The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-08-06
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT.
A BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
IN THE czAR's DOMAIN.

Nmuch Of the knout is left in modern
Russia. The telegraph wire still ut times
carries the horrid whiz of it from re-
mote Siberia, and only the other day
saw mention in news from St Peters
burg Of q new imperial ulSase, "abolish.
ing the use of the knout for the punish
ment Of offenses committed by the peas
antry. which has hitherto been complete
ly at the mercy Of the local judges in
this respect l was under the impress
sion that the local judges" had been
deprived of their knout for 90 years or
more, but the sender of this message
adds that Statistics were submitted to
the car, showing that in ten years 3, 900
persons, mostly guilty of thefts of prod
uce, had died after punishment with the
| knout.
Granted the infection of the knout,
the 5000 deaths are easily believed.
The instrument itself, supposing this re-
port to be true. evidently dies harder
than its victims. But even in Russia,
where the rod and its equivalents have
had a more extended and bloody exist
ence than in any other European state,
the humaner spirit of the age has been
felt, and one is disposed to regard rs ex-
aggerated the statements just quoted.
Certainly we had been given to believe
that the lnout was abolished for all but
the gravest oifense as long ago as 1865.
But Russia has never been governed
wholly by its written laws. and there
are regions of that empire where a ulsase
may be slow to reach the "local judges.
The merciful edict of 1866, however,
stopped short at the confines of Siberia,
and it was with the object of learning
to what extent the knout is used in the
Siberia of today that sought an inter
view with a distinguished and very in
teresting exile, NJ. Alexander Sochac.
zewski, on visit to England. NJ. So
chaczewski, n Pole by birth, an artist
by profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition Of picture
which will move the sympathies of ev.
cry friend of the victims Of the czar,
was a political exile in Siberia at the
ige of 81 and suffered AZ years in the
mines, during ~ of which he carried,
night and day, chains of which marks
are permanently craven on his ankles
Twenty years in all were the days of
his exile, and he counts himself happy
that he did not, like so many of his
comrades in oppression, perish under
that cruel yoke. Indeed he speaks with.
out bitterness and says that even in 81.
IBERIA one may often forget oneself.
Nj. Sochaczewski could say much about
the knout. He had been many times a
witness Of its infection The knout, in |
fact, was in use in the mines during the |
whole Of NJ. Sochaczewski's exile, and |
those who wero condemned to it suffered |
in public.
At the present day NJ Sochaczewski |
believed that it was practically abolish.
ed in 1898, but the governor retains n
certain discretionary power, which may
mean much in Siberia Would NJ. So |
chac2ewski describe the punishment?
He took half sheet of note paper and |
pen and made rapid sketch "That is !
the knout," he said. A band of leather, |
ms is well known, serves the execu.
toner for handle, and the knout it. |
self is single thong of leather, rough |
and very hard, tapering toward the ex.
tremity, where it is weighted with q |
ball Of lead With this the executioner
who is generally n reprieved murder.
er-can infiict as great or as little suf. |
fering rs he pleases..
Thus said NJ Sochaczewski, "ths |
prisoners would sometimes give him a |
ruble to prove his skill, when he would |
strike one of them, apparently with full
foINes- aoaoss the palm of the hanl, but |
the blow would scarcely be felt and
would not leave scratch With the
same instrument he could kill at single
stroke, and was occasionally bribcd by
II condemned prisoner to do SO, breaking
the ribs and almost tearing out the |
heart
What number of strokes, l asked NJ. |
Sochaczewski, were ordinarily inflicted? |
He replied that it was of no great con-
sequence, inasinuch as punishment with |
the knout was generally regarded as a |
sentence of death A man under SEN |
tence Of 100 lashes might die at the |
third lash, in which case the remaining |
% would be given to the corpse. 1t was
possible, IL the executioner did not en-
ploy his whole art or strength, for the
victim to escape death, but he would |
then inevitably be cripple for the rest
of his life. There were men in the hos
pital in his time whom the knout had |
MANNED forever.
asked whether the knout exhausted |
the resources Of penal discipline in 81.
beria by no MEANS" said NJ So.
chaczewsl
He took up his pen again, and scratch
cd ma n nicfura IF n whin callad tho L