The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-13
The Last Attempt to Assassinate the
Imperial Family


Imperial Family
SINCE the news of the explosion at
the Winter Palace has been made pub
lie, the widest excitement has pre-
vailed in this city, and indeed through
out the Empire. The more fully the de-
tails of the disaster are ascertained, the
more remarkable appears the escape of
the entire Imperial family from instant
destruction. To the merest accident is
His Imperial Majesty indebted for his
life. He was delayed from the dining
room near a half-hour later than usual,
awaiting report of the condition of
the Czarina's health, and in this inter-
val the mine was exploded. Had the
Imperial family been in their accus-
toned places at the time, there is
scarcely doubt that every member of
it would have been instantly killed.
The press dispatches concerning the
affair which were sent from here yes
terday belittled the effects in every way.
The terrific force of the explosion made
almost a complete wreck of the dining
hall, scattering the debris and frag-
ments of the timbers in every direction,
and tearing a hole in the floor not less
than fifteen feet in length by twelve
feet in width. The guard on duty in
the palace at the time was composed of
members of Finland regiment, of
whom eight were instantly killed and
forty-fve seriously injured by the fly
ing fragments. OF the wounded from
fifteen to twenty are so badly hurt that
they will probably die. They were con-
veyed to the hospital as quickly as pos
sible after the calamity, and the guards
around the Palace were at once doubled,
no one else being permitted to enter or
leave the grounds.
The Duchess of Edinburgh was the
first to seek the presence of the Gar
after the explosion. Finding him IN
harmed, she at once sent dispatch to
Queen Victoria. The widest excite
ment and alarm prevailed among the
officials of the palace. The mangied
bodies of the dead soldiers, the groans
and cries of the wounded, and the
dreadful apprehension that other mines
might momentarily explode, lent
strong elements of horror to the scene
of devastation in the spacious dining
hall. The Empress was not informed
of the terrible affair lest the shock
might prove fatal to her already en-
feebled system. She still remains hap
PLY ignorant of it, and to-day her con-
dition is reported as improving. The
explosives went off with d smothered
thud, and the noise was unheard in the
center of the city.
There are numerous theories of the
explosion, and of the manner in which
the vigilance of the guard at the Palace
could have been so successfully eluded.
1t is well known that ever since the
Gar took refuge here after the attempt
upon his life at Moscow on the 9Th of
December, the most extraordinary pre-
cautions have been constantly OBJ
served. The grounds have been brill
iantly Illuminated by electric lights,
numerous guards have been posted day
and night and changed daily, and the
adjacent streets have been patroled by
picked force of the guard. Still the
Palace was mined, and the mine fired,
and to this hour there is not the slight
est clue to the daring assassins. The
fuse has been traced from a culvert in
the garden to the stone basement of the
guard-room, Immediately beneath the
dining hall-and this ends the develop
ments so far made. AS the Enquirer
has heretofore announced, there are
Nihilists in the Palace itself; and the
apparently absolute impossibility of
such plan being carried out success
fully, without assistance from inside
the Palace walls, drives one irresistibly
to the conclusion that persons high in
authority and very near the person of
the Gar were privy to the deadly plot.
The effect of this last dastardly at
tempt upon the already enfeebled, half
crazed and thoroughly frightened EN-
peror, it is feared, will be most de-
plorable. Even if the assassins do not
finally succeed in the accomplishment
of their designs, it is doubtful if he will
ever leave the Winter Palace alive.
Rumors of his early abdication are al
ready whispered, and the disagreeable
stories of his unhappy relations with
the Czarowitch are unpleasantly re-
vived. kilograms of sympathy and con-
graduation upon his escape are being
received hourly from all parts of the
Empire and from other European Gov
ernments, while special thanksgiving
services have been held to-day in all the
churches. Vigilance committees are
being organized, patrols of police are
securing the city and suburbs in all di-
rections, and the indignant populace
are muttering maledictions upon the
heads of the cowardly assassins. If
captured, they will scarcely be sent to
Siberia. The talk of the st. Petersburg
clubs now is that the Emneror's ami
versary, on the I'd of March, will wit
ness an enormous popular jubilee.-St.
Petersburg Telegram to Cincinnati En-
quirer, FEB. IS.
A CHICAGoAN has announced that he
has discovered a process by which