The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-02

est On1c1al IN the city or 81 Peters DurE,
and whose chief business is to attend
the emperor l said to him: ST suppose
your religion is that of the Greek
church?'' NO" said he, Il am a
Lutheran" What is your religionP'
I said to one of the highest and most
influential officials at st. Petersburg.
He said: 81 am of the church of En-
gland" Myself. an American. of still
another denomination of Christians,
and never having been inside Greek
church in my life until l went to Rus
STA, could not have received more con-
sideration had l been baptized in the
Greek church and all my life wor-
SHIPPED at her affairs, 1 had it demon
strated to me very plainly that mans
religion in Russia has nothing to do
with his preferment for either
Office or social position
Calumny the fourth: Russia is so
very grasping Of territory and she seems
to want the world. But what are the
facts? During the last century and a
quarter the United States have taken
possession of everything between the
thirteen colonies and the Pacific ocean,
and England, during the same length
of time, has taken possession of nearly
three million square miles, and BY the
extent of her domain has added $50, Co.,
600 population, while Russia had added
during that time only half the number
of square miles and about $1,000, 600 of
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES advance of do
main by $50, 900. 600 against Russia's ad-
vance of domain BY $4,000, 900.
Calumny the fifth: Siberia is a den of
horrors. and to-day people are driven
like dumb cattle; no trial is afforded to
the suspected ones; they are put into
quicksilver mines, where they are
whipped and starved and some day find
themselves going around without any
head. Some of them do not get so far
as 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 impossibility.
But how about Siberia? Ny answer
is Siberia is the prison of Russia, q
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 thsu
any man that ever lived, his name a
synonym for mercy throughout Chris
tendon. declared by voice aud pen that
the system Of transportation of erimi-
nails from Russia to Siberia was an adj
mirable plan, advocating open air pun
ishment rather than endungeonmen.,
aud also because it was taking all 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 arc
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 4 fair trial So far IS
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
Jury Just as we have in America, except
in revolutionary or riotous times, and
YOU know in America at such times the
writ of habeas corpus is suspended.
After being in Siberia awhile, the
condemned go to earning a 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 CT
Alexander III say the man who SUI
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 knout, that comes down on the
bare back OF agonized criminals? Why,
Russia abolished the kuOut before it
was abolished from our American navy.
But how about the political prisoners
hustled off % Siberia? According to
the testimony of the most celebrated
literary enemy of Russia. only AS poll
teal prisoners were sent 70 Siberia in
twenty years. How many political
prisoners did we put in prison pens dur
ing our four years of civil war? Well,
I viii guess at least 100, Gee. Americas
100, 900 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 as
the three or four Russian authors
already known. Let these Russians
tell their own story, for they are
the ONLY ones fully competent 70