Evening star., 1898-11-12
Eorrible Punishment That is Often
Inflicted Upon Convicts.
WoRST CRIMINALS WELD THE KNOUT
It IS Possible to Purchase Compar-
ative immunity
WITH RODS AND STICKS

Alexander prison. whose walls are covered
With black moldiness, and reek with the
strong scent 7, pine cones streyn on the
moor, We find at the end of the corridor
chairs and tables for the authorities who
witness the infiiction of the punishmeuts:
among the officials are "A lawyer. the chief
OF the prison and the surgeon. and a lit
tie way off is placed the block OF threat
ening aspect. behind which stands the
Wielder Of tn knout who awaits his vic
TINS with a curious look His earb Is an
parently intended TO make the situation ali
the more impressive: he wears a tall white
mead covering, soft felt shoes. a blood red
shirt with its sleeves turned up. and he car
ries the knout i'm his hand. Along the one
wall stands row of convicts with smooth
~ shaved heads. and facing them is a long
line of warders armed with loaded revoI
NerS IN Inc hand. The stiffness as of the
grave which stamps all present is broken
from time to time by the rattlinp of the
handcuhs and the leg fetters. and by a
furtive cough or the rustling of tho nsners
upon the table of the prison governor
Who will be the next?" is the uues-
ton that is all too clearly to be read ilpon
'he deathlike features of the ''arrestants."
sixty Strokes.
Sidorov" is called out by the governor
in a quiet, restrained voice. Sidoroy stems
unsteadily and with an increasing totter
and rattling Of his chains out of the line
Of gray, long felt coats. l note his llps
growing pale and the fear in his widely
wild beast.
Lie down. is the command. Hastily
making the sign of the cross on his breast.
Sldorov lies down at length on the bench.
ana throws each arm around II; he is then
bound by leathern thongs to the bench
ana his hands are tied together beneath
How many?" asks the warder charged
with counting the strokes.
sixty, Is the quiet answer of the gov
ernor.
Look out" or Pull yourself together"
Iofms the general remark of the knout-
wieider, and the next moment the blows
are raining in fearful ihuds upon the bare
Dack of Sidorov, who utters heart-piercing
shrieks one, two, three-the warder calls
aloud the tale of the stripes every one or
which Kisses and leaves fits mark on the
cuIpr1t The cry that at first followed
every stroke has gradually become an un-
broken howl and roar, and readers must
nave strong nerves if they can picture fur
ther all the hideousness of this dinboIical
form Of punishment.
Inflicted by Conyicts
This sort of castigation is inflicted upon
convicts whenever il is ordained by law or
by the police and local authorities The
dispenser Of blows is always a fellow taken
from the prisoners themselves and in his
hands the fate of the delinquent may be
said literally to lie The knout consists of
thick wooden stick, TO which is fastened
a strongly plated lash. about thirty inches
long and two inches wide and this thong
is cut so as to form three lashes at it's end
convict who retains the smallest degree
OF human feeling can never be induced to
undertake this office, and thus only the
most reprobate and hardened criminals are
chosen for the dread work To these in
human creatures the courts of Russia in
trust human life. 1t is in their poWer 10
inifict only light punishment upon the con-
demned, to make him cripple for the rest
OF his days, or to send him to his grave on
The spot: and yet the officials never deem 1t
necessary to put any restraint on these
foggers. The experienced floggers are real
ly skilled at their work If they wish to
snow any mercy to the delinquent they
faln blows on his body with the middle part
OF the whip while the cruel tips of il fall
beyond the prisoner and on the bench: but
If no mercy is to be given then the knout
is made TO do its fell purpose. In the hands
OF a skilled fogger the motions OF the
knout are so quick that they can scarcely
be rightly followed by an inexperienced oh
server. In either case the prisoner natural
ly howts, but the difference in the result is
very marked. The lightened form of pun
ishment can he bought, and woe to him
who is not able to proprtiate the hogger.
Injury and Death.
Permanent injury and death as the re-
suits of the knouts were formerly by no
means rare, but now they are exceptions.
Very much depends also upon the person.
alfty of the chief of the prison. II he is a
man of the least kindly feeling he Will not
allow the nogging to be carried out to
grewsome lengths; but are there many
such men to be found on tha outermost
fringe of the Russian empire?
The courts generally condemn to fiogging
ccnhrmed criminals, many of whom have
received altogether from five TO six hundred
blows. An old Siberian tramp finished his
curriculum vitae with the following words;
Il have received, all told, fourteen hundred
stripes Of the birch rod, six hundred blows
f1om the knout, and numberless thrashings
by sticks" As is TO he expected, the sta
tistics Of the Siberian prisons show the fu-
ulity OF these punishments corrective
m easures. In proportion as the punish
n.ents increase In number and cruelty so
the reiapses and backslidings into crime
Increase. Nostalgia, or intensified home
sickness, is curiously strong in the inmates
of the Siberian prisons, and will rot be re-
pressed by the most cruel system of whip
ping.
Rods and sticks.
Hitherto We have dealt only with the
knout. which is the rarer form of punish
nent, and must be ordered by court OF
law. The usual corporal punishment by
means of rods and sticks is somewhat off
ferent, for they form the Alpha and Omega
of the corrective measures In Use in Siber-
ian prisons. This form of punishment is
garded rather bagatella, aa1 Yet its
effects are much worse than those of tine
knout, for il is meted out TO all in he same
measure; il needs not to be ordained iy a
court of law. and the victim und ergoes no
previous medical examination to mis- fit
ness to bear the punishment. Every gov
ernor of prisons can give thirty and every
c.strict governor one hundred of these
blows at their sole discretion. 1t Is the
naked truth that even criminals when
grievously ill do not escape this punish
n,ent- A female prisoner in the district of
Korsakov was whipped to such an extent
that she fell down dead. That the govern
ors of Siberian prisons are not all monsters
hut that there are in exceptional cases
kindly hearted men is seen in the case of
Sipjagin, the former director of the prison
at Irkutsk; he went far in his dauntless
reforms as to entirely abolish punishment
by whipping. And what vas the result?
The prison discipline improved astonish-f
iEgly, transgressions and crimes almost
ceased to be the order of the day, and at
tempts to escape became a thing or the
past.
MY dear" said Mrs. Richleigh to her
n daItO he Ofh off