Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, February 18, 1923, Page 14

‘> Li re M 323 c-~ —— am tne Our Special feature Page of ONE YEAR IN A BOLSHEVIST PRISON MARKED BY MURDER AND PLAGUE With Your Things, to the City,’ Was the Call That Summoned the Victims From Cell to Their Deaths---How Makarov and Hundreds Were Executed in Single Day---8-Year-Old Boy Jailed for Months as a Spy. This is the second of a series of articles on the reign of terror in Russia conducted by the Cheka, the Bolshevist organization, for the suppression of counter-revolution. The articles are by Socialists who were in the prisons. Once Pankratov called, in company with his nd and future successor, Zhukov, at a shoemaker's to try @ new pair of boots. He had scarcely on one boot when a messenger entered the* shop telling Pankratov he was wanted at the Cheka, Asking Zhukov to walt for him Pankratov left; but some forty or fifty minutes later he returned end continued in business like fashion the Interrupted work of trying on his new boots, In the meantime he had shot a man, Stopped Buying Boots a To Go and Shoot a Man On another occasion he was called out to the Cheka directly from the Korsh Theater: He had to take a cab and drive to Lubianka street, while his companions went homo leisurely. One or one and a half hours later Pankratov also got home, having managed to shoot three bandits. on He lived on the fat of the land. He drank, ate and gambled a great deal, and sometimes he would lose heav He never short of money, for his income was large and steady. Not to mention the high salary he was being priated most of the belong: executed victim. Things of cheaper quality_he would sell, those of better grade fie Wwould wear himself. He also took whatever valuables he happened to find on the corpses. But most of all he was interested in gold teeth. Some of his victims had their mouths full of them. And Pankratoy used No break them off regularly from the still warm gums. : For his cifficult and troublesome work Pankratov was pampered and kept well fed by the Cheka. In addi- tion to the regular Cheka ration he used to receive a daily extra ration, including wine, meat and white bread, and was entitled to additional m rial rewards for each executed p' As he was a good never failed, after king” day, accurately to compile his “list of requirements” to be submitted to the office. Thus Pankratov lved in plenty of abundance, with no cause to complain of his fate. Gradualiy, howe’ he began to feel tired and to suffer from nightmares. And that was Just the time when there were to be geome wholees shoc . He began to feel that he would go mad, that he could not keep it up much longer. He felt scared and decided to give up the position. “Fortunately” there was Zhukoy, a reliable and worthy suc- cessor. Pankratov left. It was sald that he had retired to somo Soviet farm as superintendent With the name of this executioner ere associated interminable streams of human blood, indescribable cruelties, and such moral torture at the last mo- ment as to stagger and paralyze the senses of the unfortunates going to their death! Pankratov knew how to prepare his victims for their last minute and was @ past master in the technic of shooting. yy cruel beatings, or threatening, vile oaths, or one of those sinister looks of his feverish eyes, as the case may be, he had the power to turn even the most erate ban- dits into passive and ubmissive crea-~ tures who, as if in a trance, would follow his order: hurried almost automatically, undress, afrald to dis- obey even his slightest command, and await the fatal shot, their perceptive faculties practically dead already. Of these last hours and minutes of prisoners condemned to death we shall treat in the lines which follow. The Ship of Death and How Inmates Met Their End In the r of the main pullding containing the suite of investigators' cabinets there is a ono. story wing that used to house in former times the archiyes of the insurance compa To the right of the entranc peculiarly bi Is runs there It room, narrow floor there }s way down tc with upper etal This is that ar 1 “ship” whos doomed prisoners are fi Death, yen space all t ment, connected a winding fron ysterious a’ “hold” t carried to t rt b: 18 al shore o} In one of the stono walls of this “hold” are two small chambers which have been turned intc In these ce fear crazed ns await thelr hours on Ship" is nes always silent and dumb. The 1d walls of the “hold! trate permit no human voice to pe the « e, and the p pper story awaiting his iast hour mill ascend it but once, in order to leave the “ship” and step meekly onto the shore of Death. . Every evening, as soon as the sun has set, the door at the head of the stairway opens, the penetrating voice of the executioner !s heard and the next victim leaves the “hold.” And his place is taken by others, : Here are a few incidents from the Mfe aboard this mysterious and terri- ble “Ship” ingenuously and truthfully described by several “fortunate” ones who had expected death, but been rdoned” later by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. One of them tells us: The Execution of a Man, 55, For Loans to the Bourgeoisie “In the beginning of February, on a Saturday, they brought a certain Zhu- rinsky, a gray haired man of about 55. He was accused of having loaned large amounts of money against the promissory notes of a number of lead- ing representatives of the Moscow bourgeoisie, speculating upon the in- evitable fall of the Soviet regime. The Moscow tribunal had condemned him to be shot, but he filed a petition for clemency with the All Russian Cen- tral Executive Committee, and had to wait four months for his fate to be decided. At last there arrived the news that the Central Executive Committee had confirmed the verdict. of an Under the pretext visit by from his sir 1 fice, and at in the ev himself already on the ‘Ship.’ man scarcely spoke a word, and to the suggestion from the guard that he eat his supper he merely re- the use of eating be- th?’ And then he began sr he pulled out of his pocket a copy of the verdict and thrust {t-into my cell “Soon Pankratov appeared, very drunk, ang shouted: ‘Come on out!' This time he did not even mention the name and did not order him to un- dress. Zhurinsky mounted the stairs with firm and sure steps. Two or three minutes later the automobile was started, carrying away the still warm corpse to the Lefort morgue. “Five days later they brought again from Butyrki prison three men sen- tenced by the Moscow Tribunal to be shot for counterfeiting. These were: Nugilin, 49 years old; Smirnov, 36, who had been a bookkeeper at some Soviet institution, and Vasiliev, 26, a dry goods clerk. All were married and each had several children. They had filed their petitions for Clemency with the All Russian Central Executive Committee at the time they were sen- tenced and had waited for its decision six months. At the expiration of that time the verdict was confirmed. The Horror That Marked The Shooting of the Three “They came for them just as they wero taking their exercise in the prison yard. They were taken directly from that place and, without a chance ack to their cells for thetr driven 5 ght to Lubianka unexpected called him © prison of- ning he found fe ce street. The last moments of these three men have been described as follows by another prisoner of that “Ship “All three kept very cool in the beginning, and used to talk a great deal to me and the other inmates. Then they wrote farewell letters to their relatives, and one of my netgh- bors who was figuring to ‘get off’ with only one year of concentration camp, agreed to deliver ‘them. Soon after this, however, he too, wag shot, so that the letters never reached their destinations. The oldest of the three, Nikulin, was asking all the time that we inform his wife that he wae calmly facing his death and that he had gone to his execution brave But I saw him ery twice, His comrades tried to console him as well as they They all regretted bitterly that they had been wu ble to fetch along from their prison cells the potassium cyan- ide they had prepared. Smir- nov even began to cry in his exaspera- tion “One of them asked: do ‘At what hour they shoot?’ I replied: ‘About seven In the evening’ When daylight began to fade one of them said: ‘Come, let us have a last look at the light of day.” Nikulin raised his head and ald with a sigh: ‘Here I am still alive and watchin thi But {n three quarters of an hour a bullet will pass through my temple, and that will be the last of it. He broke to cry. “‘All my Ife long I aid not believe in a God, but now I do!’ “Smirnov replied in a hopeless tone: ‘You may believe or not belleve;. makes no difference now, for it smells like death already.’ Then ho turned to us and spoke: . My friends, should you place your falth in others, but lve each of you according to his own Mghts, And the main thing {s—don't attempt to get rich quickly easy m at I was done for. much I ould now Ike to mend Q take, but is evidently It's hard to dle. daylight fade. down and again commenced was in seeking How tho ey thi too could., ; cut a'chance to fe Ik incessantly. They kept looking up to the window and smoking continu- ously. Vasiliev took off his warm sweater and gave it to my nelghbor and Nikulin turned over to me 1,000 rubles he happened to have in his pocket. At this moment supper was brought in, but the condemned men did not touch it. They gave it all to us. Then they began to talk about who should be the first one to go to execution. Generally the victims used to be called out by a list, and Vasilli¢v was the first on that Ilst. “Well, all right, I'll go first,’ he as- eented. “A 7 o'clock sharp a head appeared above us and cried out to the guard: ve us one!’ “The three shuddered and uncovered their heads. They came over to us to take leave. Then they kissed each other, but, huddled tn a corner, none dared go out first. “‘One ‘of you come on out!’ the guard called loudly. But no one stirred. relatives, together with a farewell message, “My sell mate, Shelakin, confidently expecting to be freed, agreed to carry out all these requests, but on the fourteenth of May he himself was shot,’and those letters and things fell into the hands of. the Moscow Cheka.” About the middie of May, shortly before the publication of the decree depriving the Cheka of the right to pass sentences In {important cases, Sxecutioner Pankratov surrendered his post to the above mentioned Zhu- kov. “On May 14 prisoners condemned to death began to arrive again at. the ‘Ship’ from the Butyrki Prison, They were’ sent over in small groups, mak- ing a total of twenty-three. They had been sentenced to death by the Moscow Cheka and were accused of banditry. Such a large number of men condemned to death and brought in on the same evening was obviously to be explained by a desire on the | VISITED BUTYRKI PRISON } e KAMENEV.- ‘Come on out, won't you?’ the guard again cried out, but with a break in his voice and with tears bursting from his eyes. Looking at him we, too, began to sob. . . . But the three stood there as before, hats in thelr hands, with lowered heads, and quietly telling each other to go first. It was very painful to look at them, and the sepulchral silence was still harder to bear. “At last, however, Smirnov put on his hat with a rather determined, quick gesture, lt a cigarette, wrapped his overcoat about him, and began rapidly to mount the stairs. When he was half way up he stopped, looked back at us, lifted his eyes and said: ‘I never yet made the sign of the cross in ail my life’ He then made the sign. Again lie looked our way, nodded to us slowly, and called or the last time: “ Goodby!" “We'll meet again!’ rathor thoughtlessly, “'Not so, but goodby,’ he corrected nd went quickly up the stairs, a I answered cigarette between his, lips. At the door they asked for his name and birthplace. He answered hastily and disappeared behind the door. Vasiliev and Nikulin stood motionl corner. “Scarcely two minutes had elapsed when we heard the same voice up stairs: “‘Come up, next! ikulin embraced Vasiliev and both went out together, But at the door Vasiliev was held back while Nikulin disappeared behind it. Vasilley stood © as if petrified, his painfully strained look riveted to that door. Within’ a minute or two he was also alled. But, crazy with fear, he jumped back, staggered and fell al- most in a swoon, He was picked up with difculty and carried through the in the door, Half an hour later the sound of the automobile was heard. It was carrying away the corpses. At the close of February and dur- ing the month of March twenty-elght More men condemned to death for anditry passed through the “Ship.” They had all been condemned by the committee of the Moscow Cheka with- e thelr judges. and arned of their impending death at the last moment. I shall not 1 on’ the last hours of their live: But here are two Incidents which hap- pened in April and were also told’ to 1 me by an eyo witness. “In the beginning of April three bandits condemned by the Railway Tribunal to be shot for armed rob- bery were brought in from the Ta- ganka Prison, Forty-elght hours had passed since the sentence had been pronounced. ‘They were brought in sbackled and badly beaten up, as they had offered resistance at the priso guesain y were bel to iere they wer hc placed in differe iting the execu and Whi w to us @ ributed a few t one 0 unother a to deliver all this part of the ‘Trio’ to settle with its victims before the new decree went into effect, “At 12 o'clock midnight the new commandant, Gorvatov, and Execu- tioner Zhukov came down to the base- ment. Then the prisoners were called out to execution, one at a time, with the usual intervals of one to two min- utes, Some were undressing hur- riedly. Others were tearing their clothes to shreds, so as not to leave them to the executioner. When they called out the notorious bandit, Igna- tov, who ied in a good sport- ing costum and al- ‘ed to go And on the follwing day Executioner Zhukov was dressed in the height of fashion. Little remains to be added to this story. Every minute that brought the condemned privoner nearer to death the steel ring of the inevitable tight- ened more and more terribly around him. Swiftly, one after another, all human precedents, all those trifling “rights” and “guaranties” which even the worst andit enjoyed but a quar- ter of an hour before, even in the Cheka cellar—all this would sink into the t. Th ecutioner, who, to while his tine awa had that very morning perhaps ome down “for a chat” with the condemned; Investiga- tor Vul, who had perhaps treated them to white rolls, and those nameless ruard. full tanding at their posts, who but an hour before had” perhaps, been serving their dinner— they all changed, as if by some com- mand, into savage beasts, with but one common thought and one sole pur- pose: to show the worst possible flend- ishness in tearing their prey to pieces, They would strip still living and conscious men naked and then wran- gle over their yarments. Still living men, instinctively resisting death, would be bound hand and foot, ike cattle in r house, and, loaded onto the shoulders of the henchmen, carried down to the cellar, to the exe- cutioner, ig all these different execu- tioners were also found men like Medvedev, whom the sight of blood seemed to intoxicate, and who yielded neither to Zhukoy nor Pankratov in their beastly ferocity. Again, thera were among them indifferen: func- tionarles who merely took part in the utions as a matter of “officTal "to whom these executions were just as disagreeable but as unavold- able a duty as golng to war. There were, however, otuers, even though rarely, who found themselves in this shambles only accidentally, because of their ignorance of the real situation, and who retained their. human. con- sclence unsullied, unable to endure this harrowing spectacle of mortal a Re tlonary justice” has run its course, Its vindletive sword not only the direct ¢ 4% of the Bolshe- y breath of the terror i whose fathers are already at rest in s. Prostrated gray Copyris the impending tragedy and awaiting the final horror for months and months, the mothers, wives and chil- dren finally learn of St only after a great length of time, and that only from casual, indirect signs, ard then they commence to run from one Cheka office to another, crazy with grief and not certain that all is ended. I know of a number of cases where the Moscow Cheka, in order to get ‘rid of them, {ssued passes to relatlyes to visit prisoners whom it knew perfectly well to be already at the Lefort Morgue. Wives and children would come to the prisons with packages, only to receive, instead-of ‘pérmission for an Interview, the usual answe: ‘Not on the register of this prison,” or a mysterious, hazy: “Gone'to the city with his things.” There would be neither official notification of death, nor a farewell meeting, nor even a sur- render of the dead body for decent family burial, nothing, . . « The terror of Bolshevism is without mercy. It knows no pity, nelther for its foes nor for children crying for their lost fathers. not quite compléte, and yet, what @ wealth of memories, impres- sions; what a multitude of faces; how anany lives, how many deaths! Among all this constellation of high- er authorities. in the Butyrki Prison, Moscow, special distinction was gained by the Commandant, Liakhin, his as- sistant, Karinkevich, and the chair- man of the Communist nucleus, the totally illiterate Linkevich. It was in this prison—representing a tangled knot of scandal, intrigue, thievery, mutual esplonage and arbi- trariness at the top, and an ocean of suffering, humiliation, treachery, de- nunciation and intimidation at the bottom—that a fresh current of or- ganization at last made its appearance among the inmates, ‘This started at the close of March and the beginning of April, 1919, when acompact mass of 150 to 200 Sociallst- Revolutionists and Mensheviki, upon whom the full force of the Cheka fist was then made to descend, found itself in the prison. Up to that time So- cialists occurred among the prisoners as single individuals, belng implicated only accidentally; and after spending two or three months there they used to be released without any further consequences, This time, however, the number of arrested Socialists, the ex- tensiveness of these arrests, as well as the tone of the Soviet press, showed plainly that a systematic campaign had been started by the authorities against the Socialist parties as such, with the object of destroying their organizations. It was now obvious that Socialists were henceforth to form a permanent category of prison- ers. And thus there commenced a hard and .painful, stubborn struggle, with obstructions, hunger _ strikes, riots and other well known means. The overwhelming majority of these prisoners were well acquainted with this picture from thelr experiences in ‘Tsarist prisons, It is not my object to describe here all the vicissitudes of | this truly agonizing struggle, nor all of its differ- ent stages and the actions of the au- thorities, who, starting with shooting at the cells of the Sociafists and beat- ing them individually and wholesale, finished by transporting them to pro- vincial prisons and scattering them over the borderlands. Nor shall dwell on the attempts made to “tame” the Socialists by granting them all manner of privileges and advantages, all the way down to that temporary “Socialistic Garden of Eden” so boast- fully deseribed by Meshtcheriakov in the Pravda in 1921, All this is a very interesting and instructive story, but it requires independent treatment, By organized protest and rebellion in the prison the Socialists did man- age to have the harsh regime some- what mitigated. A systematic cam- paign to have all Socialists concen- trated on one corridor was started, a more liberal constitution, a reform of the quarantine and tho concentration T ‘was only a year, and even that of the Communists in a separate “Communistic” ‘corridor were de- mande4. In this way the evil of es- plonage and denunciation was consid- erably lessened, if not abolished en- tirely. Liakhin left; Karinkevich was re- duged in rank and became more quiet. The kitchen, hospital, bakery and partly also the repair shop became ac- cessible for Socialists to work in, Searches of the, former cooks and bakers disclosed veritable heaps of money and precious stones, alcohol, entire wardrobes of clothing and boots. And all of this had been piled up at the expense of the prisoners’ mess kettle. The food, of course, was improved, and living conditions, be- came more bearable. But just then a different kind of horror was approaching, in the face of which all hardships and sufferings paled into insignificance. Out of the South Deniken was drawing nearer, the number of discovered plots was growing and shootings increased. Notables of Former Regime in Cells; Most of Them Old Men As early as March, 1919, there be- gan a concentration of prominent representatives of the old regime and titled personages who had been spared during the first wave of wholesale shootings in September and October, 4918. They were beginning to con- centrate them in the Butyrki Prison from the Moscow convict camps and from other cities, Thus the follow- ing persons, among others, found themselves in the Butyrki {n the sum- mer of 1919: former Minister of the Interior, Makarov; the former com- mander of the special gendarmery corps, D. N. Tatishtchev; the -per- sonal friend of Nicholas the Second, A. A, Dolgoruki; the twin brothers Bobrinski; the vice-governor of some Siberian _provine Naryshkin; two young officers, Konoynitzyn; the for- mer Minister of Agriculture, “Kutler; New York 1 the former governor of Moscow, Djunkovski; the former president (ober-procuror) of the Holy Synod, Samarin; several priests; the former editor of the Zemshtchina, Glinka- Yantchevski, a very old man; the former governor-general of Irkutsk, Kniazey, a half paralyzed old man; a brother of Admiral Skrydlov, Gen. Skrydlov with son and wife; the State Attorney, Vipper, who had acted in the Beilis case; Gen. Zubkoy; the gendarmery colonel, Cherniavski; the former governor-general of Galicia, Yevreinov; and the representatives of the Polish, Danish, Swedish, British and other diplomatic missions. The overwhe! is majority of these people were old, neglected looking men, who had in many instances lost all human semblance, reeking with vermin, emaciated and starved, ani unable to stand on their feet from weakness and all that they had suf- fered. They would ‘tremble before every keeper, not to mention the high- er authorities; they would throw themselves with beastly ravenousness ‘upon the food which their sympathetic neighbors often turned over to them. Some of them were simply disgusting in their attempts to repudiate every- thing by which they had lived and which they had professed all their life long, in their desire to find a well sounding excuse why they had served as gendarmes, spies or “provocateurs,” why they had preached Jew baiting or qrganized pogroms, ° Makarov Well Known Cynosure; In Calm, Dignified Reserve ‘There was but one person, one of the few who contrasted favorably with the rest, both in having retained his human dignity and in candidly ayow- ing his monarchist convictions—that was the former Minister of the In- terior and afterward of Justice, A. A. Makarov. To be sure, in his hatred and contempt for Nicholas II. he did not yleld to the rest of his fellow sufferers; but this contempt for tho miserable, spiteful, petty minded and distrustful autocrat he not only re- frained from displaying, but carefully concealed it- from. those about him, and only with persons who’ impressed him with’ their decency would he stfare bis confidence about the life of the Emperor and ‘his talks with him, His meeting with Kamenevy was characteristic of the way he bore him- self. Kamenev, in company with other “dignitaries,” visited tho Bu- tyrki Prison after the Socialist cells had been fired at during a Socialist mass protest. Like all “Caliphs for an hour,” which the Bolsheviki feel they are destined to be, he was anxious to have a look at the dis- tinguished prisoners. Now, when- ever professional Cheka leaders like Mantsev (president of the Moscow Cheka), Peters, Messing and others used to come’ to the prison every one of them would consider it his duty to express his surprise loudly, in the Presence of Makarov: “What, Maka- rov here! Hasn't he been shot yet? Strange!” ‘They could not help knowing, in view of their official position, that Makarov was at the Butyrki, and, asa matter of fact, no sooner would they enter the gate than they would ask the commandant to “show us Maka- rov and the other Ministers.” Ka. meney, as a “cultured” and “liberal official, found it necessary to veil this brilliant “joke” somehow, but could not entirely refrain from it either. Makarov, straight as an arrow, his hair white as snow, leaning on a cane, would usually obsérve perfect silence, in calm dignity, at these remarks of the Cheka executioners. With Ka- meney, however, who addressed him personally, he exchanged the follow- ing few words: “Are you the former Minister of the Interfor, Makaroy?" begun Kamenev with a ‘solicitous ring in his voice. “Yes,” “Do you know that your Cabinet associates have already perished?" “Yes.” “You—you understand that there can be no idea of your release.” “But I'am not asking you for anything.” Kameney became confused and stammered out: “But I shall try, far as pos- sible, to make your stay here easier.” “I thank you.” Of course, as {s usual with him, Kameney’ never even lifted a finger to make good his promise, As for the talks of the Socialists with the authorities, they were of a far different character. Here comes Peters to the cell of a Socialist pris- oner with a great deal of ceremony, with two bodyguards at his sides and the cringing prison commandant ahead of him. “Ivam the President of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal, Peters. Is there anything you wish of me “What have you to say in your de- fense?" -is the scornful question -he hears in reply to this, and he dis- appears, confused, with his retfnue. In other cells could be heard perfectly unmistakable cries: “Get out! Hang- man!” and similar exclamations. How- ever, all this happens only in certain more or less privileged cells. The ma- jority of the prisoners, herded to the point of suffocation in stifling, damp, filthy and vermin infested cells, were cowering fearfully whenover the au- thorities were visiting, afraid to say a word about their impossible con<itions of confinement. and the incredible thievery prevailing in the prison, ‘The array of prisoners in the sum- mer and fall of 1919 was motley in the extreme, In addition to the three classes of prisoners already mentioned —L. ¢., Socialists, representatives of the old regime, and members of for- eign legations and Red Cross organi- zations—the speculators were spicuous. There were. also, | also con- nding representatives of the business world, euch as Ivan Nikolaiovich Prokhorav who» hod. been» put ‘into prison for making «a holiday present to the work - men of his factory! He was sen- tenced for It to fifteen years concen- tration camp, but soon released at the demand and under the guaranty of his workmen. 4 ‘There were also all kinds of sharp dealers from among former exchange brokers, adventurers, traders on a me- jum and small! scale, agents of Rus- lan as well as foreign business firms, who had been caught in all kinds of more or less Illegal dealings. This quite numerous and solitary group of sharp, resuurceful individuals, nearly all of whom had behind them the backing of some influential Commu- nist, was living hign and not dry in the prison. For this company no pro- hibitionists of any kind existed. Their cells were always spotlessly clean, freshly whitewashed, fitted out with self-installed heating systems and brilliantly lighted. With plenty of means at their disposal they were en- abled to buy off the whole adminis- tration, to arrange constantly inter- views with their relatives, friends and attorneys to go to the city “for pur- chases for the prison,” visiting at their horaes, directing the investigation of their cases, obtaining quick trials at the tribunals, getting sentences of from five to ten or fifteen years in *concentration camps, and yet a month later they could be seen riding in au- tomobiles about the city in the ca- pacity of “irreplaceable” experts em- ployed by one or another of the So- viet departments, With the authori- ties they used to live in the friendliest of relations; with the investigators of the Cheka they were closely allied by a community of mercenary interests; frequently they would share their de- bauches at various low resorts, Wefora and after thelr imprisonment, and sometimes during the sdrshe, and, as usual, they would “lose” to them at the gambling table large amounts. Very many of these prisoners were unofficial or secret agents of the Cheka, and it was often difficult to distinguish just where the Cheka agent ended and the speculator began. This, however, was the case not only among the speculators but appeared still more striking in the case of ordi- nary felons, all kinds of thieves and burglars, or “bandits,” as they were termed in Soviet parlance. Profiteers Lived Richly And Rode in Motors Following a prolonged and espe- cially bloody pertod of shootings in 1918, the upper spheres of the Com- munist party, probably because they were not yet accustomed to it, felt disgusted with this method of dissem- inating Communism in Russia, and the Cheka fell into disfavor. Lubi- anka street, where the Cheka insti- tutions are located, which had always been crowded with automobiles and cabs during reception hours, hechme deserted. All outward signs pointed to a loss of favor. to disarmament. Rumors were rife in government circles that the Cheka was to be done away with entirely. This inst!- tution was living through a period of great worry and confusion. ‘True, at the time when the Soviet Congress was held Lenine, in order to be safe from the Cheka, drove to the club of the All-Russian Cheka and delivered speeches thanking and praising it for its work, involuntarily recalling Nicholas the Second thanking his valiant Fanagorians" (one of the crack regiments of the old regime) for their gallant service in pacifying the workmen. Still, all these outward signs of at- tention, all these decorations with the order of the “Red Flag” and the rest of them, could not calm the Cheka men's fears for their existence. And there began in Moscow a series of desperate robberies, murders and shooting at the militiamen (as the present policemen are called) from mysterious automobiles dashing by. The city was terrorized and a panic ensued, Yet these robberies, one more desperate than, the other, one more bold than the preceding one, were fairly raining down on the heads of the trembling citizens. - The climax came when Lenine himself was robbed of his automobile, attache case and revolver! ‘The All-Russian Cheka again obtained a free hand, Dzerzhinski iseued a strict order, with the usual solemn warning that the malefactors would be “shot on the spot” and the robberies immediately and cdmpletely ceased. . . , ‘This miraculous omnipotence of the All-Russian Cheka seemed very sus- picious. But in the prison the whole secret of the matter was revealed. It so happened that Lenine himself also suspected the Cheka in connec- tion with this whole business, and had entrusted the old, experienced detec- tive, Dmit: owner of that once famous dog, “Treff,” with the task of investigating the matter and finding the perpetrators, Lenine gave Dmit- riev ap absolute guaranty of inylola- bility, “carte blanche,” and an allow- ance for the necessary measures, with the result that Dmitriey Was able after some time to submit a whole series of photographs. of the robbers, among whom were found also Com- missaries of the Cheka. All that Lenine could do was tu throw up his hands in despair, The robbers were shot, the Commissaries were moted, and Dmitriev, well, Dmitriev was soon charged with being implicated in some entirely unrolated, framed up case; he was given the “supreme penolty" and it was only thanks to the insistence of Lenine that the thing ended with five years sentence-to a concentration camp. But meanwhile he has already man- aged to come to.terms with his for- mer enemies, for ho is sald to be engaged in raising bloodhounds for the police somewhere on the out- skirts of Moscow with Government funds, and St ia to be hoped that these disclosures will not cloud the \friend- ship he has established with mica, mer en Continued Next Sunday ile Stories Sunday Dinner __ Boarders’ Climax One Meal a Week When They’re All There at Once, George, the boarding house watter, was peeved. Not that he wasn't usually peeved. But to-day he was particularly at odds with the world. In fact, he haa on his usual Sunday grouch. “I tell you," he said to the new cook, “these here boarders make me sick, }{ they'd only get down to Sunday break- fast the way they all get's down ta Sunday dinner I wouldn't have no kick comin’, But no, They all lands hery at once. They always does. No soone; has I rung the dinner gong than they shoots out of thelr rooms and down the stairs Ike they was shot out of a gun. “And then I have ‘em all to watt on at once. Everybody in the house w: their soup and thelr dinner and every- thing else at the same time. My gorh, it’s enough to drive-a poor old colore:! man crazy the way those fqlks go on if they all don't get everything In a second. “Other days they all comes in to din- ner ‘at different times, so it's all right.:, but on Sunday I nearly go crazy trying ‘\ to wait on every one at once. “And how they do howl !f you wait on them out of turn! If that Mr. Jones done beat Mr. Smith through the door bys! inches that Mr. Jones has got to havo everything first. You cooks don't know nohow what we waiters hare to go through.” : Modern Car Lifts Social Status of Chauffeur ‘The word “chauffeur” has gone up tn the social scale since the early days of motor prupulsion, when !t was used as a term of contempt. At the helght of the Dicycle craze in France, some quarter of a century ago, the muscular sportsmen of the highways were scandalized and disgusted by the appearance of the first motorcycles. As noisy and smelly as they are to- aay, these innovations threatraed to spoll the joys of the road; and when they multiplied and claimed inclusion in racing events as a branch of amateur sport the aristocratic bicyclists argued haughtlly: ‘But these men are not sportsmen, they're nothing but firemen.” Or “boiler tenders” in the American vernacular. For that was the significa- tion of “chauffeur” before the days of 7 “horseless carriages.” It was applied to the humble individual who assists a locomotive engineer by shovelling coal on the furnace and occasionally polish- ing a bit of brasswork. Shop’s Free Concerts Dispel. Gloom Clouds In one of the passageways of a large railroad terminal In New York ts a store which sells planolas and gramaphones. During the rush hours the proprietor throws open his doors and feeds record after’ record to the gramaphone, alter- nating with a pianola. ‘The sound of the music brings many to the doors of the shop, often to enter and buy. The concert is a paying pro- position, but it has done more than bring customers. It has brought, too, gladness, as one little stenographer wili testify. “I always go out of my way 1 morning to pass by that store,” sho says. “Even !f I'm late, I go just the same, for no matter how blue or de- pressed Iam the cheery music puts me in better rumor, and I have started the day right.” %, First Typewriter Patented In England in 1714 Many persons will be surprised to learn that the typewriter {s not, as they imagined, a distinctly modern inve: tion. So long ago as 1714 a patent w: taken out in England by Henry Mill for a “machine for impressing letters singly and progressively as in writing, where- by all writings may be ingrossed in paper so exact*as not ¢o be distinguish- able from print. His machine was clumsy and virtu- ally useless, however. It was not until more than a century later (1829) that anything more was attempted. © ‘Then the first American typewriter, called a Pitre aic ges was patented by W, A. jure. In 1833 a machine was produced in France having a separate key lever for each letter, and between the years 1540 and 1860 Sir Charles Wheatstone in- vented several machines which are now preserved in the South Kensington Mu- seum, London. In 1873 C. L, Sholes, an American, after five or elx years' work succeeded in producing a machine suMolently per- fect to warrant extensive manufocture. He interested ©. Remington & Son, the gun manufacturers, in it, and in 1874 the first model of the modern type- writer was put upon the market. the y, A Coreless Apple PPLES without cores or scods are promised by a discovery announced at Abbotsford, Can- ada,+the particulars of, which have just been receiyed by the Department of Commerce from Consul-General Halstead. According to the announce- ment a seedless and coreless varicty of Famouse apple has been developed which differs but slightly in. sha from an ordinary Fa: use by being longer and flatter at the ends, but with the typical coloring and flavor. Except for a slight marking on the flesh which outlines the situation of the core in an ordinary apple, there are neither core nor seeds, The apples were developed In an orchard at Abbotsford and the dis- dovery that they were out of the ordi- nary was an accident, They had come from a now block of Fameuse, about eight years old, bearing for the first time {n market quantities, The dis covery was made while grading for marks but unfortunately no record was kept of the tree or trees pro- ducing the new fruit, and it will not be before another harvest that step: can be taken for fits corumereial ¢ velopmer Not Attrac Phylis—t heard t off your ment What wak the matter Wen-=I thought movle direct to De. just the ¢ bank