The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-26
FIRE AND BLOOD IN RUSSIA
The Fortunes of Unhappy Jews Pic
tured by an Eyewitness.
The Furious Riots, Homes Burned by the
Hundred, Men and Babies Slain, and
Women Outraged.
Getter in New York Sun.


vaya or Gardens street, of Moscow, and my
fathers house and shop was for nine years
in the Dyevichie field upon the Moskva
river. Left an orphan at sixteen, next found
my home in Kieff, the beautiful city of the
Dnieper, where l married. We had pleas
ant home on the Vladimirskaya, and my
husband was clerk in the town council.
We lived there from 1873 to 1877; then
we were in Odessa two years, and in
1879 we went back to our old home.
We were happy. Simon Neumann was
a good and grand husband, and we
had three sweet little daughters So loved
was Kieffl Twenty thousand of the 140, 900
population of the city were Jews, and in all
Russia our race had no more privileged home.
In 1878 we first knew of the outbreak OF
jealousy, but not in Kieff. 1t was ours to
tremble for TWO long years. 1t was jealousy
that disordered the Russian feeling, and no
more bitter could jealousy be. The Jews
have talent for acquiring wealth, an intel
lectual talent and physical talent. They
have eminent gifts and have been of vast
service in Russia; but the Christians there
have fallen into race hatred, and in the Anti
semitic League are memb ers of the Greek,
Protestant and Catholic churches affiliant
with Socialists, Radicals and Nihilists. The
hatred of the ignorant populace has grown
into cruelty and insolence has grown out of
prejudice into envy and jealousy. 1t is with
no other cause that persecution has come
People outside OF Russia have not the faint
est conception of that terrible persecution.
The news which is permitted to cross the bor-
ders is most measre, and always wears the
best complexion. You have heard of anti
IL, hrYk hat Iii hos fnl6
that half-truth which hits no nerve. AT diff
ferent times since 187S-and those times re-
curing with sad frequency-a tract of coun-
try equal in area to New England and New
York combined, and stretching from the
Black to the Baltic sea, has been the scene of
horrors of character unexampled i'll our
new centuries. And only the dim echoes
have come out of the land Of these deeds 1
have seen it, felt it, know It'll Among our
people men have been foully murdered,
women have suffered fate worse than death,
infants have been thrown into the fire, and
fair niaidens have been violated in the sight
of their mothers by brutal soldiers. In more
than one town this has been done; in more
than a hundred towns the Jewish quar-
tiers have been heartlessly burned and Jew
ish property wantonly pillaged More than
this, in many towns all the Jewish citizens
have been expelled; poor: homeless, insulted
and wounded creatures thrust out tt
"The mob did it," says a dispatch. And
who are the mob but the ignorant, preju-
diced peasantry? But education makes the
prejudice that ignorance holds. In these
scenes of carnage and pillage the authorities
took no part, but still did nothing to prevent
the outrages why do you these deeds?'
asked the oppressed ones in their agony.
Only after long persistence in questioning
could an answer be had, and when the rea-
son came, what do you think it was? Not
Nihilism; ah, no. for the Nihilists never have
had the Jews with them. Hear the charge;
"You manipulate the press! Unfair in your
usury and barter! You follow unpopular
trades and pursuits You have the guilt of
avarice, ostentation greed and jobberyl Your
bearing and conduct offend society" These
are the excuses for wrath, insult and MUIR
derl The plea is Not guilty." There are,
of course, bad Jews, as there are bad Christ
ians, and it is for the errors of a few that all
are made to suffer 1t is the same as if the
American people we're to rob and kill all
lawyers, because Guiteau, a lawyer, did a
terrible sin. The sagiskis of Warsaw have
their carriage and are naughty, and their as
sassination is followed by the murder of
other Jews who are humble, and barefooted
walk the rocky streets.
RIOT AT ELIzABETHGRAD.
My husband came home on an ApriPs dark
night, and sorrowfuIly told me that he
feared an outbreak that in Elizabethgrad
the clouds were full of electricity and the
heads of the Jewish community, who form a
third of the population had prayed the
Governors protection. 1 shuddered. for
there, in the Khersonland, my sisters hus-
band was raskolink. On, that April week,
with its certain fear and its burden of fore
bodingsi Came then too soon the 9th of
that month, and that night the tale of the
riot at Elizabethgrad. The mob. drunk wi
stolen wine, sacked the Hebrew quarter as is
done in war. When some feeble attempt
was made by my countrymen to save their
property, the rabble were more incensed, and
the dwellings were burned and the syna-
gogues wrecked. For two days the riot
ragged Six hundred houses and shops
were destroyed. One man was muir
dered, thirty or more Jewish girls were
outraged, and many were wounded.
One house that was entered was that of an
aged man named Pelikoff whose daughter
was as sweet a maiden as Russian air ever
kissed. The military had been called out,
and were with the rioters when they came to
that house. The old man threw them his
little store of gold, and implored the soldiers
to spare his child They laughed at his
prayers and when he tried to protect his
Olga they threw him from the roof and out
ragged the poor girl She was ruined in body
and mind, and the father has ever since been
the inmate of mad house.
The sequel OF the Elizabethgrad horrors
was the increased inflammation of the pas
sion that prompted it. There was trembling
in every place in Little Russia. On May
there was bloody riot at Smieh. Sixteen
hundred Jews were made homeless and if l
remember Alright, thirteen men were MUIR
dered. That was Saturday, and next morn
ing the riots were discussed in kieff. In
one OF the synagogues the women were
weeping, and some soldiers heard it. The
tears were the incentive.
There is a secret printing press somewhere
here in Keff!" they cried; and soon, with
hooking laughter, they yelled, LET us find
tn
Like summers tempest the riot burst on
the city. The Jews begged the Governor to
call out the soldiers before the storm ragged
hottest, but he refused. II will not trouble
my men to leave their rest he answered.