The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-07
T0RTUR|NG THE jews.
Terrible Punishment Inflicted Upon
Forty-Six Prisoners at War
saw, Poland.
Renewal Of tho Horrors Of the In
QUESTION In These Modern
Times.
Rathlessiy Thrown Into JaIl without he
ing Told the KsasOn-To Awake
Other Nations.

The recent condemnation of forty.six po-
litical prisoners at Warsaw, and the cruel
treatment they experienced in prison. are
considered so serious a matter that special
delegate has been dispatched from Poland
In western Europe in order to make the
facts Of the case known, says the London
Times. Legal demonstration and protest
atoms being impossible in Poland, the
Poles are compelled to appeal to the public
opinion Of nations enjoying a greater meas,
ure of freedom. Tho method of proceed
ing against political suspects in the Rus
sian province OF Poland is extraordinarily
unjust and severe, and this severity has
been greatly increased in respect to the
forty-six prisoners just condemned. Not
only are the sentences in excess of that
which such law as exists permits, but an
attempt has been made to revive the medi-
eval system of torture. Incredible az this
may seem, the delegate who has arrived
from Warsaw is provided with very full de-
tails of what has occurred. 1t was in the
months of November and December, 1888,
that most of the arrests we're made. The
prisoners were accused of belonging to a
secret society which had for it's object to
alter, sooner or later. the existing form of
government" This they were told verbally.
No written act of accusation, no written
document whatsoever was shown to them.
Political suspects are not allowed to seek
any legal advice in self-defense, and are
usually kept in prison for two years or
vnnpo whi1o TIM vooftnr 10 bairU ;ryar%;,cHo9
This investigation is not managed by
judges or, lawyers, but by officers of the
Qendarmefie. In the present case the
judges of instruction were Colonel Biolan-
owski and Lieutenant Wonsiotski. They
were assisted by q special substitute of the
public prosecutor, a functionary whose sole
mission it is to attend to political cases.
As this is considered the dirty work of the
legal profession, it is not easy to find any
one who will take such a position; and, the
Office once assumed, such a functionary is
dsbarred from any other sort of legal
work.
According to the custom established dt r
ing the suppression of the Polish insurrec-
ton in 1863, which has never yet been
altered, gendarn1es are paid double salary
while engaged in a political investigation.
Consequently when suspects are al rested the
hS way SAS ktt laUNAo ~
last a couple of years. During all this time
the prisoners have no meaus of defending
themselves. They are constantly questioned,
cunning st%ratagems are devised to entrap
them into making confessions n revela-
tions; but they are kept in ignorance as to
and they never know what they are accused
of having done. At last the committee of
instruction, after every delay that the de-
sire to prolong the enjoyment of double
salaries can suggest, concludes the inyesti-
CATION, draws up a report, a so-called act of
should be inflicted On the prisoners. It
might be thought that this document would
be communicated to the prisoners, so that
they might at last know of what they are
accused and be able to prepare their do
felaEe. In Poland no such consideration is
shown for the prisoners. The document or
act of accusation is forwarded to the police
terror at st. Petersburg. The director of
tho police department, and the minister of
the interior, to whom is adjoined, pro forma,
the minister Of justice, study the act of &C.
cusation, and decide what the sentences or
verdict shall be. This decision is sent to
Warsaw and the affair is thus definitely
settled. The prisoners have never been
heard, have never been able to defend them
selves; they are sentenced without even
knowing what offense they are supposed to
have committed. According, however, to
the so-called Siberian constitution of Count
Loris Melikof, no sentences thus pro-
nounced without trial shall exceed five
years exile in Siberia.
A recent ministerial circular has recon-
mended imprisonment instead of exile; but
as this penalty is much harder, the circular
AIDA that the term Ct punishment should
be reduced by one-half. Therefore, as five
years exile is the maximum, imprisonment
,.:Al. z..A A.sol ,n~,ll ,,~A H. f~. .,-.. Al-u
two and a half years. Nevertheless, in the
present case, out OF the forty-six prisoners.
ntoine Zelcer, a locksmith, aged 26; Ma
poleon Lelcer, his brother, a weaver, aged
%; Boleslas Handelsman, a journalist, aged
26; and Louis Teplitz, also a journalist,
aged rs, have all FOUR been sentenced to
five years. imprisonment. Casimir Stchp-
had concluded their course of studies of the
commercial school, were sentenced to four
years imprisonment. The sentences for
all the other prisoners varied from one to
two and a half years. No attempted ter
rorist action was brought home to Nny of
these prisoners. They were. for the most
part. ~propagandists belonging to the Po-
lish Proletariat party, and doubtless held
secret meetings; but one among them, Louis
Ieplitz, did not belong to the party, and
yet The severest sentence was pronounced
against him, apparently for no other reason
tnan That ne Is q jew.
The absence of all semblance of fair play
n Justice in the method of trying and
condemning the prisoners, the fact that
several among them were sentenced to dou-
BILE the maximum term fixed by the minis
terial CT! cular are grievances sufficiently
serious III themselves mi yet they do not
constitute the worst phase of the case.
Some time before the verdict was known all
communications between the prisoners md
their friends or relations outside were sud
denly cut of. The Intercourse usually toll
Grated was most severely suppressed, and
great anxiety was felt rs to what might
happened to the prisoners. At last.
whom the sentences were given out, the
friends and relations were allowed a fare
we'll interview with the prisoners, previous
to the departure of tho latter for the peni-
Tertiary prisons in central Russia. The
prisoners were then able to describe wha
had occurred. Among the accused there
was a certain Ladislas Guisbert. He was a
private tutor and enjoyed a good reputa-
ton. While in prison he fell i'll with Il
fever and became delirious. Little or no
care was taken of him; but, on the con-
trary, attempts were made to profit by the
condition of his mind to extract
confessions from him. TO make him woIss
the eendarmes hit upon an ingenious de,
vice to weaken his mind by breaking up his
rest. Every half hour or so during
tho night they would enter his cell,
under the pretext of Attending to Il