St. Landry democrat., 1888-08-18
RUSSIAN FANATICS.
Tortures Endured by the Followers of the
'sReformer'' Khodkine.

| OTLuFeS ny Tie oIIo" eTS OI inc
''Reformer" Khodkine.
Khodkine came to the conclusion
| that the end of the world was at hand.
| He plunged more and more deeply into
| these ideas as he contemplated the un-
satisfactory state of things surround
ing him-on the one hand the degra-
| dation of the moral tone of the people,
their drunkenness, their debasement
of manners, and on the other hand the
violence and tyranny of the authorities,
who, arrogant and cruel, treat the
people like a herd of cattle. khod-
kline ended by persuading himself that
the only way to save one soul was to
leave the world, to hide in a forest,
and make an end of this life of sin and
ignominy. He did not conceal his
views from his neighbors, and he
soon had devoted disciples, the
first of whom were members of his own
family-his mother, brother, sister-in-
law, and uncle. ''Antichrist is already
come, and goes to and fro in the EARTH"
taught Khodkine; 1.-THE end of the world
is at hand, let us fly into the forests,
bury ourselves alive, and die of hum
ger. Once in the woods the men set
themselves to dig out actual cata-
combs, while the women made dead
clothes These preparations lasted
through three days. All the disciples,
dressed in these clothes, had three
several times to renounce Satan and
all his works. The ceremony of alb
Duration over, Khodkine addressed
them in the following words: "Now
that you have renounced Satan, you
must die of hunger. If you take no
nourishment, if you drink no water for
twelve days,~you will enter into the
kingdom of Heaven" Then began
the interminable days of horrible suffer-
ing for these wretches. Tortured by
hunger and thirst, women and children
cried loudly for few drops of water.
The children's sufferings touched the
hearts of some of the fanatics, who
knelt to their chief praying him to
have pity on these little ones. But
khodkine was immovable. Tears,
prayers and suffering did not touch
him, and the children writhed in
agony, sucking the grass, chewing fern
fronds, or swallowing sand. Two Of
the fanatics could not endure this
sight, and fed during the darkness of
the night. This frightened Khodkine,
and he resolved to hasten the death
which was SO long in coming. 1.-The hour
of death has come; are you ready?" he
asked. 1--WE are ready" replied the
unhappy people, all their strength ex-
hausted. Then they began to mas
sacre the children. The bodies of the
victims were buried in the earth,
and the survivors decided to continue
their fast. But the fugitives had had
time to warn the police and they came
to the place. Hearing the steps of
men approaching, and being unwilling
to givP themselves up alive into the
hands OF the servants of Antichrist,
the fanatics reached the height of their
religious madness, swore to shed their
blood for Christ, and abandoned them
selves to horrible carnage. They be-
gan by killing the women with
hatchets, then they put an end to the
men most weakened by hunger, and
the leader, Khodkine, and three others,
were the sole survivors. They saw
the police and tried to escape into the
forest, but were caught and delivered
into the hands of justice. Comtempo-j
7nT.2I Re3Ye7r