The Knout at Sakhalin.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Knout at Sakhalin.

Flogging by the knout has been prohibited in Siberia. It is allowed only on the island of Sakhalin, and for murder. No Russian civilian is allowed to witness an execution of that sort ; certainly no traveller. You can look over any book you like, even any romance you like, and I think you will find that no author ventures to say that he himself saw a case of flogging. Although the Governor and I were so intimate (says a writer in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society), I noticed for the first time one day a little constraint. I met the doctor and said, ' You do not look very well.' 'Well,' he said, 'lam very unhappy. There is a case which has come into Court for flogging for murder, and I don't like it.' It was not a thing that I would like to see, but I thought that somebody who was competent should know what this flogging by the knout wae, and however painful it might be to myself, I had better see it for the purpose of truth. I saw very well that the Governor was keeping something from me. Here comes the advantage of being a doctor. The prison doctor went to the Governor and said that the prisoner's case was so critical that he could not take the responsibility of deciding whether he was fitted for the punishment at the examination which must take place four hours before, and he asked that I might come in consultation with him. The Governor could not refuse, and I did it. I afterwards went and saw the flogging. It took place,, in tbe great yard of the prison, in the presence of the Governor, the surgeon, and myself. The criminal was stretched out ton a table in the middle of the yard, atajd behind him stood the executioner. To the right of the table find at a good distance was the man who kept the tally, and counted aloud each blow as it fell — one, two, three, and so to the end. I have never seen anything which was so painful to witness. The knout has a large thick handle, the strands of the whip are divided into three by knots, and with a hard end, and the scourge descends like a bird of prey, and picks out the piece. The only pleasant thing about it is the end. As soon as it was over, and the man was not dead, he was taken to the hospital, and the doctor, who was one of the best of men, cared for him just as much as if he had been a sick woman in New York.