The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1904-10-07
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT
BAReARoUs PUNISHMENT DONE
AWAY WITH BY CAR.
pr. Howard, an American Physician,
Has Left a Vivid Picture of the
Cruelties Practiced on the Unhappy
Inmates of the Emperor's Prisons.

Russia Is rejoicing over the recent
manifesto OF the car granting amnes-
ties end %decreeing certain benefac-
tons for the oppressed people. But
more than all it rejoices that corporal
punishment has been abolished, To
the average American reader the eu-
phemistic term corporal punishment"
is practically devoid of meaning. But
replace the sugared phrase with the
word "knout" and q thing at one hor-
rible and revolving fashions itself in
the minds eye.
The knout is a whip Of three thongs
or tails, the end of each thong being
fashioned into a knot, and not infre-
quently, particularly when the weapon
was to be used on hardened criminals,
the knot was partly composed of q
leaden ball. With scourges Of this ter
rible kind Russian peasants, soldiers.
officials, suspected offenders, and even
persons in high places have been
whipped.
A little v e two years ago the APP
! pletons published a book entitled,
Prisoners of Russia" 1t was written
by the late DR.. Benjamin Howard. In
the following manner DR.. Howard WV
idly pen-pictured the terrible knouting
operation:
Being Invested of his m%anacles by
the guard, the mar laid himself full
length upon the kabyla, a IS directed.
face downward. By straps passed
through perforations In the table, he
was immovably secured to it by the
ankles, legs. chest and arms. About
eight PAGES in front of the kabyla
stood, from right to left, the corporal's
guard, the governor, the civil surgeon
and myself. Close beside the culprit,
on the left, stood a subordinate Of
fetal, known as the MARKER with a
large memorandum book in his hand.
"All being prepared, the executiOner
entered and tried the knout IN the air.
carefully measuring his stroke. Be
fore the command to begin was fairly
out of the governors mouth it was
drowned by the shrieks aid yells OF
the culprit. | quickly began to appre
| ciate what had appeared to me mere
ostentatiousness in the preliminary
stroke practice. For, having once
been started. the executioner's strokes
were as steady. as rhythmical, as pre-
else as if done by a steam engine, and
as unrelenting. Such was the pre-
cision of them that at the end of the
fifth stroke there were exactly fifteer
lines on the culprit's back, scoring as
evenly as If they had been marked
with a piece OF chalk.
THE force of the blows so complete
ly expelled the blood from the sur
face that with chalk the lines could
not be made whittier. BY the wrist
maneuver the blows were applied with
such carefully graded force that at the
end Of the first stage the part already
attacked looked as il covered with ar
even sheet of white paper. There was
not a drop of blood.
The second stage commenced al
the blood began to flow, and as this
proceeded more and more freely the
victim appeared to revive and to COM
to life again. As a spectacle, this wa.
the most horrible part of the punish
ment, though for the victim it wa!
much less painful. At every blow
each OF the thr ee-knotted thongs, lik'
the claws and beak of a vulture
pecked out fragments of drippin,
flesh, which were scattered in all di
rections by the backward swing Of tn,
cruel lash. To avoid them the officers
who were in white uniforms, and my
self, had to step back and back for
considerable distance.
after the skin of the side attacked
had been completely detached ant
scattered the screams of the poo
wretch subsidized into groans and sobs
The excavation, now about the siz'
and depth Of a soup plate, being fillet
with overlooking blood, which poured
over the edge of the table, the fore,
of the eXecutioner's blows was mucl
deadened. The deeper and deeper thu
blowing the less and the less vas tn,
PAIN"
DR.. Howard said that there was
halt after the fiftieth lash. and tina
the physicians examined the victim
Finding that his life was not in peril
the punishment then. went on, in
sickening way, until ninety-nine lashe'
had been administered. It appear
that the hundredth swing of the dread
full scourge always is omitted az al
evidence of the cars clemency.
Such is the hideous corporal pun
ishment' that Nicholas II. imperiousl!
declares to be a thing of the past II
his empire Of the north.
Little Use for Policemen.