Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-02-15
RUSSIAN CRUELTY.
Eeartiess Methods OF Extractine
Testimony.

have space only for brief refer
ence to the many other methods of ex
torting testimony from arrested person:
whice are practiced by the gendarme:
and the officers of the department oi
Justice. One of tie most cruel of them
it seems to me, is tie custom of terrify
ing old and feeble arents into the be
lief that their sons or daughters viii
inevitably be hanged unless they con
fess, and then sending the poor old peo
pie. trembling with terror and blinded
with tears, to make an agoniZed appeal
10 their imprisoned children in theiI
cells. The officials know very vel
that the children will not be hanged
that it Is extremely doubtful whether
they will even be brought to trial
They are kept in prison simply because
the procureur hopes ultimately to oh.
tain information from th6m- If the
fortune of solitary confinement can be
intensified by adding to it the entreatieS
of half frantic parents, so much the
better. y little fright Will benefit the
old people and teach them to look after
their children more closely. and the
children's obstinate determination not
TO betray their friends Will perhaps bt
broken down by - sight OF the grief
and misery of their parents 1t is !
plan which, TO the official mind, works
benehcently both ways.
The aged mother of an exile whom
met in Trans-Baikal was made 10 be.
lleve that her son would certainly be
hanged unless he told all that he knew,
and then, upon condition that she
should try and persuade him to confess,
size was allowed 10 get TO his cell. y
terrible scene followed, in which the
white haired mother, fTenzied with fear
and choking with sobs, knelt to her
son, clung about his legs and tried 10
press. her tear wet face to his feet. as
she implOred him. 10y his love for her,
by her gray hairs, TO promise that he
would answer the questions of the gen.
darmes. The strain of such a scene
upon the emotions and the resolution
Of prisoner who Is weakened and de-
pressed by months Of solitary cOnflne-
ment, who loves and reveTeuceS his
mother, aud who sees her for the first
time since his arrest, and perhaps for
the last time before he goes TO Siberia,
j. simply heart breaking. The mother
finally departs III despair, bidding her
son goodby as she would bid goOdby Ia
the diving, while the son LAYS up the
mem0ries of this bitter hOuT-the cruel
deception of his mother, the torture of
himself and the attempt TO make the
most sacred Of human feelings serve
the purposes of the pOlice-slS memories
which will steady his nerves and steel
his heart when the time comes for ven
geAnce.
This playing upon the deepest and
IuOst intense of human emotions Is a
means Of eItOTtlng information from
unwilling witnesses - practiced more
or less in all Russian prisons where
Nolitical offenders are confined One
prisoner, for example, after months OF
1oiitaTy confinement, is promised an in
terview with his mother. Filled with
glad anticipations, he follows the guard
out through the long, gloomy corridor
into the prison court yard, where the
mother Is sitting on rude prison bench
forty or fifty feet from the door through
which he emerges. At the sight of the
veil remembered, loving face, changed
and aged by grief since he saw II last,
lis heart overfiOws with pity and ten
dsrness, and he Tushes toward her with
the intention of taking her into his
arms. He is at once stopped by the
guard, who tells him that the interview
Is not TO take place here, but in the Te-
ception room of the prison, TO which lie
is thereupOn conducted. He waits i'm
patiently ten minuteS-fifteen minutes
half an hour-and at last the door
opens. AS he springs toward 1t lie is
met, not by his mother, but by the pro-
cureur, who asks him whether, after
this further period of Tefle,t tion, he has
changed his mind with regard TO an
swering questions. He replies that he
was brought there, rs he supposed, to
see his mother, not for examination.
The prOCuTeur, however, informs him
that interviews with relatives are privi-
leges not granted To obstinate and re-
fractory prisoners, and that If he has
nothing TO add to his previous state
ments he viii lie taken 70 his cell. Dis
appointed and embittered, the young
man goes back to solitary confinement
with new cause for hatred and an in
tens.fied thirst for vengeance, while the
heart broken mother, whose misery has
only been increased by this brief glimpse
| of her son under guard and in prison
| dress, returns 10 Eer distant village
( home.
In another case which came to nv
knowledge in Siberia, the prisoner wa
/ "a young married woman with a baby il
her arms. She refused to answer Ques
tions intended to elicit eliminating
evidence against her friends, and the
gendarme officer who was CONDUCTING
the examination threatened, If she con
tIuued obstinate, TO take her child from
her. She made a pathetic appeal to tn,
/ procureur, and asked him whether ther;
was any law under which the gendarm'
officer could deprive her of her child il
she refused to testify. The procureur
Instead Of giving her a direct answer
told her that 1.-THE prudent course fo
her TO pursue would be not TO raise
question as to the legal authority of tn,
examining officer, but to tell him truth
fully all she knew; then it was certai!
that he could not take her child from
her" In the face Of threat so ter
rifying TO a young mother-she was no
more than % years of age when l mad,
her acquaintance in Siberia-she adher
ed to her determination not to betra,
her friends. Her babe was finally lef
in her possession, but she suffered week
of torturing apprehension, the mere re
membTance of which bathed her fac
with tears as she told me the story.
l have devoted much space 10 theS
Illustrations Of the use Of prison con
finement as a means of tortuTing politi
cal prisoners into making confession
partly because my notebooks are ful
of records of such cases which wer
everywhere forced upon my attention
In Russia, and partly because it seem
TO me to explain more clearly than an
other fact or set of facts the state o
mind in which so called ''terroristic'
activity originates. Whatever viey
one may take of the events in thei
moral aspect, one can see that sue
causes might be adequate to produc
such results without the ascription {
the Russian revolutionists either o