The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-04-25
RELICS OF DARK AGES.
Barbarian Practlced by.Msny Civil
Ized. Nations.

Rarbarisnn PractIced by.Many Civil
Ized: Nations.
Ichicago Herald.
The examination. of accused personally
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 delegate from Poland to
Western Europe, the accuracy of whose
statements there isn't reason TO doubt.
The charge agatnst:the forty-six Poles
was that Of belonging to secret soci-
ETY. which. had for its object to alter,
sooner or 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
gendarmerie. The gendarmes are paid
double salary while engaged in political
investigation, and it is therefore to their
interests to protract the process as much
as possible.
MAKING A PRISONER INSANE.
Among the accused was one Ladislas
Guisbert. He was a private tutor of
good reputation. While in prison he fell
i'll 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 soduring the
night they would enter his cell under the
pretext Of attending to 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 Bielanowski 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, SO aggravated the delirium that
ultimately Ladislas Guisbert completely
lost his reason. After time he became
raving lunatic and was removed to a
madhouse.
Another prisoner, named Ferdinand
Zalesh, 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 Zaleski
should be conveyed to another part of
the prison and severely fogged. Colonel
Bielanowsh accompanied the prisoner
and took his seat at a little table well
provided with writing materials and
directed that the prisoner should be
questioned while being fogged.
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 mitigated.
Zalesh bravely endured the torture. he
did not answer a question or utter a
word. This man had been cruelty tor
tured because he would not saw 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
Their 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
terview the truth became known.
In Turkey torture is a regular part of
the criminal process, and not, as in Rus
STA, comparatively exceptional. Foreign
ers, of course, are subject to the juris-
diction of the diplomatic representatives
OF their respective countries, but the ma
tives, whether Christian or Turk, are at
the mercy 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 a lingering death. The
methods of extracting information from
accused persons in Turkey would be al
most incredible in civilized country.
TURKEY EVEN WORSE THAN RUSSIA.
The bastinado is freely applied on sus-
picion of the most trifing offences. It
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 despotc countries are con-
sidered among the gravest, are dealt
with In ways that make the bastinado
seem a pleasant pastime.
During the panic in Constantinople ON
the subject Of an Armenian instruction
hundreds of Armenians were arrested
and thrown into prison. 1t has been
openly charged that several of them died
under tortures applied with a 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
walk up and down, pulled along by sol
dlers, who relieved each other in detail,
never permitting their victim to rest
moment. A number of the Armenians
persisted in this way before the Turks
came to the conclusion that no insurrec-
ton was thought of. Then the sultan
ordered the wholesale release OF all that
remained
Ssxs-creat Capacity for Rest <S ~1
lie WAS about twelve years old and very
black. He was hired to work in the gar
den by she day, but the moles and frogs in
the grolnd, the birds in the trees, the stray
cats and dogs outside the fence, and the