The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-24

formation concerning English affairs ex-
clusiveiy from Irish Nationalist, its in
formation concerning Germany from the
Inhabitants of Schleswig- Holstein and OF
Alsace-Lorraine, and it's information con-
corning Austria from the Irredentist in
habitants of tina Italian speaking prov
inces of that empire, it would be disposed
to judge each of them as harshly as Russia.
In the same way, while the public both
here and on the continent of Europe shows
disposition to regard as too highly col
ored the stories told by Irish political Of
tenders concerning the horrors of their life
in the great convict prisons Of England,
yet we accord ready and unhesitating be
lief to every tale told US by Muscovite ex
convicts about the cruelties to which they
claim to have been subjected in Russian
jails.
OF course it would be ridiculous to a
sert that Russian prisons are desirable
places of residence. No jail is for the mat
ter of that. But, believe me, the Russian
prisons are not SO much worse than the
Dartmoor and Chatham convict prisons in
England. And according to the statements
of the most reputable organs of the New
York press, the New York state peniten-
tiary at DanemOra, and the convict camps
of Georgia furnish quite as gross examples
of cruel abuse of power on the part of the
wardens and guards as any prison in
Russia
/ observe that Mr. Brown refers to Mr..
KEENAN, as his principal authority for the
charges which he brings against the
Russian government. But may not Mr..
Remnants graphic and well written ac-
counts of Russian prison life be regarded
as pre- udiced? Is it not fact that pre-
vious to his tour in Russia and Siberia he
was an unknown man, and that his stories
of Muscovite penal life have brought Linn
need of both fame and fortune which he
would not otherwise have acquireds / Dc
not charge him with intentionally misrep-
resenting anything that he either saw OF
heard, but there is no doubt that he visited
Russia with the avowed intention of ex-
plotting the shadow of her prison life, and
that from the very outset he was disposed
to place the most sensational and highly
colored construction upon everything he
saw. Moreover, the persons from whom
he mainly derived his information were
refugees, exiles and political convicts, who
are just as unlikely to give an impartial
account of Russian penal methods as an
1I1ou cA-pOAblCdl COuNlCU Is W al
unprecedented story of English prison life.
If the exceptional race legislation
with regard to the Jews has been re
vived of late in Russia, it has been with
the same object that the United States had
in view when the latter established anaIo
gous legislation against the Chinese immi
grants-namely, the protection of the i'll
terests of the poorer classes.
The moujik is improvident, dull witted,
lazy, and evary way mentally inferior to
his Hebrew fellow citizen. The Russian
government is therefore forced to adopt
measures for the protection of the moujik,
and these measures can only be regarded
as a tribute to the mental and moral
superiority of the Hebrew race. Of course
these exceptional laws weigh heavily on
those against whom they are directed.
They are often administered by brutal
officials with undue severity, and they are
open to criticism. But such as they are
they enjoy the acquiescence of all true
patriotic Russians, who resent every foreign
interference in their domestic affairs, and
who, in the words of The Nord, the official
organ of the Muscovite government, ar
determined t. remain masters of their ow.
house. EX-DIPLoMATIST.