The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1908-07-15
T0LsT0| APPEALS
TO WORLD TO STOP
PEASANTS MURDER
AGED RUSSIAN AUTHOR Ar.
RAi0Ns THE GAR IN CRUSHING
ARTICLE POINTING TO CRIMES
OF GOVERNMENT.

stoi. the famous Russian author anC
humanitarian. driven TO anger by The
awful executions of peasants now
sweeping over Russia. has written 4
powerful appeal TO the world unge,
the caption, Il Cannot Be Silent" Il
was necessary for Count Tolstoi u
send the manuscript secretly out 81
Russia 10 his agents In London and Il
has been forwarded from there to the
United States. The impassioned word,
OF the author form terrible arraign
ment OF the car and the landed pro
prictors forming the aristocracy
BY LEO TotsToi.
Seven death sentences; two in
Pehza and two in Riga. -Four execu
tions; two in Kherson, one in wilma
one in Odessa
This daily repeated In every newspa
per anc continued. not for weeks. not
months. nor for one year, but fol
years. And this in Russia and the
same Russia where the people regard
every criminal as a man to be pitied
and where till quite recently, capital
punishment was not recognized by
lew.
| take up today's paper.
Today. the ninth OF May.
The paper contains these few
words:
Today. in Kherson on the Strel-
bitzky field, twelve peasants
were hanged for an attack made
with intent to rob on a landed prop
a in a haf
district.
Twelve OF those by whose labor we
live, the very men whom we have de-
PRAYED and are still deraving by every
means in our ower--from the posion
of vodka to the terrible falsehood of
a creed we do not ourselves believs
In, but impose on them with all our
might-twelve Of these men, strangled
with cords by those whom they feed
and clothe and house, and who have
depraved and still continue to deprave
them. Twelve husbands, fathers, sons
from among those on whose kindness.
industry and simplicity alone rests the
whole Russian life, were seized, i'm
prisoned and shackled. Then their
hands were tied behind their backs.
lest thay should seize the ropes by
which. they would be hanged. and they
were led to the gallows.
A HoIIew Mockery.
Several peasants similar to these
who are about to be hanged. but arm
ed, dressed In clean soldiers uniforms,
with good boots ON their feet and with
guns in their hands, accompany the
condemned men. Beside them walks
a long-haired man. wearing stole and
vestments OF gold or silver cloth, and
bearing q cross. The procession stops.
The manager OF the whole business
says something the secretary reads a
paper. and when the paper has been
read, the long-haired man, addressing
those whom other people are about to
strangle with cord, saying something
about God and Christ.
Immediately after these words, the
hangmen dissolve some soap and hav-
ing soaped the loops In the cords that
they may tighten better. seize the
shackled men, put shrouds on them.
lead them TO q scaffold and place the
well.soaped nooses round their necks.
And then. one after another. loving
men are pushed OF the benches. which
are drawn from under their feet, and
by their own weight suddenly tighten
the nooses round their necks and are
painfully strangled. Men. alive a min
ute before. become corpses dangling
from a rope; at first slowly swinging
and then resting motionless.
The thing Is awful.
Speak Of Executions az Of Weather.
or executions, hang;ngs. murders
and bombs people now write and
speak as they used to speak about the
weather. Children play at hangings.