The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1895-07-18
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT.
= BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
~ THE czAR's DOMAIN.

~ 00O A. POSsSss"Ssss UNSssVteo
~ THE czAR's DOMAIN.
claim That Its Use In Some Respects Has
Been Abolished-The Use Of the Cruel
Ipstrument Described By . Political
Exile who Has Suffered In Siberia.
One never knows for certain how
much of the mout 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 ]
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
nntry. which has hitherto been complete
" at the mercy of the local judges in
this respect" 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 We're submitted to
the car, showing thSt in ten years 5000
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
encs than in any other European state,
the tumaner 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 kout 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 ukase
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 mout is used in the
Siberia of today that I sought an inter
view with distinguished and very in
teresting exile, NJ Alexander Sochac.
sewski, on a visit to England NJ. So.
chaczewski, Pole by birth, an>artist
by profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition Of picture
which will move the sympathiea = ~
cry friend Of the victims Of tM al
was political exile in Siberia at the
age of 81 and suffered AZ years in the
mines, during az 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. SochaczewsH could say much about
the hout. He had been many times {
witness Of it's infection. The hout, il
| fact, was in use in the mines during thu
whole of M. Sochaczewski' exile, and
those who were condemned to it suffered
in public. e
At the present day M. Sochaczewsk
believed that it was practically abolish
ed in 1898, but the governor retains
certain discretionary power, which ma.
! mean much in Siberia. Would M. So
chaczewski describe the punishment
He took half sheet of note paper and
pen and made rapid sketch. THAT i
| the knout, - he said. A band of leather
| as is we'll known, serves the execu
toner for handle, and the knout it
self is single thong of leather, rougl
and very hard, tapering toward the ex
tremity, where it is weighted with
ball of lead. With this the executions
who is generally reprieved murder
er-can inflict as great aor as little sui
fering as he pleases.
"Thus," said M. SochaczewsG, 18th
prisoners would sometimes give him
ruble to prove his skill, when he woul
strike one Of them, apparently with flu
force, across the palm Of the hand, bu
the blow would scarcely be felt an
would not leave a scratch. With tn
same instrument he could kin at singl
stroke, and was occasionally bribed b
. condemned prisoner to do 50, breakin
che ribs and almost tearing out th
heart 49,
What number Of strokes. I asked n
Sochaczewsd. were ordinarily inflicted
He replied that it was Of no great COZ
sequence, inasmuch as punishment wit
the nout was generally regarded as
sentence of death. A man under ser
tence of 100 lashes might die at til
third lash, in which case the remainin
81 would be given to the corpse. It Wa
possible, IL the executioner did not en-
ploy his whole art or strength. for th
J victim to escape death, but he woul
then inevitably Be cripple Tor the re'
J Of his life. There were men in the no
J pital in his time whom the nout Ia
MANNED forever.
aske whether the mout exhauste
the resources Of penal discipline in s
! IBERIA by no means" said NJ. s.
chaczewsd
i he took up his PEN again, and scratcl
, cd me picture OF whip called Il
plet, which has three tails Of twiste
leather, with bits Of metal at the tip
Il Is little less deadly than the hou
but an expert logger can kill his victil
1t the nth stroke. There Is di6eren'
An doUQiuR with the mout and with q