FEASTED WITH HIS OWN FUN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5490, 21 June 1879, Page 7

FEASTED WITH HIS OWN FUN.

A recent libel suit iu Moscow, in which city the author of a quarto volume was subjected to a most ignominious punishment, very forcibly reminds one of the inestimable blessings enjoyed in a country in which the freedom of the Press is a guaranteed and established right. The fact 3in the case referred to aro as follows :—

In the above-named city a goodly-sized book was published iu vindication of the rights of the subject. The book contained stinging sarcasms aimed at the venality of the officials, with many satirical and humorous allusions to the bribe-taking and other iniquities. Even the Czar himself was handled without gloves, his acts were fearlessly denounced, and a powerful argument was adduced in behalf of the rights of his subjects. The maladministration of law was set forth in strong, plain language. The book attracted genoral notice, but this was bad for the author. He was arrested and thrown into prison. After a short and summary trial his production was pronounced a libal, and he was condemned to " eat his own words " or suffer the punishment of •■he knout. This terrible instrument of torture is in the shape of a long whip or scourge, and is composed of many tough thougs of thick, hard skiu plaited together and interwoven with strands of stout wire. The criminal is stripped and is firmly bound to two stakes, which are sufficiently wide apart to admit the free motion of the head. The blows are laid upon the bare back, every stroke cutting like a knife, and soon the victim of the scourge is a shapeless mass of blood and flesh. One hundred blows are equivalent to a dea',h sentence. This was the alternative of the unhappy author. The day fixed for carrying tho sentence of the Court into execution arrived. A platform was erected in one of the public squares of the city. Bound hand and foot tho victim of despotic power was seated in the centre of the platform. An immense concourse of people had gathered to witness the strange spectacle, 'the Imperial provost, the magistrate, the physician, and the Burgeon of tho Czar were iu atteudance. The obnoxious book had been separated from its binding, and, as an act of grace, the margin had been cut off. The leaves were then rolled up, not unlike cigar lighters. Aud there they were—a basketful. Now tho meal began. Amid roars of laughter from the ignorant and degraded populace, the provost served the author leaf by leaf with his own production, putting the rolls of paper one by one into his mouth. He slowly chewed and swallowed one-third of his book, when the medical gentleman concluded he had received into his stomach as much of the innutritious material as was compatible with safety. He was then re-conducted to his cell to digest hiß meal. The two following days the same scene was enacted, until every leaf was swallowed, aud as a m \tter of fact he was compelled literally to eat his own words and feast on his own fun.