The Benton weekly record. [volume] (Benton, Mont.) 1880-1885, 1884-04-26

not fail to carry out my wishes with re-
gard to his son. Yours sincerely,
JUDITH VoLCHoW.
2. S.-This letter will be conveyed by
hand to Europe and then posted.
I knew that Ivan Volchow had been
mixed up with the proceedings Of the re-
volutjonary party. And as it was only at
ST. Petersburg that | was likely to learn the
particulars OF his fate, | went there at
once. His case had excited unusual in
terest on account Of his defense of the
principles Of Nihilism, as we'll rs of other
circumstances connected with his death.
Thus he was reported to have spoken:
INV Lord-Judges- have been found
guilty OF high treason, and guilty admit
that am. And in due course, according
countrympn are for the most part ignorant
of the motives of my crime, let me now
explain to them from my point of view
Russia presents itself to me in two aspects.
On the one'h observe a race torpid
and bpDighted, the blood in whose stag
1ant viens the spirit of freedom has never
Dyet stirred; people who are the ever
patient prey Of the usrer, the rax-gatherer
and the drill sergeant, and upon whom
there weighs the intolerable burden of a
gigantic army, corrupt bureaucracy and
timid autOcracy. On the other. behind
the veil of the to-come, / behold, as with
the eye of faith, an active and intelligent
nation, rejoicing in equal rights and con-
tented as a group of American States.
Here, in the present, it is a tangible,
political, and social system, supported by
material forces, the potency of which it is
almost impossible TO OVer-estimate. There,
in the future, formed merely of the phanta
lnata Of natural aspiration is a different Or
der Of things, and yet [ declare that the
hour is at hand when the one system, deep
rooted and solid as it seems, shall pass ut
ter!y away, and that the other. nebulous as
it appears, shall take form and substance,
"'IN, ~ lOlIS as IL lcualils III udIl1Ouy
with the genius of the people, possess the
place Of the present one. For the word is
governed by ideas, and not by bayonets.
Furthermore, | would have them to under
stand that l and my fellow propagandists
are uOt, as they may seem, the primal
causes Of this movement, but the inevita-
ble results Of the operation Of irresistible
forces; and also, that although have de-
voted my life to the destruction of the
most mOnStrOus anachrOnism Of modern
days which is the motive Of my crime
that the responsibility of it rests not with
me, but with a government composed of a
camarilla who cannot read the signs Of
The times, or rather will not
The fifth day after the trial was named
for the execution. Immense preparations
were made in order that the vast multitude
whose presence was expected should be
duly impressed, and the daring set Of
which FOlch0w was chief, paralyzcd with
fear.
Permission had been given Judith TO see
Ivan on the eve Of the fatal day, and an
interview lasting an hour actually took
place. With i warder on each side she
was suffered to utter her words Of fare
we'll outside his cell, and then touch for a
mement through the bars his lips with hers.
On the following morning st. Petersburg
was astir, hurrying toward the place where
the sca1lold was erected. Suddenly at 8
o'clock--the hour when the tumbril with
the condemned should have arrived--s rtl-
NOR swept through the crowd that SOME
thing was wrong. The news come that the
gallows would not be used that day.
The people dispersed accordingly, turi
GUS with the authorities. But it was not
so much their fault as that of the principal
performer that the show was fiaseo. For
Ivan Eolchow, in fact, had been found
dead in his cell.
1t was Immediately announced that the
malefactor had died of heart complaint in
the night, and the statement was confirm
Ctk NY IIltdiSr1 ASeAAult1Ns KNOW
if the people were satisfied with this ex-
planation of the occurrence, but was not.
For Ivan Volchow had none of the ap-
pearance of a man afflicted with heart
disease. Ny suspicious, however, that
the authorities had lied, were never con-
frmed.
Let me now put back the clock eightand
twenty years. 1t was dark night in Janu
ary, 1855, and heavy firing was going on
in front of the right attack of Sebastopol.
For more than an hour those in advanc-
ed trenches could hear the shout OF triumph
and yells Of defiance as the MuscoVlte
grappled with his enemy in the gloomy
hollow beneath the mighty Malako1F.
Then gradually the conflict ceased, ana
our men returned, bringing with them
three prisoners. Among the latter was an
n fficar ha11v wo1n1n1 IT was fOunt =