The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-06-22
ST.PETERSBURG PRISONS
Solitary Confinement, Slow
Hangings, Eye-Hole Torture.
CAR SHOWS NO MERCY
Typical Horrors Perpetrated Within
Fortresses of ST. Peter and st.
Paul and the SchIuesselburS-
Books Nor Anything to Distract
the Mind Allowed.

A special refinement of the Russian
prison system in the case of political
prisoners and suspects, who are not
given a short shift on the glacis or
the gallows, Is continued solitary con-
ilEement until, as in the case of that
splendid intellectual reformer, Dmitri
pissareff, they can be reported as
harmless" Some prisoners here
were relieved of their senses quite
gently and almost politely. They were
shut up in comfortable cells well lit
with 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. I'm.
agine a dark, damp cell, measuring
about 10 by G, beneath the level of
the surrounding waters, in which the
chained man or woman is condemned
to lie in absolute idleness, studiously
isolated from any intercourse with
human beings. 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 farthngs a day, which
provides bread and water, and three
times week small bowl of warm
soup. For ten minutes every second
day the miserable wretch is allowed
Il see the light and breathe the air
in the prison yard.
For the rest, intolerable loneliness.
absolute silence, occupation of not tho
smallest kind, no books, no writing
materials, no instruments OF manual
labor. Madness comes to such grad
ually with the passing years, not as
1t came to an unhappy young lady.
rising painter, who received such
Il eatment at the hands of the bruitish
prison police that she lost her reason
instantly. In the majority of cases
the mind rots gradually in the enfee.
bling body. Suicide and madness are
the two great weapons in which Rus
sian autocracy puts its trust
Frequently, says one who has been
prisoner in one of these Russian
hells, some poor wretches will make
feeble attempt upon a warder I'm the
hope of at last being brought to trial.
Shooting or hanging has been their
let. The scenes of suffering wit.
messed at slow hanging, occupying
at least half an hour, have been terri
BILE, Within the courtyard of the
prison is a hand hoist for lowering
ropes depending over gallows. To
these the victims are attached and
then slowly elevated into midair to
struggle and gasp till death relieves
them from their agony. Should the
governor or superior present be de.
sirous of getting through the business
speedily warder is ordered to seize
the suspended victims feet and hang
on, swinging backward and forward.
On previous occasions when there
mas been large number of political
Offenders insubordination has been de-
Hberately manufactured to afford n
rretext for judicial murder From a
Polish nobleman, the husband of an
English lady now in London. I
learned details of his experiences IN
such case. "We never knew" b
said. Il and those who had been taken
at the same time, until after our
morning parade in the prison yard
VINO would return. alive to his cell or
VINO would remain In the yard--upon
his back on the stones. Every morn
ing we were subjected to the grim
sport OF a lottery. After being brought
from our cell to the yards we were
placed in line, and a certain number
being drawn-say five-that number
OF men told off from the right. The
doomed NTH was then marched with
his back to the farther wall and q file
OF soldiers did the rest I saw nv
own brother shot before my eyes one
IL orning. | was eventually exiled to
Siberia, and from there managed to
escape"
DO You know what it is to have
your sentence of death cOmmuted by
the czar? A little while ago Europe
commented with satisfaction on the
communication by the car of three
death sentences out of five. These
fortunate ones" were immured in
cells in the fortress of st, Peter and
st. Paul Not only were these dens
dark for twenty-five hours out of
twenty-four, but the walls were run.
n'ng with damp and pools of water
had gathered on the floor Neither
books nor anything that might dis
tract the mind was allowed, and one
prisoner having been found designing
geometrical figures with his bread had
1t removed by the jailor, with the re.
mark that hard labor convicts were
not permitted to amuse themselves"
Another calculated torture in these
coils is the eyehole, at which a war.
der or soldier is posed to watch the
prisoner. BY this means the quietest
prisoner is soon moved to frenzy, and
the slightest insubordination is al
once punished by merciless fiogging
II not worse. Thus it comes about
that OF the three men whose sen,
fences had been commuted, one, after
year of these horrors, became con