The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1895-07-03
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT.
A BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
IN THE czAR'S DOMAIN.
Claim That Its Use In Some Respects Has
Been AbolIshed-The Use of the Cruel
Instrument Described by n Political
Exile Who Has Suffered In Siberia.

Exile who Has Suffered In Siberia.
One never knows for certain how
much Of the knout is left in modern
Russia. The telegraph wire still at times
carries the horrid whiz Of it from re-
mote Siberia, and only the other day I
saw mention in news from st. Peters
burg of new imperial ukase, "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 20 years or
more, but the sender of this message
adds that Statistics were submitted to
the czar, showing that in ten years 3, 900
persons, mostly guilty of thefts Of prod
uce, had died after punishment with the
knout.
Granted the infliction Of the knout,
the 5000 deaths are easily believed
The instrument itself, supposing this rc-
port to be true, evidently dies harder
than its victims But even in Russia,
where the rod and its equivalents have
had more extended and bloody exist
ence than iii any other European state,
the humaner spirit of the age has been
felt, and one is disposed to regard as ex-
aggerated the statements Just quoted.
Certainly we had been given to believe
that the lmout was abolished for all but
the gravest offense as long ago as 1866.
But Russia has never been governed
wholly by its written laws, and there
are regions Of that empire where 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 distinguished and very in
teresting exile, M. Alexander Sochac-
zewski, on visit to England. M. So
chaczewski, Pole by birth, an artist
by profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition of picture
which will move the sympathios of ev-
cry friend of the victims of the czar,
was political exile in Siberia at the
age of 2l and suffered A = 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 ST.
IBERIA one may often forget oneself.
NJ. Sochaczewski could say much about
the kpout. He had been many times
witness Of its infliction. The knout, in
fact, was in use in the mines during the
whole of M. Sochaczewski' exile, and
those who were condemned to it suffered
in public.
At the present day M. Sochaczewski
believed that it was practically abolish
cd in 1898, but the governor retains q
certain discretionary power, which ma,
mean much in Siberia Would M. So
chaczewski describe the punishment?
He took n half sheet of note paper and n
pen and made rapid sketch. "That is
the knout," he said. A band of leather,
as is we'll known, serves the execu-
tioner 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 o
ball of lead. With this the executioner
who is generally reprieved murder
er-can infiict as great or as little suf-
fering as he pleases.
"Thus," said M. Sochaczewslzi, "the
prisoners would sometimes give him
ruble to prove his skill, when he would
strike one of them, apparently with full
force, across the palm of the hand, 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 bribed by
condemned prisoner to do SO, breaking
the ribs and almost tearing out the
heart.
What number Of strokes. asked M.