Bab Bab 15 · THE HOSPITAL (_continued_)

The doctors used to visit the wards in the morning, towards eleven

o’clock; they appeared all together, forming a procession, which was

headed by the chief physician. An hour and a half before, the ordinary

physician had made his round. He was a quiet young man, always affable

and kind, much liked by the prisoners, and thoroughly versed in his art;

they only found one fault with him, that he was “too soft.” He was, in

fact, by no means communicative, he seemed confused in our presence,

blushed sometimes, and changed the quantity of food at the first

representation of the patient. I think he would have consented to give

them any medicine they desired: in other respects an excellent young

man.

A doctor in Russia often enjoys the affection and respect of the people,

and with reason, as far as I have been able to see. I know that my words

would seem a paradox, above all when the mistrust of this same people

for foreign drugs and foreign doctors is taken into account; in fact,

they prefer, even when suffering from a serious illness, to address

themselves year after year to a witch, or employ old women’s remedies

(which, however, ought not to be despised), rather than consult a

doctor, or go into the hospital. In truth, these prejudices may be

above all attributed to causes which have nothing to do with medicine,

namely, the mistrust of the people for anything which bears an official

and administrative character; nor must it be forgotten that the common

people are frightened and prejudiced in regard to the hospitals, by the

stories, often absurd, of fantastic horrors said to take place within

them. Perhaps, however, these stories have a basis of truth.

But what repels them above all, is the Germanism of the hospitals, the

idea that during their illness they will be attended to by foreigners,

the severity of the diet, the heartlessness of the surgeons and doctors,

the dissection and autopsy of the bodies, etc. The common people

reflect, moreover, that they will be attended by nobles--for in their

view the doctors belong to the nobility. Once they have made

acquaintance with them (there are exceptions, no doubt, but they are

rare), their fears vanish. This success must be attributed to our

doctors, especially the young ones, who, for the most part, know how to

gain the respect and affection of the people. I speak now of what I

myself have seen and experienced in many cases and in different parts,

and I think matters are the same everywhere. In some distant localities

the doctors receive presents, make profit out of their hospitals, and

neglect the patients; sometimes they forget even their art. This

happens, no doubt; but I am speaking of the majority, inspired as it is

by that spirit, that generous tendency which is regenerating the medical

art. As for the apostates, the wolves in the sheep-fold, they may excuse

themselves, and cast the blame on the circumstances amid which they

live; but they are absurd, inexcusable, especially if they are no longer

humane; it is precisely the humanity, affability, and brotherly

compassion of the doctor which prove most efficacious remedies for the

patients. It is time to stop these apathetic lamentations on the

circumstances surrounding us. There may be truth in the lament, but a

cunning rogue who knows how to take care of himself never fails to

blame the circumstances around him when he wishes his faults to be

forgiven--above all, if he writes or speaks with eloquence.

I have again departed from my subject; I wish only to say that the

common people mistrust and dislike officialism and the Government

doctors, rather than the doctors themselves; but on personal

acquaintance many prejudices disappear.

Our doctor generally stopped before the bed of each patient, questioned

him seriously and attentively, then prescribed the remedies, potions,

etc. He sometimes noticed that the pretended invalid was not ill at all;

he had come to take rest after his hard work, and to sleep on a mattress

in a warm room, far preferable to the naked planks in a damp guard-house

among a mass of pale, broken-down men, waiting for their trial. In

Russia the prisoners in the House of Detention are almost always broken

down, which shows that their moral and material condition is worse even

than those of the convicts.

In cases of feigned sickness our doctor would describe the patient as

suffering from _febris catharalis_, and sometimes allowed him to remain

a week in the hospital. Every one laughed at this _febris catharalis_,

for it was known to be a formula agreed upon between the doctor and the

patient to indicate no malady at all. Often the robust invalid who

abused the doctor’s compassion remained in the hospital until he was

turned out by force. Our doctor was worth seeing then. Confused by the

prisoner’s obstinacy, he did not like to tell him plainly that he was

cured and offer him his leaving ticket, although he had the right to

send him away without the least explanation on writing the words,

_sanat. est_. First he would hint to him that it was time to go, and

then would beg him to leave.

“You must go, you know you are cured now, and we have no place for you,

we are very much cramped here, etc.”

At last, ashamed to remain any longer, the patient would consent to go.

The physician-in-chief, although compassionate and just (the patients

were much attached to him), was incomparably more severe and more

decided than our ordinary physician. In certain cases he showed

merciless severity which only gained for him the respect of the

convicts. He always came into the room accompanied by all the doctors of

the hospital, when his assistants visited all the beds and diagnosed on

each particular case; he stopped longest at the beds of those who were

seriously ill, and had an encouraging word for them. He never sent back

the convicts who arrived with _febris catharalis_; but if one of them

was determined to remain in the hospital, he certified that the man was

cured. “Come,” he would say, “you have had your rest; now go, you must

not take liberties.”

Those who insisted upon remaining, were, above all, the convicts who

were worn out by field labour, performed during the great summer heat,

or prisoners who had been sentenced to be whipped. I remember that they

were obliged to be particularly severe, merely in order to get rid of

one of them. He had come to be cured of some disease of the eyes, which

were red all over; he complained of suffering a sharp pain in the

eyelids. He was incurable; plasters, blisters, leeches, nothing did him

any good; and the diseased organ remained in the same condition.

Then it occurred to the doctors that the illness was feigned, for the

inflammation neither became worse nor better; and they soon understood

that a comedy was being played, although the patient would not admit it.

He was a fine young fellow, not ill-looking, though he produced a

disagreeable impression upon all his companions; he was suspicious,

sombre, full of dissimulation, and never looked any one straight in the

face; he also kept himself apart as if he mistrusted us all. I remember

that many persons were afraid that he would do some one harm.

When he was a soldier he had committed some small theft, he had been

arrested and condemned to receive a thousand strokes, and afterwards to

pass into a disciplinary company.

To put off the moment of punishment, the prisoners, as I have already

said, will do incredible things. On the eve of the fatal day, they will

stick a knife into one of their chiefs, or into a comrade, in order that

they may be tried again for this new offence, which will delay their

punishment for a month or two. It matters little to them that their

punishment be doubled or tripled, if they can escape this time. What

they desire is to put off temporarily the terrible minute at whatever

cost, so utterly does their heart fail them.

Many of the patients thought the man with the sore eyes ought to be

watched, lest in his despair he should assassinate some one during the

night; but no precaution was taken, not even by those who slept next to

him. It was remarked, however, that he rubbed his eyes with plaster from

the wall, and with something else besides, in order that they might

appear red when the doctor came round; at last the doctor-in-chief

threatened to cure him by-means of a seton.

When the malady resists all ordinary treatment, the doctors determine to

try some heroic, however painful, remedy. But the poor devil did not

wish to get well, he was either too obstinate or too cowardly; for,

however painful the proposed operation may be, it cannot be compared to

the punishment of the rods.

The operation consists in seizing the patient by the nape of the neck,

taking up the skin, drawing it back as much as possible, and making in

it a double incision, through which is passed a skein of cotton about as

thick as the finger. Every day at a fixed hour this skein is pulled

backwards and forwards in order that the wound may continually suppurate

and may not heal; the poor devil endured this torture which caused him

horrible suffering, for several days.

At last he consented to quit the hospital. In less than a day his eyes

became quite well; and, as soon as his neck was healed, he was sent to

the guard-house which he left next day to receive the first thousand

strokes.

Painful is the minute which precedes such a punishment; so painful, that

perhaps I am wrong in taxing with cowardice those convicts who fear it.

It must be terrible; for the convicts to risk a double or triple

punishment, merely to postpone it. I have spoken, however, of convicts

who have thus wished to quit the hospital before the wounds caused by

the first part of the flogging were healed, in order to receive the last

part and make an end of it. For life in a guard-room is certainly worse

than in a convict prison.

The habit of receiving floggings helps in some cases to give intrepidity

and decision to convicts. Those who have been often flogged, are

hardened both in body and mind, and have at last looked upon such a

punishment as merely a disagreeable incident no longer to be feared.

One of our convicts of the special section was a converted Tartar, who

was named Alexander, or Alexandrina, as they called him in fun at the

convict prison; who told me how he had received 4,000 strokes. He never

spoke of this punishment except with amusement and laughter; but he

swore very seriously that if he had not been brought up in his horde,

from his most tender infancy, on whipping and flogging--and as the scars

which covered his back, and which refused to disappear, were there to

testify--he would never have been able to support those 4,000 strokes.

He blessed the education of sticks that he had received.

“I was beaten for the least thing, Alexander Petrovitch,” he said one

evening, when we were sitting down before the fire. “I was beaten

without reason for fifteen years, as long as I can ever remember, and

several times a day. Any one who liked beat me; so that, at last, it

made no impression upon me.”

I do not know how it was he became a soldier, for perhaps he lied, and

had always been a deserter and vagabond. But I remember his telling me

one day of the fright he was seized with when he was condemned to

receive 4,000 strokes for having killed one of his officers.

“I know that they will punish me severely,” he said to himself, “that,

accustomed as I am to be whipped, I shall perhaps die on the spot. The

devil! 4,000 strokes is not a trifle; and then all my officers were in a

fearful temper with me on account of this affair. I knew well that it

would not be ‘rose-water.’ I even believed that I should die under the

rods. I determined to get baptized. I said to myself, that perhaps they

would not then flog me, at any rate it was worth trying, my comrades had

told me that it would be of no good. But,’ I said to myself, ‘who knows?

perhaps they will pardon me, they will have more compassion on a

Christian than on a Mohammedan. They baptized me, and give me the name

of Alexander; but, in spite of that, I had to take my flogging; they did

not let me off a single stroke; I was, however, very savage. ‘Wait a

bit,’ I said to myself, ‘and I will take you all in’; and, would you

believe it, Alexander? I did take them all in. I knew how to look like a

dead man; not that I appeared altogether without life, but I looked as

if I were on the point of breathing my last. They led me in front of the

battalion to receive my first thousand; my skin was burning, I began to

howl. They gave me my second thousand, and I said to myself, ‘It’s all

over now.’ I had lost my head, my legs seemed broken, so I fell to the

ground, with the eyes of a dead man. My face blue, my mouth full of

froth, I no longer breathed. When the doctor came he said I was on the

point of death. I was carried to the hospital, and at once returned to

life. Twice again they flogged me. What a rage they were in! I took them

all in on each occasion. I received my third thousand, and died again.

On my word, when they gave me the last thousand each stroke ought to

have counted for three, it was like a knife in my heart. Oh, how they

did beat me! They were so severe with me. Oh, that cursed fourth

thousand! it was well worth three firsts put together. If I had

pretended to be dead when I had still 200 to receive, I think they would

have finished me; but they did not get the better of me. I had them

again and again, for they always thought it was all over with me, and

how could they have thought otherwise? The doctor was sure of it. But as

for the 200 which I had still to receive, they might have struck as hard

as they liked--they were worth 2,000; I only laughed at them. Why?

Because, when I was a youngster, I had grown up under the whip. Well, I

am well, and alive now; but I have been beaten in the course of my

life,” he repeated, with a passive air, as he brought his story to an

end. As he did so, he seemed to recollect and count anew the blows he

had received.

After a brief silence, he said: “I cannot count them, nor can any one

else; there are not figures enough.” He looked at me, and burst into a

laugh, so simple and natural, that I could not help smiling in return.

“Do you know, Alexander Petrovitch, when I dream at night, I always

dream that I am being flogged. I dream of nothing else.” He, in fact,

talked in his sleep, and woke up the other prisoners.

“What are you yelling about, you demon?” they would say to him.

This strong, robust fellow, short in stature, about forty-four years of

age, active, good-looking, lived on good terms with every one, though he

was very fond of taking what did not belong to him, and afterwards got

beaten for it. But each of our convicts who stole got beaten for their

thefts.

I will add to these remarks that I was always surprised at the

extraordinary good-nature, the absence of rancour with which these

unhappy men spoke of their punishment, and of the chiefs superintending

it. In these stories, which often gave me palpitation of the heart, not

a shadow of hatred or rancour could be detected; they laughed at what

they had suffered like children.

It was not the same, however, with M--tçki, when he told me of his

punishment. As he was not a noble, he had been sentenced to be flogged.

He had never spoken to me of it, and when I asked him if it were true,

he replied affirmatively in two brief words, but with evident suffering,

and without looking at me. He at the same time turned red, and when he

raised his eyes, I saw flames burning in them, while his lips trembled

with indignation. I felt that he would not forget, that he could never

forget this page of his history. Our companions generally on the other

hand (though theirs might have been exceptions), looked upon their

adventures with quite another eye. It is impossible, I sometimes

thought, that they can be conscious of their guilt, and not acknowledge

the justice of their punishment; above all, when their offences were

against their companions and not against some chief. The greater part of

them did not acknowledge their guilt. I have already said that I never

observed in them the least remorse, even when the crime had been

committed against people of their own station. As for the crimes

committed against a chief, they did not even speak of them. It seems to

me that for those cases, they had special views of their own. They

looked upon them as accidents caused by destiny, by fatality, into which

they had fallen unconsciously as the result of some extraordinary

impulse. The convict always justifies the crimes he has committed

against his chief; he does not trouble himself about the matter. But he

admits that the chief cannot share his view, and consequently, that he

must naturally be punished, and then he will be quits with him.

The struggle between the administration and the prisoner is of the

severest character on both sides. What in a great measure justifies the

criminal in his own eyes, is his conviction that the people among whom

he has been born and has lived will acquit him. He is certain that the

common people will not look upon him as a lost man, unless, indeed, his

crime has bean committed against persons of his own class, against his

brethren. He is quite calm about that; supported by his conscience, he

will not lose his moral tranquillity, and that is the principal thing.

He feels himself on firm ground, and has no particular hatred for the

knout, when once it has been administered to him. He knows that it was

inevitable, and consoles himself by thinking that he was neither the

first nor the last to receive it. Does the soldier detest the Turk whom

he fights? Not in the least! yet he sabres him, hacks him to pieces,

kills him.

It must not be thought, moreover, that all of these stories were told

with indifference and in cold blood.

When the name of Jerebiatnikof was mentioned, it was always with

indignation. I made the acquaintance of this officer during my first

stay in the hospital--only by the convicts’ stories, it must be

understood. I afterwards saw him one day when he was commanding the

guard at the convict prison; he was about thirty years old, very stout

and very strong, with red cheeks hanging down on each side, white teeth,

and a formidable laugh. One could see in a moment that he was in no way

given to reflection. He took the greatest pleasure in whipping and

flogging, when he had to superintend the punishment. I must hasten to

say that the other officers looked upon Jerebiatnikof as a monster, and

the convicts did the same. This was in the good old time, which is not

very very far off, but in which it is already difficult to believe

executioners delighted in their office. But, generally speaking, the

strokes were administered without enthusiasm.

This lieutenant was an exception, and he took a real pleasure and

delight in punishment. He had a passion for it, and liked it for its own

sake; he looked to this art for unnatural delights in order to tickle

and excite his base soul. A prisoner is conducted to the place of

punishment. Jerebiatnikof is the officer superintending the execution.

Arranging a long line of soldiers, armed with heavy rods, he walks along

the front with a satisfied air, and encourages each one to do his duty,

conscientiously or otherwise--the soldiers know before what “otherwise”

means. The criminal is brought out. If he does not yet know

Jerebiatnikof, if he is not in the secret of the mystery, the Lieutenant

plays him the following trick--one of the inventions of Jerebiatnikof,

very ingenious in this style of thing. The prisoner, whose back has been

bared, and whom the non-commissioned officers have fastened to the butt

end of a musket in order to drag him afterwards through the whole length

of the “Green Street.” He begs the officer in charge, with a plaintive

and tearful voice, not to have him struck too hard, not to double the

punishment by any undue severity.

“Your nobility!” cries the unhappy wretch, “have pity on me, treat me

fraternally, so that I may pray God throughout my life for you. Do not

destroy me, show mercy!”

Jerebiatnikof had waited for this. He now suspended the execution, and

engaged the prisoner in conversation, speaking to him in a sentimental,

compassionate tone.

“But, my good fellow,” he would say, “what am I to do? It is the law

that punishes you--it is the law.”

“Your nobility! You can make it everything; have pity upon me.”

“Do you really think that I have no pity on you? Do you think it is any

pleasure to me to see you whipped? I am a man, am I not? Answer me, am I

not a man?”

“Certainly, your nobility. We know that the officers are our fathers and

we their children. Be to me a venerable father,” the prisoner would cry,

seeing some possibility of escaping punishment.

“Then, my friend, judge for yourself. You have a brain to think with,

you know I am human, I ought to take compassion on you, sinner though

you be.”

“Your nobility says the absolute truth.”

“Yes, I ought to be merciful to you however guilty you may be. But it

is not I who punish you, it is the law. I serve God and my country, and

consequently I commit a grave sin if I mitigate the punishment fixed by

the law. Only think of that!”

“Your nobility!”

“Well, what am I to do? Only think, I know that I am doing wrong, but it

shall be as you wish; I will have mercy upon you, you shall be punished

lightly. But if I really do this on one occasion, if I show mercy, if I

punish you lightly, you will think that at another time I shall be

merciful, and you will recommence your follies. What do you say to

that?”

“Your nobility, preserve me! Before the throne of the heavenly Creator,

I----”

“No, no; you swear that you will behave yourself.”

“May the Lord cause me to die this moment and in the next world.”

“Do not swear in that way, it is a sin; I shall believe you if you will

give me your word.”

“Your nobility.”

“Well, listen, I will have mercy on you on account of your tears, your

orphan’s tears, for you are an orphan, are you not?”

“Orphan on both sides, your nobility, I am alone in the world.”

“Well, on account of your orphan’s tears I have pity on you,” he added,

in a voice so full of emotion, that the prisoner could not sufficiently

thank God for having sent him so good an officer.

The procession went out, the drum rolled, the soldiers brandished their

arms. “Flog him,” Jerebiatnikof would roar from the bottom of his lungs,

“flog him! burn him! skin him alive! Harder! harder! Give it harder to

this orphan! Give it him, the rogue.”

The soldiers lay on the strokes with all their might on the back of the

unhappy wretch, whose eyes dart fire, and who howls while Jerebiatnikof

runs after him in front of the line, holding his sides with

laughter--he puffs and blows so that he can scarcely hold himself

upright. He is happy. He thinks it droll. From time to time his

formidable resonant laugh is heard, as he keeps on repeating, “Flog him!

thrash him! this brigand! this orphan!”

He had composed variation on this motive. The prisoner has been brought

to undergo his punishment. He begs the lieutenant to have pity on him.

This time Jerebiatnikof does not play the hypocrite; he is frank with

the prisoner.

“Look, my dear fellow, I will punish you as you deserve, but I can show

you one act of mercy. I will not attach you to the butt end of the

musket, you shall go along in a new style, you have only to run as hard

as you can along the front, each rod will strike you as a matter of

course, but it will be over sooner. What do you say to that, will you

try?”

The prisoner, who has listened, full of mistrust and doubt, says to

himself: Perhaps this way will not be so bad as the other. If I run with

all my might, it will not last quite so long, and perhaps all the rods

will not touch me.

“Well, your nobility, I consent.”

“I also consent. Come, mind your business,” cries the lieutenant to the

soldiers. He knew beforehand that not one rod would spare the back of

the unfortunate wretch; the soldier who failed to hit him would know

what to expect.

The convict tries to run along the “Green Street,” but he does not go

beyond fifteen men before the rods rain upon his poor spine like hail;

so that the unfortunate man shrieks out, and falls as if he had been

struck by a bullet.

“No, your nobility, I prefer to be flogged in the ordinary way,” he

says, managing to get up, pale and frightened. While Jerebiatnikof, who

knew beforehand how this affair would end, held his sides and burst into

a laugh.

But I cannot relate all the diversions invented by him, and all that

was told about him.

My companions also spoke of a Lieutenant Smekaloff, who fulfilled the

functions of Commandant before the arrival of our present Major. They

spoke of Jerebiatnikof with indifference, without hatred, but also

without exalting his high achievements. They did not praise him, they

simply despised him, whilst at the name of Smekaloff the whole prison

burst into a chorus of laudation. The Lieutenant was by no means fond of

administering the rods; there was nothing in him of Jerebiatnikof’s

disposition. How did it happen that the convicts remembered his

punishments, severe as they were, with sweet satisfaction. How did he

manage to please them. How did he gain the popularity he certainly

enjoyed?

Our companions, like Russian people in general, were ready to forget

their tortures if a kind word was said to them; I speak of the effect

itself without analysing or examining it. It is not difficult, then, to

gain the affections of such a people and become popular. Lieutenant

Smekaloff had gained such popularity, and when the punishments he had

directed were spoken of, they were always mentioned with a certain

sympathy.

“He was as kind as a father,” the convicts would sometimes say, as, with

a sigh, they compared him with their present chief, the Major who had

replaced him.

He was a simple-minded man, and kind in a manner. There are chiefs who

are naturally kind and merciful, but who are not at all liked and are

laughed at; whereas, Smekaloff had so managed that all the prisoners had

a special regard for him; this was due to innate qualities, which those

who possess them do not understand. Strange thing! There are men who are

far from being kind, and who have yet the talent of making themselves

popular; they do not despise the people who are beneath their rule.

That, I think, is the cause of this popularity. They do not give

themselves lordly airs; they have no feeling of “caste;” they have a

certain odour of the people; they are men of birth, and the people at

once sniff it. They will do anything for such men; they will gladly

change the mildest and most humane man for a very severe chief, if the

latter possesses this sort of odour, and especially if the man is also

genial in his way. Oh! then he is beyond price.

Lieutenant Smekaloff, as I have said, ordered sometimes very severe

punishments. But he seemed to inflict them in such a way, that the

prisoners felt no rancour against him. On the contrary, they recalled

his whipping affairs with laughter; he did not punish frequently, for he

had no artistic imagination. He had invented only one practical joke, a

single one which amused him for nearly a year in our convict prison.

This joke was dear to him, probably, because it was his only one, and it

was not without humour.

Smekaloff assisted himself at the executions, joking all the time, and

laughing at the prisoner as he questioned him about the most

out-of-the-way things, such, for instance, as his private affairs. He

did this without any bad motive, and simply because he really wished to

know something about the man’s affairs. A chair was brought to him,

together with the rods which were to be used for chastising the

prisoner. The Lieutenant sat down and lighted his long pipe; the

prisoner implored him.

“No, comrade, lie down. What is the matter with you?”

The convict stretched himself on the ground with a sigh.

“Can you read fluently?”

“Of course, your nobility; I am baptized, and I was taught to read when

I was a child.”

“Then read this.”

The convict knows beforehand what he is to read, and knows how the

reading will end, because this joke has been repeated more than thirty

times; but Smekaloff knows also that the convict is not his dupe any

more than the soldier who now holds the rods suspended over the back of

the unhappy victim. The convict begins to read; the soldiers armed with

the rods await motionless. Smekaloff ceases even to smoke, raises his

hand, and waits for a word fixed upon beforehand. At the word, which

from some double meaning might be interpreted as the order to start, the

Lieutenant raises his hand, and the flogging begins. The officer bursts

into a laugh, and the soldiers around him also laugh; the man who is

whipping laughs, and the man who is being whipped also.