The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-03-05
The Cars Winter Palace-The Last
Attempt at Assassination.

The Cars Winter Palace-The Last
Attempt at Assassination.
The seat of the last attempt directed
against the Cars life, the private din
ing-room of the Imperial family, is sit
uated in the wing of the Winter Palace,
facing the So called Palace or Admiral
ty Square, vast space of open ground,
covered in part by garden and Dor
dered by large buildings almost exclu-
sively occupied by Government offices.
Directly opposite the palace, the For
eign Office, the General Staff and the
Finance Ministry are situated. This
great square surrounds the Winter Pal
ace on its southern and eastern front.
To the west flows the broad stream of
the Neva. and to the north the palace is
separated from the adjoining building
(the barracks of the Preobrajensky Reg
iment) by deep canal. Thus from the
very confguration of the palace and the
grounds surrounding it, it seems highly
improbable that the mine should have
extended beyond the walls of the palace.
The part of the palace in which the
explosion took place is exclusively de-
voted to the private apartments of the
Car, the Empress, and of their young
er children. The rooms of the first
floor, adjoining the watch room, which
has suffered so severely from the shock,
and in which so many lives were lost,
were formerly occupied by the Grand
Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, now
Duchess of Edinburgh. At present
they are occupied by the Countess Tolls
toy, the former tutoress of the Duchess,
and other ladies of the Imperial suite.
The basement, beneath which the mine
had been laid, is inhabited by some of
of the most devoted and oldest
male and female servants OF the
Imperial family. The inner court,
in which, according to one of to-day's
cable dispatches, the wires of the mine
have been traced, is situated in the
heart of the palace, and runs lengthwise
from north to south throughout the
whole building, emerging into a mar
row passage which runs between the
Winter Palace and the adjoining and
connecting building of the ''Eremil
tage," where the celebrated Imperia-
Art Museum and Picture Gallery are
situated. In this court busy life and
turmoil of couriers coming and going,
petty court officials, servants. and door.
nicks (porters) attending to their vari.
Gus work, reigns all day and part of the
night. The entrance into this court is
severely prohibited to all persons who
have no special permission or business
to transact with some of the employees
of the palace. Here also constan
guard is kept, not only by militar!
watchmen and policemen, but by mum
berless secret spies and detectives. tn
Third Section (secret police) having
special department composed OF it
| shrewdest and most devoted agents
whose sole business consists in watchin.
day and night the palace, its surround
ngs and all the movements of the GA
and his family. From these facts it ap
pears at least highly probable that eithe
: the Nihilists have nothing to do wit
the explosion of Tuesday night and tina
the latter is the work of some COur
} party or of some ambitious member Q
8 the Imperial family, or else that tn
4 Nihilists have in this instance been bu
: the tools in the hands of such a cour
: intrigue. Possibly, however, they sc
a cured allies in the palace.
The huge structure of the White
i, Palace is inhabited, besides the I'm
: perial family, by over 500 persons c
e the most different stations in life an
o official positions, ranging from th
t drornik (porter), the istopaik (stov
Il lighter, and the skorochod messenger,
to the ladies of the Imperial househcl
r and the Grand Marshal of the COur
d and all this great army of attendants
5, attached by the most vital ties to th
y interests of the Court and of the In
l. perial family. It is next to impossib
It for a revolutionary party to find anon
d this throng a sufficient number of d
rs voted and energetic allies, whereas tt
d fact of Court intrigue, headed by
t. Smember of the Imperial family an
st abetted by some high officials of the en-
is pire, finding willing tools among II
70 Court servants, would be neither nov
y nor original, and has indeed become