If
so, the coincidence, to say the least, was a remarkable one. I
questioned my companion further regarding the Baron.
"Ah, m'sieur," she declared, "they call him 'The Strangler of the
Finns,' It was he who ordered the peasants of Kasko to be flogged until
four of them died--and the Czar gave him the Star of White Eagle for
it--he who suppressed half the newspapers and put eighteen editors in
prison for publishing a report of a meeting of the Swedes in
Helsingfors; he who encourages corruption and bribery among the
officials for the furtherance of Russian interests; he who has ordered
Russian to be the official language, who has restricted public
education, who has overtaxed and ground down the people until now the
mine is laid, and Finland is ready for open revolt. The prisons are
filled with the innocent; women are flogged; the poor are starving, and
'The Strangler,' as they call him, reports to the Czar that Finland is
submissive and is Russianized!"
I had heard something of this abominable state of affairs from time to
time from the English press, but had never taken notice of the name of
the oppressor.
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