The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-03-07
FEARFUL OUTRAGE.
Particulars of the Outrage in
the Political Prison at
Kara, Siberia.
Forty Lives Lost by the Burst
ing of Walnut Grove Dam
in Arizona.

friends who are located short distance
from the scene of the horrors. They are
brief, but conclusive, confirming fully re-
port of the affair received here from an OF
fetal in st. Petersburg who is in sympathy
with the cause of the people. According to
the details received to-day it appears that
the trouble at the Kara prison originated IN
"hunger strike" in August, when the wonl-
en- political prisoners tried to starve them
selves to death to escape the brutalltles OF
their iailers All the women imprisoned
there abstained from food for fourteen days.
The iailers did not believe that they would
be able to keep up the struggle At first
they ieered at the women, then tempted
them with food, and then, finding this of
no avail threatened them. When several
of the women were at the point of death
from their voluntary abstinence from food
heprison officials resortedt to artificial means
to compel them to take nourishment. The
methods adopted, however, were violent and
licentious, and the women were compelled
to abandon their strike. Abominable out
RACES followed and were Of daily and hourly
occurrence. This state of affairs led Mad
anne Sicida, whose death by tfogging has al
ready been announced, to ask for an inter-
of securing an amelioration of the condi-
ton of the prisoners. This request was
granted, but when she was taken before
him she found him abusive. 1t is said that
in her evaporation at his abuse she called
him villain and slapped his face. 1t is not
positively known, however what took place
during the interview, but whatever did hap
pen, Madame Sicida
DID NOT RETURN TO HER COMPANIONS.
She was taken from the directors office and
conveyed to the prison in which common
offenders are confined. Three Of her COM
panions from among the political prisoners
were permitted to join her. The advices
received to-day state that there were Mary
Koaleski, wife of Prof. Koaleski of Kieff;
Madame Smirnitsky and Marie Kolujny.
The last two ladies were from Odessa. Two
months elapsed after these events before
Lieut.. Gen. Baron Koff, governor general
OF the province of the Amour, instructed
the directors of prisons that the secret
edict of March, 1885, which or
dered that political prisoners should be
treated by prison officials in pre-
cisely the same manner as criminals con-
demned for common law offenses would be
enforced, and ordered the directors to no.
THY the political prisoners of both sexes
that they would be liable to corporal pun
ishnent if they violated certain of the
prison regulations. The male prisoners,
foreseeing immediate danger, held a con-
sultation and sent to the director of the
prison a petition that he would telegraph
to the minister of the interior at st. Peters
burg requesting him to suspend the appli-
cation of the edict This the director re-
fused to pay any attention to, and there
upon the men warned him that the first
fogging of a political prisoner would be the
signal for the others to
COMMIT SUICIDE TOGETHER.
Three days afterward Lieut.. Gen. Baron
korff sent a special order directing that
Madame Sicida be punished according to
the regulations and the order was executed
stripped and received 100 lashes. She was
carried off bleeding and in an unconscious
condition, and her death ensued from a
rupture OF the heart. Her three compan-
ions committed suicide within an hour of
the time of hearing of Madame Sicida's
women were buried at the same
time in the courtyard of the common
offenders prison. For weeks Gordon Of
vigilance was so closely maintained around
the prison that nothing was known of what
was happening within. Since the secret
channel of information has been reopened,
it has been learned that the men carried out
the threat of suicide. They met together
and thirty of them shared what
poison they could obtain and then
went to their cells to die.
The quantity of poison which had
been struggled into the prison was not sui
ficient to kill quickly, but in the course of
-Bobokova and Kolujpy-died. Their
convulsions and the dead silence which
reigned n the other cells reused the
attention of the guards, and they immedi-
ately summoned physicians who admin
istered emetics to the survivors and endeav-
Ored by every means to cOunteract the ef-
fects OF the poison.
PETITION TO THE GAR
PHILADELPHIA, .Special.-.A largely at
tended meeting Of the Siberian Exile Petit
ton association was held here to-day. The
form Of petition to the car of Russia was
agreed upon. 1t is the purpose of those in
terested in this movement to circulate cop
les of the petition all over the United States
for signatures and to place the same in the
hands of the car. The petition, in SUBJ
stance, is as follows:
To His Imperial Majesty the Car of All the
Rsssias We who petition your majesty are
belong to people who have long been bound by
the national ties of sympathy and gratitude to
the great Russian nation. and to the czars
clothed with her majesty, who WELD her power
and shape her destiny. Sharing az the past has
taught us to do in the thoughts that concern
the glory and happiness of your people,
we have been moved to bring to you, with good
greetings; this petition: That your majesty will
personally take note OF a widespread interest
among us, in the workings and effects OF the ST.
IBERIA exile system. We do not forget the penal
reforms already accomplished in the Russian
empire. We are not blind to the mental and
physical sufierinss that OF necessity are a part
OF any system of punishment for crime against
an ;,yi society or the state; nor
actively engaging the attention Of
phiianthropists in our own methods OF dealing
with convicts. In this we are but giving ex.
preston to the feeling OF friendly people, that
n the punishment of some of her subjects Rus
STA, whether from causes peculiar to her people
or on account OF ancient custom, is not in ali
points in harmony with the humanizing senti-
ments OF the age. Whether we err in this or
whether we are right, our wish is that by the
wisdom and power of the car and the favor of
God, Russia may continue to grow in the ad-
mlIation and sympathy of the American people,
and OF the whole civilized world
ADAM BURSTS