The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-24


these institutions where he is well fed
! and treated, provided he shows a dis
! position to act as the governments
catspaw about election time, or when
trouble is brewing with deputies and
other politicians. For, as the Bourbon
Kings of Naples employed bandits to
uphold absolute monarchy by means
of assassination. so Servia's rulers are
/ always scheming to get rid of parlia-
mentary opposition by hired slayers
and voting cattle.
Some day. when the true history of
the latest and unprecedented royal
slaughter is written, it will be seen
that ballotbox stuffing and "colonlz-
ing" at the last elections were at the
bottom of the holocaust 1t will be
shown that Alexander elected a parlia
ment after his own sweet will. by
opening the prison doors for all the
| murderers, highwaymen, thieves and
taphouse brawlers in the realm. They
were let out on or before election day.
either to act as voters. keep honest men
from voting, or themselves figure as
candidates and governments choice"
Indeed, if the newly-elected Chambers
had been allowed to convene there
would have been "a murderers' row"
and thieves heaven" facing the chair.
AS the new Skuptchina vanished
with its creator, our prisons are again
well filled. Servian criminals are not
likely to leave a good boarding house
unless something better can be had
for the asking.
Good comradeship and (circum-
stances permitting) high reward for
the felon, the cutthroat, the petty thief
-uninhabitable dungeons, poison, the
cord and torture for the patriot I'M
j IL
country for the rulers whim and
| pleasure-such is the order of things in
| Servia.
When, after a season of dreadful
| suspense, it leaks out in Belgrade that
this or that member of the opposition
! is incareerated in the fortress, the
unhappy mans family orders masses
for the repose of his soul and his
! friends do not expect to see him
again, for few, if any, fortress pris-
oners of a political character are
known to have left the place alive.
AS a rule, inmates of the Opposition
row" are either carried down the nill
on a stretcher-being too weak or ill
to walk-or in a hearse.
The fortress occupies the highest
point in the Servian capital. Ancient
! Romans. Goths, Magyars and Turks
all contributed to its sinister and for
| bidding architecture. All these nations
! being expert prison builders, seem to
have employed their utmost ingenuity
to make Belgrade's fortress a terror.
I mention only one OF it's relics of
| blacklist barbarism. The prison in
| cludes a dozen or more well-like shafts,
where persons may be immured. Driv-
en- 1000 years ago, under the Emperor
Nero, these shafts were used with
equal gusto by the old Servian Kings
who became extinct in the fourteenth
century, by the Sutan's Pashas, Black
George and the Obrenovitsches, and
no one believes that King Peter will
attempt to do without them, particu-
larly as he is descended from a most
cruel race, his first known ancestor be-
ing a brigand. who slew his own
| father
"Nero's dungeons" has no doors, only
| an opening on top through which the
prisoners are lowered on ropes and
which are then welled up. save for a
| hole about foot square, through
which food is passed in and out of the
| cells.
This hole is secured by iron graf
ings and is opened out during ten to
fifteen minutes every twelve hours.
prisoners get faint glimpses of daylight
only when their scant ratons are sent
down to be torn with the teeth or
Tapped up dog-fashion, as the govern
ment furnishes neither spoons nor
forks During the rest of the time
the hapless ones are buried in black
est night, not sound save the clink-
ing of their own chains greet their
ears
But aside from these most ancient
specimens of the solitary confinement
cell, the ordinary political prison is
probably the most horrible and unsan-
itary in the world to-day, the victims
of tyranny being invariably chained to
| the rock by an iron band around the
waist and anklets, allowing them but
freedom to crawl far enough to reach
for articles pushed through the OPEN
ing in the door. The NOSE spacious
| cells contain benches for knoutings
and in the corridors are small stoves,
where irons, styled "procurers of con-
| fessions," can be made hot.
The records have it that during the
| last year of Alexander's reign five
women and over thirty men writhed
under the lash in the fortress and that
some twenty laid their painting flesh on
red-hot bars.
But the servians are a tough race,
| and it does happen sometimes that
abuse and torture fail to kin parties,
who. the Konack thinks, should make
haste to die. In that event the pris-
oner is ordered before the command
ant" and either on the way to him or
on the return trip, suffer accidental
death.
The accident" is prearranged as fol-
lows: After the prisoners arms and
| legs have been secured by ropes, he
is pushed along a dark corridor at the
end of which is situated an ancient
well, once used by the garrison when
| beseged..
The mouth of the shaft, which lies
considerably lower than the bed of the
Danube, is ordinarily covered up, but
on the fatal day somebody or some
| thing"-no one knows who or what
raised the lid to admit air." After
| the prisoner has vanished the lid is
fastened again.
The Koloratz case, to which allusion
was made, happened under King Milan.
| In 1880 .Koloratz was the Pierpont MGR
| gan of Belgrade. A man of decided
ability and integrity, Koloratz enjoyed
! the confidence of his fellow countrymen
| to remarkable degree, but neVerthe-
less, it was freely prophesied that he
| would not die in his bed. Why? Be
cause he hated the Obrenovitches
One fine day detachment of Hus-
sars conducted Koloratz from his couu-
! try house to the fortress, and after he
had been sealed up in one of Nero's
wells for week, or longer the gov
eminent made him a proposition.
KoloratZ was to regain his liberty
provided he signed a declaration bind
ing himself to drop all opposition to
the reigning family, and furthermore
to deed his palace, the present post
office, TO the government, together with
| 100000 francs as a maintenance fund