The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-07-23
Irregular Correspondence
ST. PETERSBURG, July 18th, Il

"a
| imperial state attorney, was sent upon spe-
cal mission to Orenburg by the Minister of
Justice with orders 70 investigate and report
upon the practice Of the Imperial tribunals in
that province He fulfilled the duties assigned
to him with conscientious exactitude, and was
consequently suspended from his Office. The
following is his report:
During the four months inquiry into the
proceedings of the Orenburg Courts of JUS
tce which carried on by command of the
Imperial Ministry, hundreds of suppliants ap-
pealed to me daily in person, and may say
with truth that my door was never closed to
them from early morning till late at night.
What did not learn from their disclosures,
supported by ludefeasible proofs 1t was re-
vealed to me how our judges trample the laws
under foot; how cynical and wanton Is the
behavior Of our police; how savagely brute
force is brought to bear upon the weak and
friendless. l lived in an atmosphere of ap.
palling groans and heart.breaking signs. l
| liberated innocent persons who had been kept
in prison by the executive for several years
after they had been publicly acquitted in open
court and who had been secretly tortured. |
took down the dispositions of peasantwomen
who had been subjected to torment-ther
flesh p;nched with red,hot topgs-by order
and III the presence of the Chief Commlssary
of Police, merely because they presumed to
plead on behalf of their unfortunate husbands.
| I al hot bar ahcnl Int
nothing in common betweer myself and the
local authorities whose functions were tenn
porarily placed under my control. A black
and bottomless gulf gaped between US. They
were creatures of whom an honest man can
neither think nor speak without disgust and
transportation. They trallicked wantonly with
our laws, converting them into vile instru-
ments OF eXtortion, wherewith to procure for
themselves all the luXuries of . sensual ex-
lstence by robbing Others of everything, even
to their last morsel of bread 1t could hardly
he believed how amazing is their deXterity IN
st,hing the groans of their miserable victims,
so that they become inauIliblc even to the most
sensitive and attentive ears. Thousands of
these official miscreants clutch foaming cham
pagnc-tlasks in their blood stained hands, wal
low IN every sort Of enjoyment, and lead COM
placent lives. No one has ever lntertered with
them; and woe to HIM who should dare to
attempt such thing!
"In truth am not the man to tighten the
burdens of our unhappy prisoners; my voice
is too weak to plead their cause effectually.
But modest as was my capacity it did not
prove utterly ineffective In the Orenburg Gov
eminent. l did not attempt much. All l
aimed at was to obtain little light and air
for the wretched captives. Words fail me to
describe the impressions made upon me by
my first visit to the state prisons. Hundreds
of human beings find a premature grave IN
these loathsome dens. They die lingering
deaths therein, or emerge from them crippled
for life, frequently to perish within the first
few days of their emancipation, after having
suffered loss of liberty for many years without
even knowing why they were ever incarcer-
ated. 1t was horrible to be compelled to &C
knowledge to oneself that these semi.animate,
wasted filthy and dlm-colored objects were,
after all, men and women.
"Draped in a few rotten rags, the merest
mockery of clothes, they groveled in hldeous
caverns, the roofs of which threatened to fall
In upon them at any moment, whilst the walls,
lined by damp with thick layer of clammy
fungus where they were not crusted with dirt
of ages were only kept standing at all by
wooken supports The confined atmosphere,
poisoned by exhalations from every SOFT of
abomlnation, absolutely stopped my breath, so
rank and fetid was it. In the infirmarles there
were never more than five or six bedsteads
and the majority Of the sick were compelled
to grovel on the bare and dirty boards of the
flooring, often amongst the corpses of their
dead fellow sufferers X
"The prisoner, Imankooh, was brought be.
fore that court last winter from Orenburg gao |
in the following condition: HIS shirt and
drawers-breeches had he none-were so tat.
tered that they did not cover his nakedness,
and were, moreover, so becrusted with dirt
that their uniform color was that of dark iron
rust. This abuse took place under the very
eyes of committee specially entrusted with
the sanitary inspection of prisons"
"Returning from q short iurlough, | was
making my customary round Of the district
prisons, when | noticed a quite abnormal ex
element amongst the prisoners at llegh. My
attention was also attracted by the strange
bearing of the gaol.governor, who appeared
agitated and pale as death whilst attending
upon me during the inspection. I made in
curry, and soon learnt that, just two months
previously, all the prisoners had been led out
to a small open space outside the town gate,
and there IN the presence of the governor and
Of lnrnn number of Inhabitants Ind heen