News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-22
THE KNOUT IN RUSSIA.
THE TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT IN.
FLICTED UPON A CRIMINAL.
The Wonderful Powers of Endurance on
the Part of Russian PrisOner-399
Blows, and then the HIines of Siberia.

Mazof had murdered man, a woman
and little boy. Before the magistrate
he had made a full confession of his
guilt. A determined attempt was made
by the soldiers to mob him while he was
making his confession, but it was re-
pressed He was reserved for a much
more terrible punishment than that &C
corded by lynch law. He was sentenced
to three hundred and ninety mine lashes
with the knout.
He was marched out to punishment
in company with two forgers, all St.
Petersburg turning cut to witness the
spectacle. This horrible show is thus
graphically described by the old chroni-
Gle:
"The stake prepared for him was a
strong block of wood fixed in the ground
with three grooves at the top and two
rings near the bottom; the middle groove
was for the neck, and the two others for
the armpits, the rings below to lock
round the ankles; about the stake were
laid coarse skins, especially where the
knout- master trod, upon which lay his
whips, marking irons, pincers, etc. An
officer then read paper to the people,
signifying that forgery upon the I'M
perial Bank being capital crime, two
of the prisoners convicted of it were
condemned to receive eleven blows with
the knout, to have their nostrils pulled
out and be banished for life to Siberia;
the murderer of SO many people to re-
ceive three hundred and ninety-nine
blows, to be branded three times in the
face. have his nostrils pulled out, and,
if then alive, to be banished for life to
the mines of Siberia.
"The executioner and his assistants
then stripped him, tied his hands across
and led him to the post. After fixing
his ankles they bent his neck and arms
over it, and drew the rope with which
his hands were tied through the ring on
the opposite side, which seemed to
stretch all the muscles of the back. He
then retired about four or five yards
from him, and, taking up one of the
knouts, worked it with his hands to give
it a proper elasticity. Walking toward
he criminal with four or five steady
steps, then taking a spring, he struck a
perpendicular stroke with heavy, loud
crack. The first stroke cut from the
right side of the bottom of the neck to
the left armpit. The effect was visible
in moment, and by the violence of his
screams afforded reason to suppose that
the pain was very great. The second
was about half an inch below the first
and so on till twenty-five, when,
changing the whip, the operator erased
the former wound, striking from the
left side to the right and after yard
quite perpendicular. sThe strokes were
given with the greatest regularity. Be-
tween each a person might deliberately
count eight, the executioner always
walking slowly to and from the stake.
ellis cries were now so terrible that
some of the spectators were obliged to
turn their backs and put their fingers In
their ears. All was quiet and silent,
and the crack of the knout was heard
great distance. After receiving three
hundred lashes, the culprit's voice grew
faint, and during the last one hundred
he showed no signs of life whatever, the
whole of the upper part of the back by
ing beaten to black mummy. After
the last blow the assistants lifted up the
face by the hair, and the executioner
struck him three times with an instru-
ment that left the initial of murderer,
throwing each time handful of black
dust into the wound; after which, at two
pulls, he tore the gristle OF his nose,
and loosened him from the block. The
whole lasted about three quarters of an
hour, and it was generally thought that
he had been dead some time; however,
he made feeble attempt to put on his
coat, and recovered sufficiently to be
able to make some reparation to society
by working the iron mines.',