HORRORS OF LYNCH LAW

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7606, 16 January 1903, Page 2

HORRORS OF LYNCH LAW

PEASANTSMVARFARE AGAINST HORSE-TIIIEVLS liN RUSSIA.

An extraordinary affray took place a few weeks ago afc Lopatchevo, a- populous! village in 'the government of Kieff, Russia. This place has latterly earned an evil repute, as harbouring a band of cattle and horse thieves, who systematically raided thd cattle of the villages and hamlets in . the adjoining district.

The rural police took little notice of the complaints of the victims, and the latter t herein tc took the matter of chastisement into their own hands. They organised an overwhelming attack upon Lopatchevo, which they approached in three columns from various points. There were no firearms amolig tihe attacking parly, but they were well equipped with stout: cudgels. The enemy had, however, received warning, sj^id were prepared for (he onslaught, which was delivered with desperate vigour.

The conflict, lasted a- couple of hours, when the attacking party liad to retire, leaving five of their number behind, beat cii to de.!th. The defenders lost ihree killed, making eight fatalities altogether. There ar^thirty-thrc-c of the combatants in hospital, many of them injured for life.

Year by year, 5.0 soon as the dark nights of autumn begin, a veritable plague of horse-stealing breaks cut in the rural districts of Russia. There seems to be no means' of checking this evil, which is now afc its yearly zenith.

When one considers tho peasant's horse is almost his only property and his chief instrument- of labour, one can understand his bitter hatred of the hursethict. His hatred is nourished and fanned to fury by the knowledge of the light punishment whicli the Russian lawprovides for horse-stealing. This is the explanation of the presence of lynch Jaw in Russia and of its recent violent manifestation.

The mode cf lynch law most prevalent in Little Russia is thi a : AYhen if' horsethief is caught the men in the village club him to dentil, each trying io strike iii such a way as io inflict 'no injury more serious than a bruise. -Far more horrible is the method of binding tlie feet of the criminal .to the tail of a yuumj and active colt. A lad leaps upon the animal's back and gallops away over ditch and meadow. A very few minut-S of a vide like this and liitle is left of the horse-thief.

A similar punishment is tp bihd the thief's feet to the a*le of a cart and then drive away as fast as tlie horse can travel. Less general is the refined ' method of severing the kiiec-tendons, which makes the thief a cripple for life. 0 A decfth of fearfu^jgony is that by pinpricks. "For this mode of execution the thief is bound hand and foot to a bench or log, and the women of the village aro then called together ar.d proceed to thrust needles and pills into the- soles of the wretched victim's feet and other sensitive parts. If the horse-thief is short of stature his hands and feet arc gva.yncd hy a number of peasants. One of Ihe biggest and strongest of ihem then approaches from behind ," seizes his head, and presses it backwards in th. direction of the spinal column until the vertebra "fJL 1 -,.^,^^^