The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-18


the humaner spirit of the age has been
felt and one is disposed to regard as
exaggerated the statements just quoted.
Certainly we had been given to believe
that the knout was abolished for all
but the gravest offenses as long ago as
1866. But Russia has never been gov
erned wholly by Its written laws, and
there are regions of that empire where
a ulkase may be slow to reach the local
judges"
The merciful edict of 1866, however
stopped short at the confines of Siberia;
and 1t was with the object of learning
to what extent the knout is used in the
Siberia of to-day that l sought an In
terview with distinguished and very
interesting exile, MAlexander Sochac-
zewski, who is on short visit to Eng
land. M. Sochaczewslki, Pole by
birth, and artist by profession (and in
England just now to arrange for the
exhibition Of picture which will move
the sympathies of every friend of the
victims of the czar), was a political
exile in Siberia at the age of twenty
one, and suffered four years and half
at the mines, during two and half of
which he carried, night and day, chains,
of marks which are permanently gray
en- 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 without bitterness, and says
that, even in Siberia, one may often for
get ones self.
M. Sochaczewski could say much
about the knout. He had been many
times witness Of its infection. The
knout, in fact, was in use in the mines
during the whole of M. Sochaczewski's
exile, and those who were condemned
to 1t suffered in public.
At the present day? M. sochaczew-
ski believed that it was practically
abolished in 1S93-less than two years
ago-bpt the governor retains a certain
discretionary power, which may mean
much in Siberia. Would M. Sochac-
| zeweki describe the punishment? He
took half sheet of note paper and pen
and made a rapid sketch, which is here
reproduced. "That is the knont," he
said. A band of leather, it will be
perceived, serves the executioner for
handle, and the knout itself is a single
thong of leather, rough and hard, tap
ering toward the extremity, where 1t is
weighted with ball of lead. With this
| the executioner-who Is generally a re-
prieved murderer--can infiict as great
or as little suffering as ha plcases,
Thus" said M. Sochaczewski, ''the
prisoners 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 a scratch. With the same
| instrument he could kill at a single
| stroke (and was occasionally bribed by
a condemned prisoner to do SOY, break
| ing the ribs and almost tearing out the
| heart"
| What number of strokes, asked M.
Sochaczewski, were ordinarily inflicted? ?.
| He replied that is was Of no great
| consequence, inasmuch as punishment
with the knout was generally regarded
as sentence of death. A man under
sentence of 100 lashes might die at the
| third lash, in which case the remaining
ninety-seyen would be given to the
corpse. 1t was possible, If the execu-
toner did not employ his whole art or
| strength, for the victim to escape
death, but he would then inevitably be
a cripple for the rest of his life. There
were men in the hospital In his time.
4 whom the knout had MANNED forever.
| I asked whether the knout exhausted
| the resources of penal discipline in ST.
IBERIA. "By no MEANS said M. Sochac-
1 zewski.
| He took up his pen again and scratch
| ed me picture of a whip called the
1 plet, which has three tails of twisted
| leather, with bits Of metal at the tips.
| 1t is little less deadly than the knout
but an expert fogger can kill his vic
tim at the fifth stroke. There is a
difference in fogging with the knout
and with the plet. The knout, like the
English cat" is laid across the back
The three tails of the plet score the
back downward, from the nape of the
neck to. the loins, and every stroke
properly given, carries away three
strips of skin and bites well into the
flesh. Yes M, Sochaczewski had
seen many comrades suffer under the
plet Protest? To what end?" To
protest was to be tied up oneself. The
4 very fiogger ran the risk of being cut,
to pieces with knotlt or plet If he failed
/ to kill or MAIN his victim.
Two other rough sketches M. Sochac-
zewski made for me. The rod or cane
pictured here is the instrument which
was used in his day for offenses in the
army. The convict soldier was made
to run the gauntlet (passer par les ba-
guettes) between double file of his
comrades, each of whom was armed
with one of the switches. M Sochac-
zewski had seen as many as fifty SOL
diers drawn up in double file to fog a
defaulter, who had to pass slowly be-
tween their ranks, a naked bayonet
4 held against his chest as he advanced
to prevent him from walking too quick
ly Passing fifty soldiers he would re-
ceive fifty strokes, and every soldier
had to break his cane with the stroke
that he delivered upon the prisoners
back. NJ SochaczeWski had seen the
blood spout before the prisoner had
traversed half the line. A similar pun
ishment, 1 believe, was inflicted in the
| German army at the end ce the last
century, and Cooper has described it
in his History of the Rod" but it is
now rare to get the facts from an eye
witness.
| Sketch No. A is a fac-simile OF the rod