Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-01
RELICS OF DARK AGES.
HAaHARiSM PRACTiCED BY MANY
CIVILIZED NATIONS.

dams Are Inhuman but Turks Arc Worse.
The examination of accused persons by
torture is permitted today in only two
European states, Turkey and Russia.
The method in Russia is illustrated in
the experience of forty-six prisoners re-
Gently condemned on political charges
at Warsaw. The details may seem in
credible, but they are circumstantially
given by a delegate from Poland to
Western Europe, the accuracy of whose
statements there is no reason to doubt.
The charge against the forty-six Poles
was that of belonging to secret soci-
ETY. which had for its object to alter,
soonersoF later, the existing form of gov
ernment." This they were told verbally,
no written document whatsoever being
shown to them.
Political suspects are not allowed to
seek any legal advice in self defense.
The investigation is managed not by
judges or lawyers, but by officers of the
gepdaxmerie. The gendarmes are paid
double salary while engaged in political
investigation, and it is therefore to their
in4arests to protract the process as much
aspnssihle.
MAKING A PRISONER INSANE.
Among the accused was one Ladislas
Guisbert- He was a private tutor of
good reputation. While in prison he fell
Ill with fever and became delirious.
Little or no care was taken of him, but
on the contrary attempts were made to
profit by the disturbed condition of his
mind to extort confessions from him.
The gendarmes hit upon an ingenious de-
vice to weaken his mind by breaking up
his rest Every half hour or so during the
night they would enter his cell under the
preSext of attending to a small oil lamp.
They made such a noise and clatter
that the prisoner awoke, and then the
gendarmes would question him, think
ing that IN his half sleepy condition he
might make some imprudent answers.
Sometimes Colonel Bielanowsh caused
this unfortunate man to be brought out
of his cell after midnight, so that he
might sign the minutes or protocol of
questions that had been put to him while
he was in bed.
Such treatment, inflicted at moment
when the patient was suffering from
fever, Sc aggravated the defirium that
ultimately Ladislas Guisbert completely
lost his reason. After time he became
q raxing lunatic and was removed to
madhouse.
Another prisoner, named Ferdinand
Zales6, was asked to give information
about the propaganda carried ON in the
factories of Warsaw and neighborhood.
He refused to turn informer. Thereupon
the authorities gave orders that Zalesd
should be conveyed to another part of
the prison and severely fogged. Colonel
Bielanowski accompanied the prisoner
and took his seat at little table well
provided with writing materials and
directed that the prisoner should be
questioned while being hogged.
ONE MANS TORTURE.
The colonel was ready to take down
his answers, and doubtless had these
proved satisfactory the severity of the
fogging would have been mitigsted.
Zalesh bravely endured the torture. He
did not answer a question or utter a
word. Tins man had been cruelty tor
tured because he would not say only
what the gendarmes supposed or guessed
he might know. The authorities, now
fearing that this modern revival of the
old and barbaric custom of questioning
under torture might, if known, cause
the outbreak of serious disturbances in
the town, determined to prevent all fur
ther communication between the pris-
oners and their friends and relativ es.
All permissions for interviews were
withdrawn, and it was only at the mo-
ment the prisoners were about to leave
Warsaw that the authorities allowed
them to see their friends. At this in
terxiew the truth became known.
In Turkey torture is regular part of
thescriminal process, and not, as in Rus
sia, comparatively exceptional. Foreign
eEs, of course, are subject to the juris-
diction of the diplomatic representatives
of their respective countries, but the ma
tiyes, whether Christian or Turk, are at
the merry of the sultan and his agents.
Western forms of trial are unknown,
and while Imprisonment is the nominal
penalty for many crimes, Turkish i'm
prisonment is lingering death. The
methods of extracting information from
accused persons in Turkey would be al
most incredible in a. civilized country.
TURKEY EVEN WORSE THAN RUSSIA.
The bastinado is freely applied on sus-
picion of the most trifing offences. 1t
is true that the beating often includes
the penalty of conviction. The magis-
trate causes the prisoner to be thrashed
until he has confessed and then lets him
go as sufficiently punished. But sus-
pected political offenders, who in Tur-
key as in all despotic countries are con-
sidered among the gravest, are dealt
with in ways that make the pastinado
seem pleasant pastime.
During the panic in Constantinople on
the subject of an Armenian insurrection
hundreds of Annenians were arrested
and thrown into prison. 1t has been
openly charged that several of them died
under fortunes applied with view of
obtaining evidence of a conspiracy that
had no existence. One man was laid in
the courtyard of the prison, in the glare
of the sun, bound hand and foot, and his
face besmeared with some sweet sub
stance to attract flies.
Another was hung up by hands and
feet, and still another was compelled to