The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-25

the army am informed by letters received
from our most confidential propagandists topen-
ing a couple of ordinarily worded letters with
interlinings in ciphers written with chemica
ink that the revolutionary documents on which
the hundreds of arrests were made were not
distributed by our party, but were printed and
circulated by the Russian secret police for the
special purpose of trapping innocent Poles, aIe
thus driving the people to evaporation The
project of annexing Persia and the man9Gvres
in Central Asia are other lodges of the same
kind. Talk about the Cars Slavophilisml
few years ago all Germans were expelled from
their posts in schools and on railways in Russia,
but these same places are being gradually re-
filled by Germans and there is no doubt that the
public service in Russia will be more and more
manned by foreigners. Whyl Not only to
curry favor with the German and Austrian gov
ernments, but because it is believed by the Rus
sian government that in emergency foreign
ers would be more solicitous about the safety of
their employers, while natives would take part
with the masses. How does it look for the
Cars delicate regard for his own people! The
fact is, all talk about the Russian government
taking thought for the people, excepting in the
way of self defense, is pure nonsense 1t is too
much hemmed in by personal dangers to be able
to think of anything beyond itself. The third
point of significance in connection with the con-
ference is that in the immediate future mill
tary uprising is more imminent in Russia than
an uprising of the people, and will be more dan
gerous to the safety of the Gar. The army
officers are generally very well posted in the
history of the French revolution The Nihilists
understand the importance of the army, which
forms at present the only stay of the Gar, and
they are busily diffusing their ideas deep and
wide all through the military organization
When once the army is well organized on our
socialistic principles the autocracy won't stand
single day. The terrorist movement is, how
ever, by no means at an end, as is proved by the
late attempt of Calujnaya at Odessa, and the
two bombs at Warsaw"
IL.
lating piece of paper, and just at this point in
the conversation it went up with spring from
the table like veritable bomb, to his great de-
light and the surprise of the two or three per-
sons in the room. 1t was a perfect little piece
of mechanism.
'Are you confident Mr.. Hartmann about the
ultimate success of the Nihilistic movement, or
do you think that the Gar may he able to crush
it} | asked.
II cannot imagine said Mr.. Hartmann, "that
our party or the cause we represent can be
strangled, even that it can go on in any other
way than increasing in strength every day.
Every precaution, every measure of coercion
that the government adopts only drives thou
sands into our ranks from all classes of the peo-
pie, including the very choicest spirits among
them. Every succeeding week the party is more
powerful and more determined than it was
seven days before. In 1879 there were only
thirty members in the terrorist department;
now the number is nearly a thousand
while thousands are ready to take active
part at the first call The Car now moves
about so we'll guarded that it is not easy to ap-
resources we are constantly adding to ours, and
l know that Alexander III, like his father, is
also doomed"
DO you intend to go to Russia again and take
part in the struggles"
"Well 1 cannot say anything about that now
In fact, myself don't know. My immediate flu
ture, at least, is perfectly in the dark The
dangers surrounding my person are so great in
Rt1Gc aud fhn vic -cc 41,aA -1A
sure if [ could be of any use there for some time
at least. But as to working for the cause wher
ever l am, cannot be without it. My life is
welded to it, and while am pretty active in my
disposition, l have nothing else that l know
worthy to live for. One of the purposes for
which was delegated abroad was to strive to
clear up the msapprehensions in the minds of
the people of western Europe and America re-
garding our doctrines and actions, and enlist
their sympathy on behalf of the trampled mil
lions of Russia and l am now doing some
thing in that line. | have nearly ready two
books which expect to have published early
this winter, in which have tried to throw some
light on important subjects IN connection with
present Russian life. The one is on The Fam
lily Life and Marriage Institutions of the Peas
antry of Russia the great source of all this
noise and destruction. The other will contain
my personal experiences and "reminiscences of
the Nihilistic movement in which l have been
enlisted almost from its beginning, passing
through all its grades and meeting its prime
movers and great actors. Fully 1000 personal
friends of mine have been sent either to the
galows or to Siberia, have committed suicide in
the dungeons of Russian prisons, or have gone
hopelessly mad; and think 1 can give a fair
view of the true inwardness of what Stepniak
admirably styles Underground Russia The
sooner the free peoples of the West come to I'M
derstand the real state of things, and the char
acter of the social turmoil in the East the better
it will be for the whole world. hope they will
soon perceive that the so-called Nihilsts are
TlnI
devils, but that they engaged in an inevita
BILE though abnormal struggle, which they are
carrying on with great intelligence dauntless
courage and unsurpassed self devotion."