The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-17
TURKISH POLICE AND POIsONs.
They Are Probably the Worst in the
Whole World.

They Are Probably the Worst in the
whole World.
From the New Orleans Picayune.
The prison system of Turkey is a dis
grace to the civilized nations of the world
The sufferings pictured by Hugo of Jeal
Vatican as a galley slave were thrills
of paradise compared with the cruel
agonies inflicted upon the Turkish crimi-
nal. The compassion of the universe is
scarcely broad enough to enshroud the
sufferings Of a single prisoner with SYM
pathy.
1t is claimed by Turkish officials that
the abuses which existed in their prisons
some fifty years ago have been rectifed.
This may be the case with the ordinary
prisoners, but 1t IS not probable that it
applies to the Armenians, who are now
the targets of the demOniacal rage of the
nation. 1t has been conclusively proved
that horrible tortures We're inflicted upon
the few prisoners taken during the mas
sacre in the Sassoun district in August
and September Of 1894. That these tor
lures were repeated upon the Constanti-
nOple Armenians is more than probable.
I he prisons are all simply places of de-
tentlon, where prisoners or cOnVicts can
be kept more or less securely. No
attempt IS ever made to reform a crimi-
nal There is no such thing as a reforma-
tory institution in all Turkey, Asiatic or
European. The result of the lack of prison
system is that all Turkish cOnVicts upOn
being released from prison after d term
are more hardened in crime than when
first convicted.
In the provinces the prisons are even
worse than in the large cities. Sexes are
Kept partially separated in theory, but if
a woman convict be young and pretty
She is usually sought after in a manner
that can hardly be printed here. In the
strictly male prisons in the larger Turk
ism cities there are separate apartments
nor araaf fHter tufr,T
under sentence, and for prisoners impris-
oned for debt. In the female prisons this
IS not the case, so that a woman of good
character, imprisoned for debt, may be
thrown into the same ward with women
of the most depraved habits.
The food furnished TO prisoners is alb
solutely inadequate. 1t consists of just
two pounds of black bread a day. If a
prisoner has friends he or she NAV re-
ceive d food supply from them, but if
not, the prisoners can starve to death,
FOR all the sultan of all the Turks cares.
Torture in the prisons is a science.
EXecutiOners delighted in finding out ex-
actly how much man could be inflicted
without destroying life. 1t was also a
matter of study to md out just how much
pain person could undergo without col
lapsng, so that no more torture could
be as painfully administered again.
It is a conceded fact that the present
mode of execution in Turkey is by be-
heading and by strangling the victim to
death with strong cords. But it is also yet
within the memory of living man that
Iurklsh malefactors We're thrown down
into great gulf, which was filled with
sharp steel spears, upon which the vic
tins was impaled.
Ii the poor wretch was fortunate enough
to fall upon one of, the spears and pierce
a vital point, the agony was quickly over.
But to those who were only wounded,
death came horribly, through sheer star
AS if this style of butchery was not
enough. the Turks were very fond of driY
ing thorns into the flesh Of the victims.
10 he
spears found on an average American rose
bush They were, instead, ? and inches
in length. The Turkish eXecutioner who
could, without killing, thrust the largest
number of thorns into the body of a Grim
inal was esteemed highest among his COM
panions. Some of the Turkish eXecutioners
could ill a prisoner with thorns that
not one-quarter OF an men OF SKIN would
be seen.
When this awful torture was over the
victim was dragged 10 a funeral pyre and
was burned at the stake, with all the hor-
rid torments of a slow fire, so that the
criminals agony could be prolonged.
a common mode Of punishment was to
strip criminal naked and then tie him
with his face to the sky, so he could not
move. The body of the prisoner was
then covered with some sticky substance,
which attracted to the wretch all of the
bugs, snakes, rats and other verrnin which
are so prolific in the east. The sweet
stuff was constantly renewed, until the
prisoner was actually eaten alive by his
tormentors.
Mutilation was administered at all times
Hands, feet, ears and teeth were torn
from shrinking bodies. Eyes were made
sightless. Noses were cut into shreds,
while other nameless mutations were
common In fact. the whole gamut of
torture was played over and over again.
Even women were not exempt from the
horrors of pain-racked bodies, and in ali
cases were outra ged, even when dying
from the effects of their terrible injuries.
Forcing the unhappy wretches to swal-
low cup of molten lead; skinning them
alive bit by bit, and stoning to death
were also INDUCED in.
Few Christians have been allowed to
visit a Turkish prison. The one on the
Island of Cyprus, now under English con-
troll was visited some years ago by Archi-
bald Forbes. Here is what he wrote Of it:
The average Turkish prison has near
" 800 inhabitants. Among them are NAL
bers, political prisoners and forgotten
suspects. / have seen not a few horrible
sights. l have ridden across a battle
held on which lay fiVe-and-thirty thous-
and dead and dying soldiers; l have seen
a whole field full of ADMINISTRATION mis-
CRADLES: have frequented the pesthouses
Of Metz after the siege, where lay neg
lected and wrctched victims of black
smallpox and spotted typhus: / have
trodden the corridors of the Grand Ho-
tel Of Paris, heartsick because of the
feted effiuvium from sloughing wounds
and hospital gangrene; l have seen the
bodies of men who had been roasted
but never have ! witnessed a more moi
some spectacle than that which the foul
Turkish prison dungeons afford
yet the Turks seem to accept IL as a
matter of course. j entered the KOnak,
and Turkish officer with a polite bow,