Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-02-20
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Prisoners Drivea Frantic
LONDON, Feb. 16.-Provided with .
cable dispatch of introduction from
George KEENAN,, the celebrated Siberian
traveller, the London agent of the Asso-
ciated Press called on Sergius Stepniak,
the well known writer upon Russian
political and social conditions, and asked
him whether he could give any informA-
ton in regard to the outrages in the po-
htical prison at Kara in Eastern Siberia,
rumors OF which had recently reached
the public press by way of the Russian
colony in Paris.
Mr.. Stepniak replied that the reports
already published gave only hint of
the horrible tragedy enacted at Kara.
Perfectly trustworthy information, he
said, had been received in cipher letters
that have succeeded in getting to Paris
and London from exiles in Eastern Si-
IBERIA These letters. which wore moth
Ing but meager scraps Of paper, told the
story OF the recent horror only in its
main outlines. but one who knew about
the Siberian prison life did not need
cfrcumstantial recital to understand the
cruelty of discipline and the agony of
suffering of which this horror was the
elimination.
According to the latest information
Madame Sihida did not commit suicide,
as the earliest reports stated. She died
from the effect of cruel fogging to
which she was subjected. The fogginR
took place on Wednesday, November 6.
1t was continued till under the brutal
blows the unhappy victim lost conscious
ness and lay as one dead. The poor
woman never revived from the terrible
shock, but continued to grow weaker
and weaker until Friday, when death
came to her relief. The news of
her shocking official murder produced
widespread dismay among her fellow
prisoners and three of them, unable to
longer bear their wretched fate, COM
mitted suicide by taking poison. How
they obtained the poison is not known,
but probably they had long had it in their
possession and were keeping it as last
resort. The names of the women were
Marie Kaluzhnaya, Maria Paoloona
Karalofskaya and Nadezhda Smirnit-
skaya.
Marie Kaluzhnaya was arrested in
1884, being then girl of eighteen, on a
charge of disloyalty. Her father was a
merchant at Odessa. During her inn
prisonment every means was tried in
vain to extort from her a confession inn
plicating her friends. At last Colonel
Katanski, a gendarme officer, brought
to her skillfully forged statement
purporting to be the confession of her
fellow conspirators and promising i'm
munity if she also confessed. Marie
fell into the trap, confessed and her con-
fession was used against her friends, who
were sentenced to penal servitude.
When she learned that they had made
no confession, but had been convicted on
her testimony alone, she procured re-
/ volver, and on August 81, called on Col
| onel Katanski and fired at him, wound
! ing him slightly in one ear. For this
/ attempted assassination she was con-
demned by court martial at Odessa Sep
| TENDER 10, 1884, and sentenced to twenty
years penal servitude.
| Maria Paoloona Kara1efskaya was q
married lady, about thirty-five years OF
| age, daughter of a we'll known landed
| proprietor in the south of Russia, Paul
| Yoroutsof, and sister of Basil Voroutsof,
| one of the best known political econ.
| Omists in Russia. She Joined secret
| circle which was surprised and captured
by the police in February, 1879. and
sentenced to thirteen years. penal
servitude, with exile to Siberia
for life and deprivation of all civil
rights. Her husband, though not pres
ent, was sent by administrative process
1000 miles from the mines to which she
was sent The separation drove her
insane and she was put in a straight
jacket. In 1881 she was allowed to join
her husband in the hope of restoring
her reason. She recovered, but a new
Governor separated them again and she
was returned to the Kara mines.
Nadezhda Smirnitskaya was thirty
three years old and a student in a
woman's college. She was sent to the
, Kara mines for fifteen years with penal
servitude.
Shortly after the suicide of the three
women a brother of Marie Kaluzhnaya,
also q political prisoner, died suddenly.
1t is not definitely known as yet wheth-
er he, too, died by poison, or whether
his death was the result of overpower-
| ing grief on learning of the death OF
| his sister.
| Another exile named Bobokov com.
| mitted suicide rather than submit to the
| cruel humiliation and suffering of q fog.
! cling. Bobokov was a university stu.
| dent and took part in some public
demonstration OF the students which
was disp:easing to the authorities. He
was thereupon ordered to make his
abode at Pirtega, small village in the
province of Archangel, the northernmosi
of European Russia. From there he at
tempted to make his escape and for this
offense he was exiled to the mines Of
| Eastern Siberia.
The fogging of Mime. Sihida occurred
under orders issued by Lieutenant-Gen
eral Baron Kosf, the Governor-General
of the province of the Amour, in which
the Kara prison is situated. These or
ders directed that the secret edict o.
March, 1883, signed by Ga1kine Vraski
Director-Genera1 OF the prisons for the
Empire, should be unfinchingly inforced
This edict was to the effect that the po
1itical convicts should be treated by pris
on officials in precisely the same manner
rs criminals condemned for common Law
offenses- Political prisoners were thus
made liable to logging for breaches o.
prison discipline.
Clippings.
/ r ia tod hv tho Southern PaCl1(