The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-03-17
PRISONS OF
RUSSIA
FATE OF THOSE IMMURED
IN ST. PETERSBURG
BASTILES.
SCENES OF MANY HORRORS.
Prison System of the Empire--
Solitary Confinement in Dark
Cells.--PrisonerS Driven to
Insanity or Suicide--Eyehole
Torture--Slow Hangings.

V6ll may bD6 iDudDlbdDJS Vi 6b. re-
tersburg shudder as they glance beyond
the Neva at the dark fortress whence,
each hour, the north wind brings across
the river the discordant sound of its
melancholy bells. Melancholy, indeed,
for nothing but memories of suffering
aud oppression sit upon it's granite
walls, says the st. James Gazette
Here Peter |. tortured and mutilated
his enemies. Here he slew his own son,
Alexis, and to this dungeon, during the
licentious reign Of the Expresses, ON
nipotent favorites consigned aspiring
rivals. And since then whole genera
tions of men and women, for no other
crime than love of their oppressed
country, have entered these gates, often
tC leave them no more.
The horrors perpetrated within the
fortresses of So. Petersburg AID st.
Paul and Schlusselburg are typical Of
the prison system all over the Russian
Empire. and in spite of official efforts to
suppress the facts, it has been possible
to obtain the truth, both from former
officials and from those VINO have suf-
fered.
A special refinement of the Russian
prison system 10 the case of political
prisoners and suspects who are not
given a short shift on the glacls or the
gallows, is continued solitary confinG
ment until, as in the case of that splen
did intellectual reformer, Dmitri Pts
sareff, they can be reported as harm
less" Some prisoners here were re-
lieved of their senses quite gently and
almost politely. They we're shut up in
comfortable cells we'll lat by electric
light, and for mental pabulum they
were supplied with only religious and
technical works. When insanity or
suicide supervened, the appointed end
had been secured.
But the doom of others presents even
greater features of horror. Imagine
dark, damp CELL measuring about ten
by six, beneath the level of the sur
rounding waters in which the chained
man or woman is condemned to lie in
absolute idleness, studiously isolated
from any intercourse with human be-
ings. There Is no bed, no sort Of pillow,
nothing whatever to cover the body but
the prisoners gray CLOAK. The amount
allowed for food is five farthings day,
which provides bread and water, and
three times week small bowl OF warm
soup. For ten minutes every second
day the miserable wretch ie allowed to
see light and breathe the air in the
prison yard.
For the rest, intoerable loneliness,
absolute silence, occupation of not the |
smallest kind, no books, no writing ma
terial, no instruments OF manual labor. |
Madness comes to such gradually with |
the passing years, not as it came to an
unhappy young lady, a rising painter,
who received such treatment at the !
hands of the british prison police that |
she lost her reason instantly. In the ma
jority of cases the mind rots gradually |
10 the embedding body. Suicide and |
madness are two great weapons in which |
Russian autocracy puts its trust.
Frequently, says one who has been d
prisoner in one of these Russian bells, |
some poor wretch will make feeble |
attack upon warden in the hope of at
last being brought to trial. Shooting or
hanging has been their lot. The scenes
OF suffering witnessed at a slow hanging.
occupying at least half an hour, have
been terrible. Within the courtyard of
the prison is a hand hoist for lowering
ropes depending over gallows. To these
the victims are attached, and theD slowly
elevated into midair to struggle and gasp
till death relieves them from their agony.
6nOuIu Jne governor or superior present
be DESTROYS of getting through the bust
ness speedily warden is ordered to
seize the suspended victims feet and
hang on,swinglng backward and for
ward
On previous occasions, when there has
been large number of political offenders,
lnsubordination has been deliberately
manufactured to afford pretext for
murder. From a Polish nobeman, the
husband of an English lady now in Lon
don. learned details of his experiences
In such case. "We never knew" he
said, II and those who had been taken
at the same time, until after our morn
ing parade in the prison yard, who would
return alive to his cell, or who would re
main in the yard-upon his back On the
stones. Every morning we were subject
ed to the grim sport of lottery. After
being brought from our cells to yard we
were placed in line and certain Dum
Der being drawn-say five that number
Of men were told off from the right. The
do omed fifth was then marched with
his back to the further wall and file
of soldiers did the rest. saw my own
brother shot before my eyes one morn
inu uoa auantua1Iv aviIad IN Siharia |