Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1891 — NOT A BAD NIHILIST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NOT A BAD NIHILIST.

SERGIUS STEPNIAK TELUS OF RUSSIAN ATROCITIES. Min Who Have Committed Mo Crime Sentenced to the Mines Without TrialEven Little Children Are Mow Banished to Siberia. S>?gius Stepniak, who is a nihilist in Russia but not in the United States, is now lecturing in this country and has recently spoken in Chicago, St. Paul and Milwaukee. The great question in ,Russia to-day, he says, is to throw overboard the autocracy and substitute a constitutional monarchy, the same as that found in Italy, England and all European countries except Turkey. This movement began in Russia more from a religious spirit than a political one. Russia today istpassing through a period similar to what France passed through before its great revolution. Nihilists in Russia who are sincere and earnest as a general rule in their work fdr a better government are compelled bo submit to the most extreme suffering from the heavy peaalties inflicted upon them by public o’fficers. The speaker, in a recent lecture, gave in detail the' manner of organizing nihilist societies among the workingmen. Nothing was done that was. considered violent at first. The societies heard lectures on all scientific knd social topics for their educational benefit. The ideas of better government were sown in a quiet way. There was nothing political or revolutionary. It was a religious movement in the full sense of the word. But it had in time assumed a political dress. Officers of the government, seeing the drift of the ideas taught by the

nihilists, soon began to arrest them on charges of organizing revolutionary societies dangerous to thoXzar’s dynasty. The prisoners were sentenced to ten, twelve and, fifteen years in Siberia. The speaker told of his own arrest with three others, and the four werre marched eff to prison. But one prisoner was and managed to getcthe pfison guards drunk during the night, and the four prisoners escaped. After two hours of hard walking the prisoners reached almost the point from which they had started. They had lost their way in the dark and had missed the road to the railway station thirtyfive.mlles from the prison. The fugitives saw a light in a small house and ventured in, only to be received by a constable. But the speaker had a copy of an old song in his pocket, which he palmed off on the illiterate constable for a passport. The prisoners forged their own passports, and, escaping from the country, Stepniak found refuge in London. The speaker then referred -to the system of trials, by tribunal and by administrative justice, so called, in Russia. Men were allowed a jury in the tribunal system, and sometimes were acquitted. But in the administrative justice system they were arrested, convicted, and exiled to Siberia without even knowing what charge had been placed against them, or knowing the names of their accusers. They werd often taken away by officers to Siberia without knowing the point of destination The speaker gave a graphjc description of the inquisitorial inflictions on the prisoners in Siberia. Two young women who were confined in jail were forced to disrobe before a crowd of brutal men from the fortress. One young officenwas arrested for being a nihilist, who went insane while in jail, but he was tried and executed while in hi£ demented condition. Out of 193 prisoners at one place in 1877, seventy-four died from privations in Siberia, and now there were only five or six of them alive. These prisoners were wh6 had committed no crime, but had simply spoken what they believed. Where one prisoner gets a- trial there are twentyfive who are convicted without a trial. The government now exiles even children. ‘ In 1887 319 boys and girls under age were exiled to Siberia. The speaker cited one case of a little girl 13 years of age, who had been noisy at a public demonstration. The police arrested her. She called on the crowd, to rescue her, and,the crowd obeyed her appeal. She was afterward reqxrested and exiled to Siberia, where she committed suicide in prison. Many of the men who are arrested are' exiled to satisfy political revenge. A man of influence can place a charge .of nihilism against a poor enemy and get,him out of the way. In conclusion the speaker said nihilism used peaceful means when proper, but was oftentimes compelled to use destructive But the day was coming when the army would support the nihilists, and a general uprising of the people would overthrow the Czar’s dynasty. Where there arc one hundred prominent leaders there are thousands upon thousands of dissatisfied people who never take an* active part in lighting for the doctrines of-better government. Nihilism was spreading among them. The opinion of America, which was decidedly against despotism, had great weight with the intelligent classes in Russia.

SERGIUS STEPNIAK.