The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1881-09-21
THE NIHILISTS.
enc of Them Describes the Attempt TO Blow
Up the Gear.

Inc NEW AOIk HBTutU COubdlno ~ AOhB
communication from Leo Hartmann, a
Nihilist, now in this country, describing
the mining of the Moscow railroad and
the attempt to blow up the czar. In |
that enterprise he was assisted by Sophie |
Perovsky, who has since been executed; |
Goldenberg, who committed suicide In |
the st. Petersburg fortress, and others.
The work was prosecuted under many
difficulties, and once they barely es-
capped discovery by the mine caving inin
the middle of the street during heavy
rain storm. They were unable to push
it as far beyond the track as was neces-
sary; the supply of dynamite was not as
large as it should have been, On the
night before the explosion the conspira
tors celebrated it with bottle of wine.
Hartmann describes the scene as fol-
lows:
"The windows of our house are closed
and covered by thick draperies, leaving
no chink through which treacherous
ray of light might creep. Around the
dining-table eight persons are seated
seven men and a young woman, Sophie
Perovsky. Two members of the admin
istrative council, on their way from the
South to the capital, are our guests for
tonight. In the middle of the table
eight daggers are stuck crosswise into
the boards. Eight revolvers lay under
meath. By the side of this pile lurid
fame-alcohol, with salt-burns, casting
ghastly, unearthly light on all the
pale, emaciated figures sitting around
the table. The effect of this fame may
truly be called horrible. 1t gives to the
face livid hue as that of a corpse. We
had naturally suffered much by our
mining work. Our faces were deeply
furrowed with wrinkles-the sleepless
nights, the constant anxiety and sus-
pense had left their marks on us. And
now, in that CHASTITY light, the table
seemed to be surrounded, not by living
men, but by corpses who had risen from
the grave for a midnight festival. The
| instruments of death before us, the
deathly hue of our faces-all this spoke
of the grave; only the eyes cleaned and
glittered with greenish light, perhaps
still more ghastly to look at than the
immovable corpse-like paleness OF the
faces.
"The fame burned unsteadily, sending
long, dancing shadows on the walls and
ceilings, and this added still to the
ghastliness of the picture. I shut my
eyes and distorted my face into the
same horrible, convulsive grimace l had
seen on the face of my friend Osinsky
and three others whose hanging had
witnessed.
as That is how I will look, then + I
exclaimed.
"' Stop thatP cried my neighbor,
clenching my arm. 1T is too horrible.
"Seeing what impression our CHASTITY
experiments produced ON the others,
was involuntarily caught myself by the
same feeling. The wine was poured out
into the glasses, we drank to the success
of our plan and began in a subdued
voice our beautiful revolutionary hymn
-matchless in it's simple passion, in its
glowing feeling for liberty, in its deep
sorrow for the peoples sufferings."
The work of firing the mine was left
to one whose name he does not divulge,
while Sophie Perovsky gave the signal
In the confusion that ensued they both
left the house and repaired to quarters
in another part of the city prepared fol
them. The same night they took the
night express for st. Petersburg and
Witnessed the arrival of the czar at the
capital.
OF Nihilism and Nihilists Hartmann
says:
"Solovieff, the author of the third at
tempt against the life of Alexander H.
was unable to see an animal killed. He
! was an uncommonly good and delicately
! organized man. And yet he surmounteC
his almost unconquerable aversion t.
bloodshed in order to kill the czar. Fo
myself may say that, though a gooC
shot, have always had an inseparabl'
, aversion TO shooting other than wil(
animals, such as wolves, vultures, mao
, dogs and such like. But would calml.
and cheerfully kill a man who tread
under his execrable foot 10000, 600 o
! human beings, bathing in their blood
For / consider such man thousanC
: y times worse and more dapgeroul
y 4 than wolf or mad dog. An ami
! NAL can kill five, ten, perhap
twenty men, while our barbarous des
), potism has destroyed thousands an,
thousands of lives and stiles the sparl
!, I of liberty and intelligence out OF 80,
}, OOO, 900 of other lives. But hear tn
u moral and virtuous reader remark, i
your attempt to blow up the czar man
. innocent people might have suffered
y That is true. But to this we have t
J answer-frst, that as in all warfare s
d in our struggle against czardom, thos
>; who serve our foe are our enemies too
a a and secondly, that even if few innc
!. y cent lives should perish, this is a ne
v cessity which no great war, no grea
T. movement for the freedom of mankin
can escape. We deeply regret thi
necessity. But we are deeply an
= gratefully conscious of the fact tha
!, until now the Russian revolution ha
is cost much less innocent victims tina
{, other similar movements. We remen
l. Der that during the great war which tn