DRUNKEN COSSACKS AMOK IN A PRISON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8104, 1 September 1904, Page 2

DRUNKEN COSSACKS AMOK IN A PRISON.

The Berlin newspapers publish a- remarkable despatch, from Russia^ -which. has been received by telegraph from » German fron- j tier town, whither it was sent by mewen- j ger, .jai order to escape the censor. j The story concerns the fearful atrocities committed upon a number of politioal prisoners interned in the igrison at Kalisz, the capital <rf the Polish province of the wtmft naooe, 160 miles west of Warsaw. j The governor of the prison, & man of : brutal instinct*, h*d & number of th« prisonera flogged for trifling offanoes. Thereupon tfoe prisoners commenced « "hunger .strike"—that is to say, they refused to take any nourishment, expressing their intention of starving to de»th. They perse, vered in. this terrible determination until the St Petersburg authorities, convinced of th« justioo of their complaint, gave the governor notice to vacate his post in the) next few days. : | The latter planned) and executed c fearful revenge. He enlisted' tiie services If 270 Cossacks, made them mad £runk with re* peated; libations of vodka^iuad the* turnedj them loo«e in the prison. . . , JiMtdened by thie fiery Bpiri^ the Goisaokn ran amok among the .political suspects. Th-ey !bro&« tho limb* of one mm after another, gouged out eyes, stabbed! fiercely wit a ibaybne^ and sword,, until half the occupants m the prison were wwerely - wounded. Some victims the Cossacks hung up by their feet, while they dashed out Oxeio brains with any weagon that came ihandy. This barbaroui. brgie lasted trara. eight o'clock i» tho evening until «mri»e. The ei»ct number of killed i» not a^certaJnable, but the next morning 70. Tiot«ns> all horribly jnwtilated, were. m Hospital. Hero the poor prisoners were again barbaxonisly treated, so much so that many of thenx tore off tbeiribantfegeu, declaring they would rwfch<r bleed' to de»th than live toi •uffer furtiher cruelties t ■