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Show 'AMERICAN NARRATES i EXPERIENCES IN RUSS PRISON ;! Death So Common Men j; Cease to Fear Last Sum-jj Sum-jj mons to Execution ; BE RUN. Feb. 17. Prisoners in ths ;L Jails of soviet Russia when condemned H are called out to bs shot by soldiers , who stalk Into ths cells after midnight. ; J declares M. Schwarts of San Francisco, J the Socialist who went to Moscow, to attend a congress of the third Interna-A Interna-A tionale and was imprisoned there for f four months. (In a previous statement. Mr. Schwarts told of the death of his wife 11 as a result of a nunirer strike she be-4, be-4, frmn to end her Imprisonment In Mos-' Mos-' cow. denounced communism In Russia ' and said he was going back to Amerl- Sea to tell the workers there ths actual Jacts about the Russia situation.) Tall and gaunt, his black hair and hard heavily streaked with grey, the American, who had been a bolshevik before a visit to Russia "saddened and enlightened" him, described In a sup- plemental statement, ths cold fear and trembling In which soviet prisoners wait for the visits In the dead of night. SWIFT DRATH. They always come between the hours of 1 and t o'clock," he said. "A i bolshevlst roJler walks Into the i crowded ceV 0iA In the Instant silence calls out fni. names of the tnen.. or women, wno must die. In the where I was, they marched the prisoners prison-ers down a stalrwsy and into a court -vard. We rould hear ths voileys of the firing squad a. Many men were j railed out for execution from my cell 4 during those four months. Few of I them knew why thr had been condemned, con-demned, but generally It was nnor-i' nnor-i' stood thy were 'counter revolution's revolution-'s ' arles.' They were shot without trial." After a time the prisoners became Inured to these visits, anl. In the filth and monotony of prison life, ceased to rare whether their names were called or not, Mr. Schwarts said. Cheery t greetings were often passed as ths i condemned men were marched out The men about to die would asy their good byes, wave their cell comrades a so-long, and those remaining would my out: "Ooodbye. See you later." TTIK srsiaions. Throughout the first few nights. I nowever, Mr. Schwarts said he 1 rem-Med rem-Med as with a cue, and his clothea. even to h!s overcoat, were wet with J perspiration. "ther prisoners, soma of whom hsd bee In the Jail for mors ! than a year, took the matter rvntrally end told him with apparent rei:h the , horrors through which they hsd gone. When at last the summons came to Srhwarts to leave the cell, he said he ' was certain he was going to the place j of -.execution. Rut they led him up-' up-' i stairs Instesd of down, fie was tsken before an official named Feldman, In whose hands was the power of Ufa and death over all ths prisoners in his ' charae. This iran ssld he hsd reviewed Pchwartv's cee and the American was 1 free to in. Then the holahevtst said: "Will vou tell me what von think nf he soviet government Will you go hack to the United States and speak against ns?" A KVAflfO HIM. There was a long pause In which thoughts of the four month" in prison and the executioners thronged Into ths Americanu's mind. Then he replied- "If your government really represents repre-sents the working men. I am for It. All my life f have worked for the labor! la-bor! n a" clssses." Rvaslve thnus-h It was, rVhwsrt said the reply appeared to satisfy the soviet official, who affected a Heaa- antcv and dismissed him. "If every bolshevlst In America rould spend a few weeks In a soviet prison." he concluded, "there would he no more followers of the red flaa at home. |