The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-04-03
IN SIBBRIA'S WILDS
Graphic Description Of the Man.
ner in Which Prisoners
Are Treated.
Terrible Tortures Of the Pun
!. ishment by Flogging With
the Knott.
There Are Thirty thousand
Liberated Russian
Prisoners.

colony in the world After it's discovery
non-conformist Russian priest was
dispatched in care of Gen. Parhoff to
that cold country. In the middle Of the
seventeenth century Rasbolent, having
rebelled against the authority Of Car
Peter l., was the next individual con-
.demned to living death in Siberia.
There, too, the courtiers who fell into
disrepute with successive expresses,
had to live on nuts of the forest
trees and trout in the rivers. Polish
confederates under Catherine H., De-
cembrists under Nicholas l., and $4,000
Poles after the rebellion Of 1863, and
later on 100000 Nihilists were dealt
the penalty of Is years imprisonment.
Between 1923 and 1877, 100000 exiles
lived in Siberia, 151 900 Of them accom-
panied by their wives. and children,
writes Eugene Davis in the Western
Watchman.
The Siberian prison. like the house Of
Siberian, is usually built of logs,
calked with moss to keep out the cold.
Near the principal building, but ganer-
ally detached, are the kitchen, the bath
house and exercise yards. Separate cells
are reserved for political prisoners,
while other prisoners, who are guilty Of
forgery or murder, sleep in large room
on plank beds. The treatment of the
political prisoners, however, is more Sc
we're than that Of their colleagues. They
are commanded by the wardens-each OF
them in his own celtic undress and
submit their nude bodies to the lashes
Of the knout (whip) till the skin bled.
This punishment is inflicted on them
three times week. If he is guilty of
being late minute or so of rising from
his bed he is put in a dark cell, where,
through hole in the door, he is served
three times day with stale soup, the
refuse of the other prisoners, and hard
black bread. This fare for one month
kills with hunger the delicate natures
particularly the aristocratic students
who were members of the Nihilist So
ciety. He is, moreover, put in chains
during that period. First there is a
collar for his neck and girdle for his
body, which two are connected by
means of chains, the hands being fas
tened to the girdle. On each ankle is
put an iron stirrup, or socket, which
projects over the front of the feet far
enough to receive through it's holes a
heavy iron bar weighing 36 pounds, the
whole weight of which is made to rest
on the prisoners insteps, and to connect
the feet. Then from the middle of the
bar comes another chain, fastening it
to the girdle. The whole is Of iron, and
weighs 10S pounds. To an ordinary OBJ
server the fetters look riveted on in
such manner that without smith It
would be impossible to get them off. A
certain governor Of Siberian province
on visiting one Of the prisoners, was
moved with compassion and pity, and
ordered that the chains should be struck
off from the body of the captive, where
|
off with such alacrity as to leave on his
mind that they were donned as uni
form in which to receive his excellency's
visit. A released Siberian prisoner,
whom I met at Geneva, told me that he
became so dexterous in pressing his
thumb into the palm of his hand that
he used to slip off his handouts and
sleep without them. nj. Andreoli, an
Italian tourist in Siberia, also men
toned that when on the march the pay
ment of four roubles by the captive to
the soldiers in charge got them free Of
the chains to which they were attached,
on the understanding, however, that the
guard should not be got into trouble by
anyone attempting to run away, and
that the chains should be properly af-
fixed on approaching a town or their
resting place for the night. He also
ers there were 81 wearing chains In
Western Siberia chains were seen on
the legs of many captives.
An instance of fogging took place in
the month Of July; 1892, at Nikolaefsk,
Western Siberia. The man, who was a
released convict, and who was to receive
60 stripes with a rod, had horrible
countenance He had served his time
in confinement, and subsequently taken
as Joiner into a merchants establish
ment, and he had rewarded his employ
er by robbing him. Accordingly in the
police station he was brought from his
room In the presence. Of the police mas
ter. Behind the prisoner stood a Cos
sack, and by his side clerk who read
over his sentence. The captive then
signed a paper to signify that he had
heard II read, and was marched bael 10
another room and placed on the d0cr,,
With his back laid bar one
holdIng
II