The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-09-04
Terrible Tale Told BY Chicago
Police Officer Who's Back
From There.
Brutality of the Cossacks. and
Execution of Fifteen Boys;
Misery Abroad.

Chicago, Sept. 2.-"Eyil conditions in
hassia never yet have been adeauate-
" picture@ cby any writer. SO terri
bic are they that perhaps no writer
can describe them"
This, is the opinion of Detective Ser
geant Make Mills of Assistant Chief
Schuettler's staff, who has lust re-
turned from two months absence in
the land of the car. Mills reached his
home, 464 Dayton street, yesterday
ana today told of some of the things
ne saw while away.
The sergeant is of Slavic blood. and
his knowledge of the language and
Customs of the peoples of northern
Europe has made him an expert in the
detection of crime among the colo
nists of these nations. Last June he
arrested Meffodi Zeirnosekow, a youth
ful Russian fugitive, wanted in Lii
bau, Russia, for the murder of four
aged peasant women.
| Mills obtained extraction for the pris-
oner through Baron Schlippenbach, then
RUSSIAN SOHouI III SHlCdGO, anu OH july
3 he started for Lbau with Zeirnoes-
kow and Mathilda Mallin, twelve years
old, whom he was commissioned to re-
turn to her parents in the Russian
city.
Man Locked UP on Voyage.
The three shipped on the steamer st.
Petersburg and during the sixteen
days of the voyage Zeirnoselow was
shackled in a barred stateroom pro-
vided by the transportation company
at the request of the Russian govern
ment. Mills said that on landing
at Libau, which is under martial
rule, the young Russian was taken
to military prison, where he was
executed within week.
81 tried to find out what happened
to the man." said Detective Mills to
Assistant Chief Schuettler, "but the
military authorities do not let the peo-
pie know anything of what goes on
within the walls of the prison. From
what 1 could learn Zeirnosekow's
body never left the prison yard.
81 went from Libau to Odessa and
found conditions there the same, If
not worse. There are on an average
of twenty military prisoners executed
each day in some of these cities,
and it is only on rare occasions that
the outer world hears of them.
Saw Fifteen Men and Boys Shot.
'In Odessa 1 saw fifteen men and
boys-most of the boys were very
into the prison and
shot. They were condemned at a
drum head courtmartial, and their bo-
dies were dragged to the police field
arrest. I learned that these people
call themselves revolutionists, but, in
fact, they are blackmailers and terror ,
lists, for the most part
"These men send threatening letters
to anybody who has little property,
and they do not hesitate to carry out
their threats if given an opportunity.
At Merzalkowa, fifty miles south of
Odessa, it was said that wealthy
merchant had refused the demands OF
the terrorists, and that there was a
fire in one or another of his many
'ildings every night.
Finally, the military commander,
young lieutenant of Cossacks, gathered
Ill the peasants together in the pub
ic square, and flogged men, women and
children. He told them that if an
,ther fire was discovered in the mer-
chants property every house in Mer-
,alkowa would be burned to the ground
before sunrise. The fires ceased.
Revolutionists Are Mostly Boys.
81 visited Vulna, Kier, lula and
dinsk. The revolutionists in these pla
IS are for the most part boys under
he age of 20, and nearly all of them
ave been in college.
"There are thousands of Cossacks
n every part of the empire. They are
10 longer employed by the Russian
government, but are in the employment
# the various provinces. They are
he policemen of Russia, and receive
z month for their work, which is
rom in the morning to o'clock
n the evening, with no hour for rest
II food.
"Every Cossack carries rifle, re-
Oliver, a saber, a whip and plenti-
ul supply of ammunition. They are
lass or caste of themselves, and
ave nothing in common with the
easants. They, are always imported
rom some distant province, and often
@ not speak the same. dialect as the
eople they are set to- watch. The
russian police officials laugh at our
and the greater number