Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1896-01-16
THE RUSSIAN kNOTT.
A BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
~ TIE CARS DOMAIN.

Claim That It's Cse In Some Respects HAs
Been Abolished-Ihe Use Of the Cruel
Instrument Described BY . Political
Exile Who Has Suffered In Siberia.
One cever knows fox certain how
much q the ho1s is left in uoden
Russia The telegraph wire still at times
carries the horia wh;z ot !. frou re-
mote Siberia. and only the ether day
saw mention in news from St Peters
burg q new imperial ukase, abolish.
ing the use Of the Aoas for the punish
er.ct ofenses committed by the peas
ani-,, which has hitherto been complete
y at the mercy of the local judges in
this respect" Twas under the imp-es-
Eion that TIE "lo.cal judges had been
deprived Of their knout for 20 years O.
more, hut the sender of this message
adds tina. statistics were submitted to
the car, showing that in ten years 5000
persons, mostly guilty Of shefts Of prod.
uce, had died after punishment with the
hcu."
Granted tie infection Of the knout,
the 3, 600 deaths are easily believed
The instrument itself. supposing this TO
port TO Be true, evidently dies harder
than It's victims Bu. even in Russia,
where the rod and its equivalents have
had more extended and bloody exist
ence than in any other European state,
the humane- spirit # 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 hout was abolished for all but
the Tavest ofense as long ago as 1866.
Bu. Russia has never been governed
wholly BY its written laws, and there
are regions Of that empire where ukass
may be slow TO reach the local judgea"
The nerciful edict Of 1865, however,
stopped short at the confines Of Siberia,
and it was with the object Of learning
20 what extent the hout is used in the
Siberia Of today that sought an inter.
view with distinguished and very in.
teresting exile, NJ Alexander Sochac
zewski, On a visit to England n So
chaczewzki, Pole By birth, an artist
By profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition Of a picture
which will move the syupa.hies Of ey-
cry friend Of the victims Of the car,
was political exile in Siberia at the
age Of q and suffered ~ years in the
mines, during ~ Of which he carried,
night and day, chains Of which marka
are permanently craven On his ankles
Twenty years in all were the days Of
his exile, and be counts himself happy
that ne did not, ike SO many Ct lis
comrades in oppression. perish under
tina. cruel yoke. Indeed he speaks with
OF. bitterness and SAYS that even in ST.
IBERIA che may often forget oneself
NJ Scchaczewski could say much about
the KNOTT He had been many times
witness Of its infection. The knout, in
fact, was in use in the mines daring the
whole Of NJ Sochaczewski' exile. and
thcse who were condemned to it suffered
in public
At the present day u Scchaczewsd
believed that it was practically abolish
ed in 1893, bu. the governor retains
certain discretionary power, which may
mean much in Siberia Would NJ So
chaczewski describe the punishment:
He took ha.t sheet Of note paper and
pen and made rapid sketch THAT is
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 q single thong Of leather, rough
and very hard, tapering toward the ex-
tremity, where it is weighted with a
hall Of lead With this the e1ecutioner
who is generally reprieved murder.
er-can inhict as great or as little suf.
fering as he pleasea
Thus" said n Sochaczewski, 1.-The
prisoners would sometimes give him a
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 single
stroke, and was occasionally bribed by
condemned prisoner to do 50, breaking
the ribs and almost tearing out the
heart
What number Of strokes, I asked NJ
Sochaczewski, were ordinarily inflicted:
He replied that it was Of no great con-
sequence, inasmuch as punishment with
the knout was generally regarded as
sentence Of death A man under sen.
tence Of 100 lashes might die at the
third lash, in which case the remaining
81 would be given to the corpse 1t was
possible, il the e1ecutioner did not EN-.
ploy his whole art or strength, for the
victim to escape death, but he would
then inevitably be cripple for the rest
Of his life. There were men in the hos
pital in his time whom the knout had
MANNED forever.
asked whether the knout exhausted
the resources Of penal discipline in ST.
IBERIA "By no means" said NJ So
chaczewsG
He took up his pen again, and scratch
ed me picture Of whip called the
plet, which has three tails Of twisted
leather, with bits Of metal at the tips
1t is little less deadly than the hout.
but an expert fogger can kill his victim
at the fifth stroke. There Is difference
in Jogging with the nout and with the
plet The knout. like the English "cat, I"
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 NJ Sochaczewski
had seen many comrades suffer under
the pIet Protest: To what end?" I'd
protest was to be tied up oneself The
very iogger ran the risk Of being cut to