The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-22

dressed very simply, but with much neat
ness and good taste. Her general appear
ance did not belle her remarkable char
acter. Even in Russia it would be difficult
% md 2 more extreme idealist than
Mme- Sinlda. She insisted on the most
implicit fidelity to principle. and could toll
crate no compromise, not even in the mIn-
ute details of daily life. For these tribes
sne demanded the same courageous con-
slstency as in the most important NOM
ents OF trial. III once g friend rendered
himself cuipable, in private life, OF some
nIue ac,icn. however trifing, not in harm-
ony with his principles, he was at once lost
IN her estimation, and this in spite of a
very great merit displayed in public life
and IN graver circumstances.
Ust-kara, where Nine. Sihida was i'm
prisoned, is the first of the villages which,
taken together, constitute the gOld-mining
district OF Kara 1t is large village, boast
ing OF three shops, and inhabited princi-
paiiy by Russians. who live either by agri-
cultural pursuits or by trade. Here is
the female political prison. 1t is large.
square building, situate in the middle of
fields. and therefore cannot be APP
preached without attracting attention.
AS usual, the prison is surrounded
oy a high stockade, which forms a
give on TO passage This passage is care
fully closed and watched, but the doors are
ieit open SO that the prisoners are free to
visit the various rooms and make the most
OF each others society. The rooms are
very damp and unwholesome The pris-
oners complain that there is no ambulance
chest provided, though it exists in the
convict gaols. The service is done by
gendarmes, which is. of course, very
unpleasant for the prisoners 1t was in
this prison that Nine. Soluzeff- Kovalsky
was dragged from her bed in her
nightdress and made to walk the
passage to the officers room. Here even
her slender night garment was torn from
her and convict's robes substituted. amid
the jeers of brutal gaolers. Three times
the women organized hunger strike to
obtain the removal of Masukoff, the direc-
tor OF the prison, who had caused this out
rage to be committed. The last of these
strikes lasted twenty-five days. The
women We're only kept alive by food
mechanically forced upon them. Then,
at last. Nine. Sihida contrived to
box Masukof's ears; and, instead
OF being hung as she had hoped, was
fogged to death. The Russian govern
ment boasts that it has abolished the
knout, but it has established in ITS stead
the pet, sort of birch, which, according
to the testimony OF Russian officers. quoted
by George KEENAN,, can be made to cause
death in 100 blows. 1t was precisely to
100blows that Mime. Sihida was condemned.
and this in spite OF the protest of the
prison doctor, who refused to be
present The execution, there is
good reason to believe, was illegal.
since. according to law, corporal punish
ment sholld only be administered after
judgment pronounced by tribunal, and
after examination and approval by medi-
cal man. Both conditions were wanting
in the present case. Nevertheless, and at
the single command of the chief director of
convict prisons in Eastern Siberia, Nine.
Sihida was logged. This dreadful and de-
grading punishment is generally adminis-
tered in manner as simple as it was
brutal. The victim is stripped and thrown
down on bench, some soldiers hold the
arms. others hold or sit upon the
legs, while the executioner f1ogs the naked
back from the neck down to the
hips. No wonder so sensitive, nervous
and highly-strung q woman as Nine.
Sihida died from the shock of such inhu-
man treatment. Nor is it surprising that
all the political prisoners who had heard
of this atrocious brutality Joined in such q
protest as would impress even the Russian
authorities. Nine. Sihida's prison COM
panions, Mines. Kovaicoskaia, Smirnizki
and Kalnujy. poisoned themselves. The
thirty male prisoners at Lower Kara Also
it is known, took poison. though only two
died, the authorities being able to admin
lister emetics in time to save the restj