Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-02
THE NOyGURoD TRAGEDY.
A Russian Ms.tiny. and HOW 1t Was
Punished.

Punished.
One need not be surprised at anything
that happens IL Russia. While smok
ing cigar with one OF my old friends,
who has seen, read and travelled great
l was told OF an incident which occurred
some forty years ago at Novgorod, quite
as sinister as that which recently oc-
CURED at Slnargon, when population
of raging madmen flung children into q
blazing fire, and revelcd at the sight Of
the poor little bodies writhing like vine
stems upon the blazing Goals. But in
the narrative am about to relate there
was no race hatred or religious passion
for motive.
The Colonel Of certain Russian regi-
ment, ferociously tyrannical, and, may
say, merciless toward his soldiers, was
IN the habit of treating this human flock
like a pack Of brutes. He disciplined
with the knout; sentencing men to
whipping for having one button INSULT
GENTLY polished; whipping non-com-
missioned officer for one stain on his
cloak striking veterans of Borodino in
the face for saiuting too slowly sending
poor wretches to Siberia for giving too
free an answer. Ii short, during the
lapse Of years, this Colonel had made him
sell so detested by his men that he
reaped a frightful vengeance from the
seeds of hatred he had sown.
One morning during parade he sud
denly saw file off from the regiment a
company of soldiers bearing, instead of
! muskets, those long rods which cut
deeply into the flesh at every blow.
Nevertheless he had given no orders.
There was no soldier to chastise.
"Who is that for % he..demanded.
4 grenadier advanced from the ranks
and replied, with terrible GOODNESS
I" For thee p
The entire regiment, noa-commis-
stoned officers and soldiers, where in the
| plot, which had been concocted in the
barracks. The whole regiment was pre-
sent at the terrible spectacle. The
Colonel Was seized, hiss.uniform torn Off,
he was tied down in wheelbarrow and
wheeled up and down before the ranks
Of the grenadiers, armed with rods, all
Of whom struck and insulted him. The
officers who attempted to aid their
Colonel were Immediately seized, and
bayonets pointed at their Threats. Some
were taken away; others garroted.
Only one soldier attempted to take part
with them. Then a sergeant, still pallid
from the effects of his last whipping with
the knout, put his musket to the soldiers
temple and blew his brains out.
| And all the regiment saw its Colonel
pass under the rods.
When it was all over they opened a
kiln oven. The Colonel was flung into
it, all bleeding, together with the officers
who had we'll obeyed him. And when
the furnace was we'll fed the soldiers
heated it slowly, very slowly, until al
last that hideous, heavy, revolving smell
of melting fat and burning flesh arose
in the air which the savages Of the
Russian frontier inhaled some days age
at Jewish cemetery at Smargon.
But the tragedy of Novgorod was no
yet over
An imperial courier bore to the Czal
the news of the mutiny. Nichola.
listened, became white, but said nothing
except to order four batteries of artillery
to Novgorod. Ten days after white
haired and gray mustaclled MajOI
General, accompanied by single aid
de-camp, knocked at the door of the
barracks, which the soldiers had never
left since the murder of their chief.
The General gazed coldly upon those
pale men, all neatly and faultlessly uni
formed, who gave him the military
salute.
Not reproach-not one useless word
He only said to them:
cat o'clock tomorrow morning The
regiment will assemble in undress uni
form and without arms at the Tartar
camp, upon the Little square. Order O
the Gar"
Not voice replied. But the next day
upon the narrow square, all in ranks
without arms, with their long gray coats
their sergeants at their usual posts, al
the mutinous soldiers were there, in lines
regular as if adjusted to a string, with {
double line of lance-bearing Cossacki
before and behind. Then all at once
from every far spire all the great bells
began to toll. The Cossack horseme1
withdrew. Only the unarmed infantry
remaining upon the square. with folded
arms, waiting. Then there came long
low roll of drums, and with it from al
the avenues leading into the square came
volleys of grape like iron hail.
Then nothing was heard for Will,
but the thunder of the cannon in that
city, otherwise silent as cemetery, whel
men, women and children, kneeling be
fore their holy images, were praying fol
the soldiers they were shooting down il
the square, for the soldiers were dying
with the prayers of their childhood upol
their lips. Tho cannon Numbered fo
hours. Then all was silent. Powde
and iron rested awhile. The cannon
GERS entered the square and recoiled a
the sight OF those ranks of men mowr
down like wheat-the marsh of blood
From under the dead they pulled few
still breathing victims, able to live :
while.
"What shall be done with them, Gen
eral? Shall we put them in the hos
pital?"
"Put them under the knout."