
And y .oey were tied together by tho feet
fail I arisen into the prison yard, where they
ma ron sheer exhaustion In bleeding
mi. ahhhsurod hesps. The governor Of
ms,, IM,, who had ordered snis punish.
SVS VIM 70 DO Inflicted upon all Tho prisoners
smS. vus exception and solely for his own
poli"s was once . commissAry Of
ss, .Se aud had been dismissed from Tho
Ia Tor shameless corruption. yet
hi.hu aa retained sufficient influence in
ma. quarters 70 secure another s.d
Ntt.s, iesponAbls post whore he coulS
.snS voc eeastial Instincts Of his ssiurs
"1 ~ savage Vengeance upon The