The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1895-10-19
THE RUsSIANKNoUT.
A BRUTAL PUNIsHMENTf INFLICTED
IN THE czAR's DOMAIN

Instrument Described by po,,,,..,
Exile who Has suffered In siber,.
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 dav
saw mention in news from St petsro-
burg of new imperial ukase, sabolxb-
ing the use Of the knout for the pnn;sb-
ment Of offenses committed by the meas
sntry, which has hitherto been COMPLETE
" at the mercy Of the local Judges in
this respect" was under the imnres-
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 10
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, surprising this re-
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 in 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
/ Al. . oil Ol cd To- III 4
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 whenea 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 knout is used in the
Siberia of today that 1 sought an inter-
view with a distinguished and very in
teresting exile, M. Alexander Sochac-
zewski, ON visit to England NJ So
chaczewslxi, Pole by birth, an artist
by profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition of picture
which will move the sympathes of ev-
cry friend of the victims of the car,
was a political exile in Siberia at the
age of 81 and suffered 4 3 years in the
mines, during az of which h, carried,
night and day, chains of whih marks
are permanently craven on his ankles.
Twenty years in all were the days Of
his exile, and he counts himslf happy
that he did not, like so mmy of his
comrades in oppression, perish under
that cruel yoke. Indeed he spaks with
out bitterness and says that cen in ST.
IBERIA one may often forget onself
NJ. Sochaczewski could say much about
the knout. He had been may times a
witness of its infiiction. Themout, in
fact, was in use in the mines turing the
whole of NJ. Sochaczewski' S exile, and
those who were condemned toit suffered
in public.
At the present day NJ. Sochaczewsh
believed that it was practically abolish
ed in 1898, but the governor retains q
certain discretionary power, which may
mean much in Siberia. Would NJ So
chaozewski describe the punishment?
He took half sheet Of note paper and a
pen and made rapid sketch "That is
the knout, " he said. A band Of leather,
as 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 a
ball of lead. With this the executioner
who is generally a reprieved murder
er-can infiict as great or as little suf-
fering as he pleases
THUS, " said Nj. Sochaczewski, "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 a 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, lasked nj.
, Sochaczewski, were ordinarily inficted2
, he replied that it was of no reat con-
] sequence, inasmuch as punishment with
the knout was generally regsded as a
sentence of death. A man rnder sem
, tence OF 100 lashes might be at the
third lash, in which case the nmaining
~ would be given to the corIa 1t was
, possible, If the executioner DID not EN-
ploy his whole art or strengh. for the
! victim to escape death, but % would
then inevitably be cripple fr the rest
of his life. There were men d the hos
pital in his time whom the mont had
manned forever.
l asked whether the knout ahausted
the resources of penal discipne in ST.
IBERIA by no means, sad NJ So
; chaczewski
DE took up his pen again, aDiscratch-
! ed me picture of whip alled the
plet, which has three tails q twisted
leather, with bits of metal THE tips
, it is a little less deadly than The knout'
, but an expert tiogger can kill bis victim
at the fifth stroke. There is a difference
IN hogging with the Inout and vith the
, plet The knout like the Englih cat,
/, Is laid across the back. The hree tai
Oh the plet score the back dognwaru'
! irom the nape of the neck the loiiis'
and every stroke, properly given' carries =
away three strips of skin and bites Wen