The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-08-30
RUSSIAN EDITOR
JAILED MANY TIMES
Published Truth of Condi.
tons Existing in Polish
Prisons.

Editor Leo Belmont, of the Warsaw
Volne Slovo, has just gone 10 jail foI
the nineteenth time for saying disa-
greeable things in his paper about the
Russian prisons.
1t isn't that the Russian authorities
question the accuracy of his statements.
With eighteen jail terms 10 his credit.
they admit he must know his subject
Thoroughly. But they argue that his ex-
pressions have been indiscreet.
In part, here was what he said:
THE Warsaw citadel, which barely
accommodates 12O prisoners, always con-
tains 800 miserable creatures who have
been arrested for some real or imagi-
nary oneDke.
1T is also a depot for prisoners on
their way from different Polish towns
70 Sil erIa- For them it is a purgatory
which precedes the descent into he'll.
''OtheTs are on their way TO freedom,
but must languish for months in cells
because the authorities are too busy 10
have them photographed for the crimi-
nal album and measured for the police
records.
Prisoners in all the jails throughout
Poland whose release. has been ordered
must wait until there is room for them
in the Warsaw citadel.
Prisoners of Nine.
cone Of my fellOw-pTisOneTs. when L
was there last. was a boy OF nine. He
had escaped from an orphanage, where
they barbarously beat and starved him.
The police arrested him, and he had
been in the citadel for months. It is
not known whether they classed HIM
as a political suspect or a common Grim
inal
Another inmate of the prison was
blind. There was a crowd he told me,
'and I got mixed in it. There was noise
and commotion. but I did not know
whittier 10 fee, and was arrested as
revolutionist. Il am blind, 1 said, but
the soldiers answered, silence, son or
pig We have martial law. There are
no blind people under martial law.
"A third prisoner was deaf and dCmb.
No one knew why he was inCarcerated.
One of his fellow prisoners joker
said the police considered him the
spokesman of the revolutionary party.
IN one cold, gloomy cell Was gray
haired, feeble man more than eighty
years old. He was condemned TO per
petual imprisonment because his son,
member of the Polish Socialist party.
escaped abroad before the police could
catch him. So they reversed the biblical
decree by visiting the sons sin upon
the helpless father.
The WaTdeTs offer rewards to prts-
oners who betray their comrades. Some
times these spies are liberated TO spy
outside the walls. Sooner or later they
are generally thrust hack into the eta
del, and there a terrible fate awaits
them. They are surely recognized as
spies and lynch law is melted out 10
them within the prison walls.
Spies Part of System.
THE overcrowding is so excessive that
one prisoner can easily kill another be-
fore the warders have time 20 interfere.
Nor do they particularly care.
When, in the stiffness of night, the
tolling is heard OF the citadel bell. the
prisoners know one of their number is
being led out to die. They shout en-
enlargement 10 him. eXhOrting him 20
die ike man and 10 show the tyrants
that a Pole would rather perish than
live a slave.
The censor accidentally overlooked
this article, and the paper containing il
got onto the news stands Ii annoyed
the Russian authorities exceedingly and
Editor BelmOts friends are afraid he
viii go 10 Siberia This time. Exchange.