The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-18
THE WEEkLYuMINER:

Is irresistibly attracted by a sort OF magnetic
instinct to places where there may be some
body to shoot at. 1t goes to the great square
in front of the Winter Palace, or to the envi-
rons of the public offices. 1t has a pistol in
its pocket as well as a pen. There is no
knowing what may not turn up, and the staff
has generally a standing order to put a Gar
or a Minister out of the way. With this
dolhle duty in view it is always sure of some
result. If it cannot get near enough to kill,
1t can still manage to obtain of
goings-on and comings-in which may be useful
at some future moment of action. 1t mingles
with the crowd of idlers. 1t works its way
gradually to the front, as near as the police
and soldiers will allow, and finally, when the
Gar or Minister drives by, with swift trotting
horses and Cossacks before and behind, it
darts such a look of hate at him as would do
the work more etiectually than knife or pistol,
ii looks could kill. When the reporter has
brought in his account of how things are
looking in the city it becomes the editors
turn. The loader is generally composed un-
der the trees in a snow-covered public garden.
Ii is written on sheets of paper torn from a
tiny pocketbook, and as each sheet Is finished
it is rolled up in a ball, ready to be swallowed
at a moments notice. l believe there is no
instai ce known in which the most vigilant
detective has ever caught a leader writer in
jiagrante delictu. At the first sign of a police
man approaching the scene of literary labor
down 90 the pills. The next stage is the set
ting up in type. The staff gathers up the
pills into his hands and proceeds to the little
back room. The little back room is locked
and bolted, and a chest of drawers is pushed
against the door. The dual member lays a
printing department is in full activity. The
type is taken from under the mattress. and
the leader is slowly and painfully composed,
with many a start at the sound of a ~footstep,
which threatens to turn it all into an imIne-
date Cpl" How the paper goes to press is
not quite definitely known. My informant
on this point was wanting in technica knowl.
edge, but l am led to conclude that a sheet of
paper is spread on the "form," and that the
staff sits on the sheet of paper to obtain each
impression. When the whole edition is
printed off, the type is, as a temporary meas
ure, tilted upside down into the breeches
pocket to form "pi."
The distribution takes place at nightfall .
The first thing to provide for is the supply of
the honorary tree list, namely, the Emperor
and two or three of his chief ministers, inclu-
ding the head of the Police department.
Copies are forwarded to these through the
post, with a manuscript intimation on the
I margin of the paper that the recipients will
be done for at the first convenient opportuni-
ty. The letters are posted and the regular
, distribution begins. A copy is left with every
dead wall, where it may remain all night,
with a chance of being read by the mouiiks as
they are going to their labor in the early
dawn. This part of the undertaking involves
considerable risk and danger. Every dad
wall in St. Petersburg is guarded just now,
not only by the police but by watchful house
polters, who are ordered to stand outside their
doors and keep awake all night. Still the
house-porters cannot look two ways at once,
and while they are looking one way the MIN