Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-01

thought was to search for kornlioff.
They compelled the inhabitants of
the neighborhood to tell them where
he had been buried and. having got
the information, hastily appointed
committee to investigate whether
the body there was indeed that of
Korniloff The committee consisted
Of one bolshevik commissary, two
persons who had known Korniloff
and the priest who had read the
burial service over the grave. The
body was exhumed; it was indeed
that of our chief.
They took the body to Ekater-
inodar and | myself saw that sac
religious escort of death arrive in
the square before the cathedral, for
| had received orders to stay be-
hind to protect our wounded, who
had remained in the hospitals of the
town, and make preparations for our
revenge. The crowd of Red guards
and bolshevist Cossacks seemed to
be seized by sort of bestial fury. A
rope was thrown around the neck
of the corps and it was hanged to
big tree. Then the soldiers began to
run and gallop their horses around
it, slashing at it wildly with t.t
sabres.
Nothing but Bloody Mud.
The body, already decomposing,
hung for some minutes, despite of
the blows showered upon it, and
then. all of sudden, the neck
snapped and the body fell into the
square. My wife and |, who were
looking on, powerless to do any
thing, saw the crowd trample the
remains of the general until, in a
few minutes, there was nothing lett
but bloody mud His garments were
torn to shreds, his flesh reduced to
such a pulp that later we found it
impossible to bury the remains. All
we could do in token of our VEN
Grafton for Korniloff was to pick up
a few biood-soaked rags which we
gave, as holy relics, to officers of the
army of the Don.
Played Foot Ball With Head.
But the most horrible thing of
all was when the Red guards be-
gan to play foot ball with the gem
erals head. We saw it rolling about
beneath the kicks from their heavy
boots until it was ground to atoms
like the rest of his body
When the Paris newspaper man
asked the officer whether there was
any possibility that the body so
outrageously treated was not that
of General Kornilotf the Russian re-
piled:
Alas, there is no hope of that
There can be no doubt that it was
General Korniloff whom we saw
hanging to the big tree before the
cathedral of Ekaterinodar. | would
swear to that and | would ask you
tc say this under my name were 1t
not for the fact that | fear to ex-
pose those of my family left behind
in Russia to reprisals. Moreover,
you may soon question here in
France the best witness of all, the
sailor Feodor Batkine, aide-de-
camp and intimate friend of Korni-
left. After hiding in Elisabethin-
skaia during the retreat, Batkine re-
turned to Ekaterinodar to organize
an anti-bolshevist instruction. The
bolsheviki recognized and imprls-
oned him. A clandestine committee
which had been formed in the town
appointed me to make my way into
the prison and free Batkine. I got
inside, but l was discovered and had
to seek safety in flight. For a long
time l believed Batkine to have been
shot by the bolsheviki, but when l
was at Odessa, before starting for
France, received telegram from
him announcing his intention of
coming to Paris.
He will tell you that all the
tales that. mistake was made re-
garding the corpse of Korniloff are
pure fable-and how many legends
have grown up around his name!
Many persons believe that he is not
dead and l have heard honest peas
ants say that someone else had
been killed instead of him.
But all that is mere talk. And
how easy it is to see how all these
stories have grown up! Korniloff,
in the eyes of patriotic Russians,
was more a symbol than a man. He
seemed to them the religious in
carnation of their tenacious hope in
kussia's liberation. They refuse to
believe that this hope is dead. And
it is this hope that they reaffirm
when they bring their hero back to
life"