Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-11-26
co,umnv The t,ftb. Siberia is a den of

/
quicksilver mines, where they arc
whipped and starved and some day find
themselves going around without any
head. Some OF them do not get so far
rs Siberia. Women, after being tied to
stakes in the streets, are disrobed and
whipped to death in the presence OF
bowling mobs. Offenders hear their
own flesh siss under the hot irons But
what are the facts? There are no
kinder people on earth than the Rus
slams, and to the most OF them cruelty
Is an impossibilitv.
But how about Siberia? My answer
is Sibeyia is the prison of Russia,
prison more than twice the size of the
United States. John Howard, who did
more for the improvement of prisoners
and the reformation of criminals than
any man that ever lived, his name a
synonym for mercy throughout Chris
tendon, declared by voice and pen that
the system of transportation OF crimi-
nails from Russia to Siberia was an ad-
mirable plan, advocating open mir pun
isiment rather than enlargement,
and also because 1t was taking oil Of
tenders hundreds of miles away from
their evil companions. John Howard,
after witnessing the plan of deportation
of criminals from Russia to Siberia,
commended it to England. Russia is
the only country on earth from which
the death penalty has been driven
except in the case of high treason.
Murderers and desperate villains are
sent to the hardest parts Of Siberia,
but no man is sent to Siberia or doomed
to any kind of punishment in Russia
until he has a fair trial. So far as
their being hustled off in the night and
not knowing why they are exiled or
punished is concerned, all the criminals
in Russia have an open trial before a
Jury Just as we have in America, except
in revolutionary or riotous times, and
you know in America ut such times the
writ of habeas corpus is suspended.
After being in Siberia awhile, the
condemned go to earning livelihood,
and they come to own their own farms,
and orchards and vineyards, many of
these people coming to wealth, and
thousands of them under no induce
ment would leave those parts of Siberia
which are paradises for salubrity and
luxuriance Now, which do you think
is the best style of a prison-Siberia or
many of our American prisons?
The merciful character of the present
emperor was well illustrated in the fol-
lowing occurrence: The man who SUI
pervised the assassination of the father
of the present emperor, standing in the
snow that awful day, when the dyna-
mite shattered to pieces the legs OF
Alexander Ill say the man who SUI
pervised all this fed from St Peters
burg and quit Russia. But after awhile
the man repented of his crime, and
wrote to the emperor asking for for
giveness for the murder of his father
and protesting to be good citizen, and
asking if he might come back to Russia.
The emperor pardoned the murderer of
his father, and the assassin is now liv-
ing in Russia, unless recently deceased.
But how about the knout, the cruel
Russian lsnout, that comes down on the
bare back of agonized criminals? Why,
Russia abolished the knout before it
was abolished from our American navy.
But how about the political prisoners
hustled off to Siberia? According to
the testimony of the most celebrated
literary enemy of Russia, only 443 poll
teal prisoners were sent to Siberia in
twenty years. How many political
prisoners did we put in prison pens dur
ing our four years of civil war? Well,
| will guess at least 100000. Americas
100000 political prisoners versus Rus
sia's 443 political prisoners
But you ask, how will this Russopho-
bia, with which so many have been Bit
ten and poisoned be cured. BY the
God of Justice blessing such books and
pamphlets as are now coming out from
Prof. de Arnaud, of Washington; Mr..
Horace Cutter, of San Francisco; Mr..
Morrill,, of England, and by the open
ing of our American gates to the
writings of some twenty-four of
the Russian authors and author
esses, in some respects as brilliant rs
the three or four Russian authors
already known. Let these Russians
tell their own story, for they are
the only ones fully competent to
to do the work, as none but Americans
can fully tell the story of America, and
as none but Germans can fully tell the
story of Germany, and none but En-
glishmen can fully tell the story Of
England, and none but Frenchmen can
fully tell the story of France. Mean
while, let the international defamation
come to an end Cease to speak evil OF
dignities merely because they are dig
mites, and of presidents merely because
they are presidents, and of emperors
merely because they are emperers And
may the blessing of God the Father,
and God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost be upon all the members of the
sx,,~o~;al houoahOlH ~ Dnccia from tho