The Horrors of Syrian Prisons.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 1 April 1890, Page 3

The Horrors of Syrian Prisons.

arrive alive.- A, considerable porfcioi of everv batch of convicts is. com posed of" naked people " whom tbi peasarit'cai'riers coyer with, straw horse cloths or whatever is hand; and hurry them '.off to the n x station, no matter how.ill they raaj be, apprehensive lest.. they should succimb in the district for whici they: nre responsible. There are niiiny halting places unprovided with prisons, where the peasants • are obliged to take in the convicts lor the night. This \7ould seem a wel c :>me change from the co'd hospi* tality of a regu'ar prison ; but it bus terrible drawbacks. The convicts complain, says M, Ptitsin that while the peasants are deliberating and squabbling about the billeting of the batoh of prisoners, the latter have to stand — some oovered only with their linen and a piece of tarpaulin — for ha'f a day in the open air, hungry wCary, and perishing of ebld the thermometer olten, registering 88 degrees, below zero (Ealir. ) , Sm»U wonder thftt^ convicts, are frozen to death, cut '.down by want ;swept away by tfi^eyse, and that a ra«re ■fiaqtipn 6ft^ose. sent to Siberia ever get to their, destination.

The Northern Messenger , has a paper of inter«?t, by V. Ptitsin, describing the Russian prisons of. tho Lana district; 'which serve as ', halting . places for the con victs oh their way . to. Siberia ; ah<t the pict ures he draws „o( the sufferings of th<s*» outcasts fyeior* they *ea«h their destination , arj» (says the Pe¥i«w of Beyiews) as ■harrowing and graesome as the most „ .ftfnsatidaable statements with which Mr G* Kenyan shocked^ a phlegmatic : .iral?tio v ;^UB we read pf 10Q men being crainmedwinto a ' dark cell in i^thiib ,40 >perßons could with diffi- ; . culty be accomodated. the tempera-' ' ..tate-t'^Hi^ as'low as 24 dog. Fahr ; : of the tatmoßptf of* being ao poisouous io ibibef ! ce(lftft^ai6»b proßouers .are; xidtji^el^^ '; to al**P vW* the door jQnHj. totting »h thei frosty air 'in; Tfjjiok the uienitiry of a ' Pahreiheit thermometer, descends jto 20! 4egs below zero. |Ih tells us of wea,k wo^xf n And children , on that frightful journey hi <jl> e depth of a Si^riau" irinter, wha in favouthble cmUi #W^fad only on jb,'aek bread, And^Wtterly coihpiain that they get ve»y;l4fctle«tfteii Of tbai; in u^fayourabletsa^'i which ate very freqnent j reci«Y« npikherfood nor money for a Rpac* of several hundred miles, and. ate thus* wholly d«penden,t upon t^« Boreiy tetii dharity ' of the poverty ftrtken ptannt. He speaks of Hci^y wooden^ prisons through whiahi the Arctic wind blows as through mnslm, and into the wooden tfgljjf 6f which the prigonerß for the' eclificfttion o!"M. Pitsin, plunged ihjHl&ngtn as etsrly as into soft snowi or molten butter ; of rooms sod* d#h trttAunnameable filth and ordure, lick pewonß of both sexs lying help-* lesslyontUe cold, 'pu^c'ent floor,, go close. together that an apple, if it, fell, would not teaoh. the ground," erying, moaning complaining of the cold/. W° rßt °^ a^> "ho describes brigbt little little children the smile of innooeuce, playing oa their lips, lying uacmd for in * corset of the cell set apart for syphilitic women, •• jftii like puppies or kittens ; "of the tortures of the so called •' naked ■ p»opie" — cdnvicts who, unable any longer to endure the pangs -of hunger se I their clothes, buy iood with the proceeds, and perform a journey of hundreds of miles in their linen, flut«of being toundly flogged if they