Russian Brutalities.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 792, 7 April 1905, Page 3

Russian Brutalities.

(By F. A. .McKcii/.ie, in the Daily Mail.) | "Wc live just over, the courtyard of the police station,"- said the girl, with a half-suppressed shudder. "So TV's see it all."&he was a young the office of a friend of 'mine in Warsaw. She was very quiet, and appeared somewhat dazed by the horrors of the last few days of riot. Her German ran smoothly and fluently, and there was an unnatural qalmness about her manner. Our home is not far from the Wola district," she said. "|You know that this wits one of <the centres of the trouble, and there was a good deal of lighting near us. 1 stayed in as much as I could, but us the police station lay just under our window I could not help seeing what went on there." SCENES IN THE I>ODICE YARD. " Our worst time was on the Saturday afternoon, when the police started bringing in a number of prisoners, uiun they had caught in the streets. The soldiers beat the men forward with their rifles, and the policemen dr e w their swords and struck the prisoners -with the flats of them. The police yard is surrounded on all four sides by houses, and they drove the people into the corners of the yard until they could take thein inside the rooms of the station. I "We could' hear loud cries coming from the rooms inside, as though the I people were being badly bealen there. [Of course we could see nothing of 'what went on inside, but the yard .was quite bad enough. The soldiers in the yurd had their long whips, threaded with lead and knouts. They kept liitting the'people across the faces and shoulders. I "Four women were brought in. These were treated just the same as ' the men. They said that one of them '—quite a young girl—had shot an officer. They beat her very badly, punching her with clenched fis'ts, sticking her with .whips, and kicking .The Cossacks beat all the women. "The noise was so great that wo 'could not settle down to other things. Then it became dark and we could sec no more. Hut the cries and the groans and the shouts, the cut of ' the whips, and the noise of the blows Ikept up all night.''' Was this young woman exaggerating in her account ? I resolved to linfl lout so far as T could,for myself. So i I made inquiries, and found out one or two men who had been arrested 'and released. The first was a well-to-do, young ftllow who had got into 'a squaliMe with a soldier on the night, "of the worst of the rioting, and was fortunate enough to be arrested instead of being shot. He had beon kept two days in a cell, and was then released. SCKE.YMS OF THE TOKTVUEn. He laughed good-humouredly at my questions. "Heating prisoners ' Of course, prisoners are beaten when thev are arrested, and belore they aro convicted. The police do it to inducc them' to speak out and to tell the truth. I was not beaten because 1 was too well dressed. That is u» uallv confined to the poorer men. M\cell, where I was conlined with twent\~four others, was next to the room |where prisoners were examined, and the yells and cries didn't give us any 'chance of sleep. When a rioter was brought in, and did not answer th# questions as the officer liked, the warders threw him down, one held him by the shoulders and the others bv the legs, and they beat him with whip or with a lump of leather piping until ho was in a right frame of mind. One man, I Know, annoyed them very much. They declared that he had so thick a skin that they had to beat him for an hour before hfe would conic to reason. Several ot the men in the cell with me had then faces all lorn with the whips. "What happened to us was this . Those of us who were arrested were examined, and were beaten or not, as the caws Wight Ire. Then wc wer» rhut up ra cells, as many as- could be crowded in. There was no room to sit or lie. for we were m too thrift, so we rested against one an- , other. Then we were left for two or three days, when some were sont to fortresses, some to outer prisons, and Lome w£e reW- I had influence with the police and money, so 1 got released, l'leasc me exactly how I managed it." -* *Mv next search was for one who had felt the full weight ot police anLer This was more difficult, but at last I heard of a young •workman who had come from prison. I found him itv his house. At lirst he would not answer the door, for he wuti too cowed and fl*-ok,cn, and feared a fi«& police messenger. The lad's face was cut right from the skull to law wath one trehiendous, liJow of a wh, Pfoody was saarcd horribly. t>"d uTllv I won his confidence, and he 'sold me what had happened. 1 PUNISHING THE INNOCENT.

" You Know that I am a mechanic," he said. "I took no part in t«s strike, but remained at home-. Ott Monday morning I went out. to buj (bread. The Jew who keeps the shop | asked me Ave times as much as nsLl/and I told him it was sheer robbery. A policeman told alio to !ga away. I paid for the Dread and told the policeman that 1 was not 'afraid of him, for the police well |knew me to boa <i>uet, respectable, | lU f, n .pl, en policeman called a -scrLeant and arrested me. They bound mv hands together and led me along 'soldiers beating m f we V™**iWhen we got to the station I tried to explain, but tluy threw me down 'and tot me very, •very badly with a nagaika (a leather whip with a piece of lead at the < nd). ThOy tore ! my cheek open and struck mc all lover the body, and said that I was 'a thief and a scoimdro 1 .. Then they searched' me and took cverj thing away, even my handkerchief, and I was bundled into a cell about twelve feet by ton, where there were twrn-ty-four other men. All the other prisoners had been beaten, too. I tried to stop the bleeding of my uts by tearing my sliirt and wrapping it round the wounds made by

the whip. Next morning I told a warder thu'i il he would take a message to my sister she would pay him well. My sister came and saw the superintend '<lent. He was very grave:. and told her because of what the sergeant Jh-ad &jid I was to lie sent for six I months to prison. He ail vised her to see the sergeant, which she did, land paid him ten roubles. Then the sergeant ssiid it was aIT a mistake, 'ami I was released." I 1 was- curious to see the prisons! ! myself. The task was not ea>sy,. for Kussian prisons are not open to the. first newcomer at sueli a time as I this. At last by making friends 'with some of the ward'.rs 1 svcnml "admission. I The scene will never fade from my memory. One 'cell 1 entered had already lost most of its prisoners, telt a few, with faces and bodies clearly marked with the whip, crouched miserably within. 1 had brought a few small coins and some eigar'ettes with me. As I handed them |to those nearest, the miserable flocked' mo, kissing the hem of my garjments, showing by their fawning | spirits and thejr scarred limbs clear evidence ol -the inferno they hud gone „J..... „V. .