Connecticut western news., 1884-04-30
THE KN0UT IN RUSSIA.
THE TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT IN-
 ELECTED UPON A CRIMINAL.
The Wonderful Powers of Endurance on the Part of Russian PrIsoner-390 Blows, and then the Mines 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 ac. corded by lynch law. He was sentenced to three hundred and ninety-nine lashes with the knout.
 He was marched out to punishment in company with two forgers, all St. Petersburg turning out to witness the spectacle. This horrible show is thus graphically described by the old chroni- cle:
 '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 a 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 proper elasticity. Walking toward the 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 armpik The effect was visible in a 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 afterward quite perpendicular. The 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. "His 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 a 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 be, ing beaten to black mummy. After the last blow the assistants lifted up the face by the hair, and the executionel struck him three times with an instru ment that left the initial of murderer throwing each time handful of blacl dust into the wound; after which, at twC pulls, he tore the gristle of his nose and loosened him from the block. Th' whole lasted about three quarters of al hour, and it was generally thought tha he had been dead some time; however he made a feeble attempt to put on hi coat, and recovered sufficiently to b able to make some reparation to societ. by working the iron mines.