The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-09-05


from an imaginary fire. Knowing this,
they mostly prefer to knock loud
enough to awaken the dead, crying at
the same time: "The police! the
police! Open the door, or we will
break it in" Nor is the threat vain
one. The Russian police make no
scruple about house-breaking, an art
in which they are as accomplished as
the professional burglars. They some
times begin in this way when they can
do so without making noise At the
seizure of the clandestine printing Office
of the Icherney Perdid the gendarmes,
either by lifting the doors from their
hinges, as the official report said. or by
using skeleton keys, as ran the rumor,
took the inmates by surprise and ar
rested all as they lay in bed. Violence
and brutality were always in Russia
the concomitants of domciliary
searches and arrests, and with the in
political criminals generally, the vio-
lence has become greater and the bru-
tally more ruthless.
A FRUITLEss SEARCH.
Here are a few instances of the
methods of the Russian police, taken
almost at random from the great mass
OF materials at my disposal: On a fine
day in May, 1879, a small army,
composed of infantry, Cossacks and
gendarmes. set out from the town OF
Koupiansk, province of Kharkov, drums
beating, bands playing-drum-maior
at their head and muskets at the trail
as if they were marching to meet an in.
vader But the force being under the
command of the Procurator, it was evil
dent that the enemies they were about
to encounter were either actual or sus
pected Nihilists. The first object OF
the attack was MIR. Boguslavsky. a
large landowner. The garden and
grounds were surrounded by Gordon
of soldiers, while the Procurator,
Melchnikotf, at the head of posse of
policemen and gendarmes, beset the
house, which naturally surrendered at
discretion. After turning everything
upside down, in their usual fashion,
they examined the garden with equal
care, dragged the fish pond, and left
no corner of the premises unvisited.
But their search was fruitless-they had
to go away as empty-handed as they
came. Nevertheless Mr.. Boguslavsky
was placed under domiciliary arrest
and guard left in possession of his
house.
HIGH-HANDED PROCEEDINGS.
The detachment next paid visit to
Mr. Balavinsky, Justice of the Peace for
the district of Senkoff, whom they
treated in like manner, but as before
the police discovered not shred of evil
dence to Justify their suspicious. Were
searched also the houses and grounds
of Mr.. Vorenez and Mr. Dihokovsky,
rich landowners who had filled public
offices, with the same result. Nothing
was found. Nevertheless Mr.. Vorenez
was taken away to prison, and after
being kept for some time in custody ex-
lied to a remote province in the North
that of Oloneza. What he had done
to merit this punishment he never knew.
1t was said at the time that there had
been some rumors to his disadvantage
among the peasants. At length the
ProcuratOr withdrew his men and took
his departure, leaving the representa-
tives of the Koupiansk nobility in a
state of utter bewilderment as to the
cause of the sudden and unwelcome
visit they had received, and the humili-
alton to which they had been exposed.
Nor had they yet done with their zeal
GUS official A few months later he
paid them yet another visit, proceeded
precisely in the same way as before and
with precisely the same result. But as
it was deemed necessary to show some
oil
persons were arrested and exiled by
administrative order; for, on the princi-
pie that guilt should not be imputed
until it is proved, we have a right to
assume that the very fact of these I'M
fortunates being neither brought to
trial nor accused of any specific offense,
implies their innocence. With Mr..
Koutchalovsky, Justice of the Peace for
the district of Ekaterinoslav, the Procu-
rator was more fortunate. The police
found in his house the manuscript copy
of speech delivered by a workman
called Peter Sonaleste at the Trial OF
the Fifty" For this crime the Judge
was exiled to Arkangolesk, in the ex-
treme north of Russia.
ALLEGED CAUSE OF THE oUTRAGEs.
Until it was revealed by the indiscre.
ton of one of his employees, the cause
of the Procurator's excessive zeal re-
manned a mystery. In 1874, that is to
say five years previously, Leo Dihov.
kosky, one of the early apostles of rev.
olution, was sentenced to eight years
hard labor for having printed in a clan
destine printing office two socialist
pamphlets. But part only of hi:
type and plant were taken; the rest ht
had either destroyed or hidden safely
away. Now, as it happened. this gen
tleman was also a Koupiansk land
owner and akin to several of thu
neighboring gentry. So, Procuratol
MelchnikOff, turning things over ''ir
what he was pleased to call his mind, ;
came to the conclusion that the missing
type was concealed in some country
house of the district. Hence the mill
tary pomp and parade, all these pre-
tentious visits, house-searchings, fish
pond draggings and the rest, proceed
ings which both surprised and amused
the peasants and other inhabitants o
the neighborhood. According to an
other version-in country where tn,
press is fettered rumors naturally tax,
the place of news--the Procurator haC
some old scores to settle with the no
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