The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-19 00:00:00

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

The following account of the event from the Herold o 1
Monday will be read with interest :

"The Emperor was warned against attending the
parade from which he was returning when he met his
death. After he had alighted from his carriage,
owing to the explosion of the first bomb, an officer ran
towards him, and asked whether he was hurt. His
Majesty replied very calmly :—" Thank God! I am
untouched. Don't disturb yourself. I must see after
the wounded." A number of soldiers of the escort
and civilians who had happened to be passing at
the time were lying on the ground wounded. The
Emperor ordered that all attention should be paid
to the injured, and especially to a Cossack who had
sustained severe hurts, and then turning round,
he saw the assassin a few paces from him, sur-
rounded by a crowd of people. A soldier of the
Preobajenski Regiment of the Guard held him
fast by the arms. He had in one hand a revolver
and in the other a dagger. The Emperor approached
the assassin with the utmost coolness and ordered
him to be removed. His Majesty turned to walk
home but he had only gone a few steps when
another young man threw something at his feet,
A tremendous explosion followed, which was heard
all over the city. As soon as the smoke had cleared
away, the Emperor was seen to be lying on the
ground in a pool of blood. Many other wo.unded
persons were lying near him. The' assassin himself
fell to the gronnd, but was unhurt. He was imme-
dietely surrounded by a furious crowd, from whom
the police had some difficulty in protecting him.
The Emperor, who was quite unconscious, was
placed on the sleigh by the Chief of Police,
who took him in his arms, resting the head, which
was covered with blood, on his breast. The Em-
peror's helmet was carried away by the explosion,
and was not afterwards to be found. In this way
the Emperor was brought to the Winter Palace,
where he was undressed. An examination dis-
closed the most frightful wounds. 'One leg was
shattered right up to the top of the thigh and the
other was severed below the knee. The abdomen
was also torn open, and the face was injured. The
surgeons declared amputation to be impossible' and
that there was no hope. It now only remained for
the clergy to perform their sad duty of communi-
cating the dying. Crowds of people had in the
meantime assembled around the Winter Palace,
full of anxiety to know the state of the Emperor.
Many believed that the reports of the extent of the
wounds had been exaggerated. Suddenly, at a
quarter to four, a deep feeling of sorrow went through
the dense throng, as the Imperial ensign was seen
being lowered to the half-mast, the sign that the
Emperor was dead. A general officer at the same time
advanced towards the crowd and made known the sad
event. All listened with uncovered heads to the
annonncement that the Emperor had passed away,
and most made the sign of the Cross in pious memory
of the departed."

The Correspondent of The Times writes :—" Much
speculation is hazarded as to the way in which the
assassination was committed and as to the explosives
used by the perpetrators of the crime. In the hurry and
excitement of the moment the first accounts may have
been inexact in some particulars. Substantially, how-
ever, the facts appear to be these :—The Emperor was
returning to the Palace from an inspection of the.
Marine Corps, and was being driven along in a
closed carriage, the Grand Duke Michael and the
Czarewitch following at some distance behind. The
first petard exploded behind the carriage, smashing in
the back only, and the coachman could have driven
on further, but the Emperor got out, and would
not proceed. Had his late Majesty permitted
himself to be driven further, the sad catastrophe
might, perhaps, have been averted. The second
band) was pitched at the Emperor's feet while
standing outside the carriage. The thrower of the
first explosive was captured at once, and the
second seems to have since died from the wounds
and injuries he received from .the explosion and the
swords of the Cossacks. The assassin secured is
a thick-set, short-necked, repulsive-looking dark
man, very stubborn in his refusal to replyt to any
questions. His name, in contradiction to the appel-
rations he rives himself, is declared for the present to
be Rusakolf, his education to have. been that of an
engineer, and his nata )town Borortchi, in the pro-
vince of Novgorod. Colonel Henrikoff picked up the
Emperor's helmet after he had fallen, placed his own
forage cap on His Majesty's head, and, together with
Police Colonel Vorjitsky, assisted the Czar into the
sledge. His Majesty, too, must have ceased to exist,
according to all accounts, before he got to his Cabinet.
It is difficult to decide what the explosive material
was and how encased, as all traces of the infernal
shell, or bomb have been obliterated by the explosion.
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had some poison in a paper when arrested, and was
prevented from using it against his own miserable
existence."

Writing on Monday the Correspondent of The
Times says :

The following additional details have transpired in re-
ference to the last hours of the late Emperor. The phy-
sicians who were first summoned to the bedside of the
Emperor were Surgeon Krouglevsky and Drs. Botkin'
Marcus, and -Dvoriachine. The last-named immediately
fetched the necessary instruments for amputating the
.legs, which were held to the body by the flesh only,
the hones being broken. Blood flowed copiously from
the lacerated muscles, and indiarubber bandages were
applied first to the right leg below the knee and then
to the lat. The right hand, on which was a glove
covered with blood, was found to be greatly lacerated. The
marriage ring was broken and the pieces driven into the,
flesh. The next care of the surgeons was to tie up the veins,
in order to cause the blood to flow back to the heart, and at
length under the influence of sulphate of oxygen and ice, the
Emperor recovered respiration .and opened, his eyes. The
chaplain, M. Bajanov, availed himself of the interval of
apparent consciousness to administer the Saopraent, and
for a moment some hopes were entertained fOr the Em.