The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-03-18
the ASSASSINATION nF THE EMPEROR
OF RUSSIA,

The terrible crime, of which partic
ulars are given in another column
has struck a chord which vibrates
through the whole civilized world.
The successful execution of the plot
illustrates the oft told tale that pre-
cautions, however minnie and un.
sleeping, suffice to- protect against
desperate men who take their own
lives in their hands.
Think how the Gar was guarded.
Thousands of police in plain clothes,
besides other thousands of soldiers.
Every person coming into St. Peters
burg watched, and unlimited powers
of arresting any suspicious person.
without the slightest formalIties OF
pI Iocruing warrants or taking before
magistrates.
All these police aud soldiers: s:stilnu-
lated to constant zeal by promises OF
reward if they succeeded in forestall-
Ling or preventing any such crime,
and by the certainty of severe pun
ishment in case sheir lynx-eyed care
fulness should for moment sIumber.
And now the autocrat is being
driven along an open street. the car
riage surrounded and followed by an
escort of soldiery. Two Insignificant
persons are standing, or passing quiet
ly along the sidewalk. Asshe passes
one draws from his pocket soda
water bottle and tosses it under the
carriage. A fash, a sharp explosion
and the carriage lstops, the back
blown in, whilst the escort of soldiers
is struck as it by lightning. One of
the officers throws himself from his
horse, and rushes TO arrest the cul-
pvt; the man draws a revolver and
tries to fire at the Gar, who has a.
lighted from his wrecked carriage !;
the officer closes with him and pre-
vents the shot. But the second
conspirator comes into action and
losses at the feet of the emperor an
other of those fearful bottles. A sec
ond explosion, and the master OF
eighty millions Of men falls, shat
tered human being, reduced in that
one terrible moment to the common
level of bitterly suffering humanity.
Crown, scepter, royal robes. absolute
power, have all dropped from him,
and all the skill Of his physicians
canuot even postpone the end.
Little care the criminals that they
too die. One is SO roughly handled
by the enraged and excited crowd
that he is all but killed the other
in the hands of his enemies.
Indifferent TO his fate, proud of hav-
ing, at such fearful risk, fulfilled the
commands of that unseen tribunal
which venturcd to pass the death
sentence on the Gar.
1t is too soon yet to forecast any
results of this awful crime. Why
the Nihilists should have followed
the Emperor Alexander to the death
it is hard to tell. He had shown
himself, through reign of twenty
six years, more accessible than any
of his ancestors to the cry of the suf.
fering ones through his wide domain.
Long after the memories of any
harshness in his later years have
passed away the proud record of the
enfranchisement of the millions ofl
Russian serfs will cast glory on the
name of Alexander in the page ofl
Russian history. And it will be told
Of him that at the very moment ofl
his murder the plan for diyesting the
imperial government of some of it's
antocratic power by the creation of
Deal councils, and to some extent
permitting the masses to take share |
n their own government, was in the |
act Of being perfected. And most
trained observers saw in this the |
germ Of constitutional government
or the empire.
Ihe Czarowitch succeeds; little isl