The Washington times., 1919-03-31


has Just returned from Russia in which she said that she
had seen Bolshevk soldiers cruelty than score OF
Ukrainan officers The soldiers had been captured from
General Kornilofs army and then nailed to trees
Despite all the horrors to which have become
toned through four years of human slaughter this news
develops additional shudder and we ask Where Will
mans inhumanity to stop?"
There time in the worlds history when the sight
of human beings nailed to the In all directions was
much than the sight of weases nailed
to barn doors in country regions.
To every living within civilized lands the
word crucifxion has deep and intense meaning For
the nobest spirit that to earth made to die
this ve painful and shameful death for the sake OF oer
men
beyond the point where nail fellow to the
we have progressed beyond the age Of superstition
race hatred, AND STUPID WILLFUL REPETITION OF
UNTRUTHS.
Perhaps it is well therefore as this Russian atrocity
furnishes the OCCASION remind the people that cucxon
has NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH JEWISH
CUSTOMS OR JEWISH PUNISHMENT.
Crucihxion was the punishment inflicted by the Ro
mans And on that dreadful day Golgotha when the
light of the world was put out the execution the work
of Roman soldiers the punishment the invention
Of the Roman mind, inflicted by Roman authorities.
The Romans reserved the punishment of crucfxion for
those upon whom they meant to infic peculiarly shame
full death.
Slaves that had been guilty of stealing crucied
The idea to tey the other slaves with the sight of
nails driven through the hands THAT HAD STOLEN
It was not customary drive nails through the feet
although that was done sometimes.
When it was done it proved unusual ferocity on the
part of the soldiers who under commanding centurion
acted executioners to the Roman authorities.
When crucifxion is carried in the Roman way the
is in the shape of Ta piece of wood fast
tened the top of another piece The is not high
the feet of the victim but few inches above the ground
The weight of the body supported upon piece of wood
fastened like spar the shaft of the half height
Without this support the hands would tear and the body
would sink
1t is impossible conceive the agony which such a.
death involves And is absolutely beyond the power of
to conceive of the herom required go through this
dreadful suffering and to refuse the drugged wine that
would have supefed the brain and brought death shortly
The dreadful invention is arranged to proIong
the death agony the last degree In the of of
very rugged constitutions and lacking in sensbty, death
been postponed fer days the victim actually sleep
ing upon the and dying ultimately of hunger and of
thirst, combined with intense pain.
is strange and painful to think that in the world at
this date time of people should be degraded
wish mutilae and torture human being in this
way But horror such shameful deed should
to look into ourselves question our conduct when
strangle electroCute man-doing quickly
but just SHAMEFULLY the criminal work destroying
the life that cannot create.
And there in this reported crucixion another and
higher thought.
There the death painful the most horrible in
every detail of shame and of agony And yet the memory
of One dying upon the to others turning His
NA"'0J UO"o4u ShyJ 10 Cue
on of the greatest movement for human beerment
seen on this earth
With that in their minds religious men in the
Dark Ages turned bloodthrsty savages Christianity
AND LAID THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN CIVIL
HATIoN.
With that in their minds thousands and tens of
thousands of have laid down their lives for what they
believed to be right
Delicate women and children were fed to the wild
beasts and when the door opened they not the animal
advancing to seize them but in the air above them pic
ture of that death and of that face upon the
There in the inspiration of that Divine DEATH
power that destroyed the Roman empire that civilized the
nations beat back savage hores penetrated forests in
America turned thousands of lives of selfabnega
tion Of charity, Of teaching, and of good example
(C0ntiaued in COlumn0