The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-07-20
RUSSIAN CRUELTY.
Methods of Furnishing Political Vic
Tins That Recall the Dark Ages.


70 the smallest rfvet. is the pOnderous
machinery of Russian despotism, that
the miserable people who writhe be-
meath it can never hope for freedom
except from the outbreak of some great
political cataclysm which will termin-
ate in the utter overthrow of Russia at
the hands of a foreign power.
Strange as ii may seem to all those
who car never realize the terrible con-
ditions under which the Russian pa
triot is compelled to live and have his
being, this aspiration will be found to
exist, side by side with more or less
open expression, all over Russia, Wher-
ever intelligent men and women are to
be found who are true lovers of their
country's welfare.
But struggle as the patriot may, and
strive as ne will, even unto death, the
tremendous power of repression and in
timidatiOn possessed by the Russian
government is too colossal for any eff
fective result.
The government is never satisfied
with the capture of a solitary wasp; it
devGtes its entire energies to the de-
StruCtion of the whole nest This policy
the operation of which 1 know SO well
is too evidently being employed in the
case of the unfortunate man who slew
NJ. Sipiaguin recently. The man in
question has not yet been executed, but
the world has just learned, through the
medium of the Russian papers, that
he is exhibiting great mental depression
and is likely to give up the names of
/ his accomplices very shortly.
This fact conveys but little to those
who are unacquainted with Russian
/ police methods, but to the initiated the
meaning of this piece of information
7 is perfectly clear, and I wonder what
such devices will be thought of in the
/ free air of Anglo-Saxondom.
No sooner is a conspiratOr taken red
handed as was this one, than every en-
! deaVOr is made to eXtoTt from him a
/ confession as 10 his associates. But the
! man who has had the courage to per-
/ form so desperate an act as the de-
StructiOn of a prominent minister is
/ little likely to succumb TO the demands
I and even threats of his jailers- The
/ Russian official is in no hurry. He
/ has other cards up his sleeve He
bides his time and is very determined
no. to waste so valuable a repository
of discriminating evidence by prema-
! ture execution.
} He calls science to his aid. His vic
1 tim is placed in the solitary confine-
ment of a cell, probably of a height
so low that the prisoner is unable To
stand upright. Life under such cir
l cumstances might be considered de-
/ pressing enough, but the prisoner, filled
with patriotic ferVoT, and prepared &c
will not yield to such methods as these
! Nor do his captors expect it of such a
disposition.
Accordingly, they proceed TO drug
| their victim. Doses are administered
in his food in quantities calculated to
produce a gradual effect upon the mind
and resolution. As this nefarious treat
/ ment begins to operate, he is subjected
! to constant pressure and interrogation
Then at last. when the unfortunate
victim of Russian tyranny is no longer
physically and morally capable of any
| further concealment of the information
he possesses, when every fragment OF
information has been torn from the
| miserable creature whom their vii
1 famous contrivances have unnamed
he is taken from his cell to the death
that has so long awaited his coming.
There is another execrable device
! which is employed by Russian prison
officials to crush their victim into con-
formity with their wishes. 1t was en-
ployed in my own case. and can con-
| fidentiy attest to its horrible and de-
! moraliZing effect upon the mental and
4 physical resolution OF the captive
With a number of other politics
prisoners, l was confined at Warsaw
My cell was of the kind / have de
scribed aboye-a low vault in which il
attempting 10 walk about / was com
PEELED to keep my head as low as my
breast, a terrible test Of ones endur'
ance Food and drink were passed
J down to me through a hole in the roof
in this respect closely resembling {
| medieval oubliette. while sanitary ar.
rangements were horrible in the ex
treme. But what did ii matter wher
an order TO parade for death was (
nomentary contingency by day anS
night?
But this was not the worst. for Rus
sian ingenuity is Oriental in its re-
sourcefulness where the infliction o.
torture is concerned. Ever and always
with an unvaring insistenee which
seemed TO pierce ones very soul, at
small aperture placed so as TO command
every portion of the cell. were a pal
of human eyes There must have beer
relays of them. but that did not con
Germ one. 1t was the horrible fact o
their all-seeing presence, from which
ehere was no escape or alienation.
/ have found nothing in life to whicl
one cannot in time become accus
toned or Indifferent. But the hideou
vigil of these eyes, divorced from ever,
context of humanity, became a mes
meric horror which increased hourly
with its continuance. They followed
ones every action and movement, the!
seemed to penetrate ones limos
thought.
! It is a torture under which the men
tai balances of many has actually Civ
en- way; and the eyes have watched OF
and on while the prisoners mind wal
slowly loosened from its hinges as tn.
pressure Of this inhuman ordeal grad
ually overpowered the defense of TIT
intellect.
Added to these horrors was the con
! slant uncertainty of life Death is
iight-hearted infection on the part o
the Russian authorities, and it was tn
pleasure of the prison officials to in
vest the daily selection of a victim
from our number with the interest o
a lottery In place of selecting a vic
tim and conducting his execution il
private. we were all paraded in irregu
lar and haphazarc order in the prison
| square.
1t was the only time we saw one an
other. and the marked change visible
in the appearance of many of US wa
painful tc see. Then we were counted
from the right. and the every tent
man was ordered to step TO the front
These were the doorred ones. And ",
had to look on while. with their back
TO the prison wall, they stood and fel
| before the rifles of the soldiers. Ate
that We were marched back, wonder