Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-27
RI0TING IN RUSSIA.
Patients Buried Alive by the Over.
jealous Authorities.
DOCTORS KILLED BY THE MOB.
Ignorant People Accuse Them of Causing
the Dread Disease
IN THE CHOLERA STRICKEN DISTRICT.


BOSTON, July 26.-Private advices jus
received in Boston from the city of Astrak
han, Russia, tell the story of a popular out
break that scarcely finds parallel in mod
ern history since the plague riots of tn
Middle Ages, and is only to be paralleled il
Russian annals by such risings as those o
Stenko Rain, the brigand, and Pugachefi
the political pretender.
The first news of the disturbance cam
about the beginning of the present montl
in the form of telegram stating that
number of workmen fleeing from TIL
cholera had been killed in a riot, due to th,
attempt of the military to hold them to th'
performance of their contracts. Still latel
intelligence ascfibed the disturbances to &
revolt on the part of the ignorant populace
against the sanitary measures taken to pre-.
vent the spread of the plague
The detailed account just received, while
it pictures the ignorance, the superstitious
hallucnations and the murderous violence
of the mob in tine most lurid colors, repre-.
serts the outbreak as having been precipi-
tared in the first instance by the discovery
that the sanitary authorities, in their over
zeal to stamp out the dread disease, had
been putting cholera patients into their cof-
fins alive.
Story of the Astrakhan Riot.
The Astrakhan riot, with all its shock
ing features, is now seen to be one of the
incidents of that double scourge of famine
and plague from which Russia is suffering
so direly to-day. The story OF 1t really be-
gins with the cholera outbreak, since there
is no evidence to show that, in the absence
L. L
f1ict with the authorities. Situated on the
Lower Voiga, at the entrance to the Cas-
plan, the city is connected by steamship
lines with all the ports of that inland sea,
receives for European transporta-
tion almost the entire commerce
with Persia and Transcaucasia, and
holds annually markets and bazaars that
attract thousands of merchants from all
parts of Asia and Europe. Its complete
communications with the East, in fact, have
made it the much-dreaded gateway through
which, despite the sanitary precautions of
the Russian Government, Asiatic cholera so
frequently gains admission to the western
world.
The latest visitation of the disease, due
to a temporary relaxation of sanitary vigi-
lance at the Caspian ports, began toward
the latter part of June, and cholera was
raging in the city for about week before
the official announcement of its presence
was made on the It, of July. The normal
population of Astrakhan at the present
time is about $4,000 persons, made up of
Russians, Armenians, Tartars and Persians,
the Russians dominating; the industries
carried on include shipbuilding, dyeing,
silk-makine, tallow melting, oil refining,
soap making, fruit raising and fishing. But
this year, owing TO the migration of large
numbers of peasants and artisans from the
the famine-stricken districts IN search of
work. Astrakhan is overcrowded, and the
Government early found it necessary to start
public works of various kinds in order to
give occupation to the surplus population.
Measures to Prevent the Spread
As soon as the presence of the disease
had been definitely ascertained the authori-
ties took prompt measures to prevent its
spread. One of the first of these was the
quarsntining of all vessels coming from the
Caspian ports, and this measure has been
carried out so vigorously that at the time of
writing (July ~ some 1000 persons were
detained in the roadstead, where, owing to
lack of provisions, they we're for many days
restricted TO diet of half pound of bread
a day. Quarantines were also established
for the Volga steamers. with the result of
practically cutting off Astrakhan from the
rest of the world. The city itself was
divided for sanitary purposes into 16 dis
tricts, and a new hospital, furnishing
accommodation for 200 patients, was
opened.
At the time the sanitary regulations were
issued cholera patients were being conveyed
to hospitals at the rate of about ten day.
1t was ordained, among other things,
that corpses should be wrapped
in sheets covered with quickiime,
put quickly into cofins, nailed up, and
then, without religious ceremonies of any
kind, conveyed directly to a special
cholera cemetery in the steppe, and there
inferred.
The first signs of popular discomfort man
ifested themselves after the issue of the san
itary regulations The Russian peasants,
artisans and common people generally,
being of the orthodox Greek faith, strongly
resent the idea of interring dead people
without preliminary religious ceremony,
since they regard such neglect not only as
unnecessary, but as slight upon the dead,
and as imperi,ing their interests in the
world to come. Another source of discon-
tent was the widespread belief among the
population that the cholera was being man.
ufactured by the doctors, many declaring
that Anglichanka (the English woman"
meaning England) had sent s, ,000, 600 roubles
to brlbe the physicians.
Noises Heard in the Coffins
Soon after the cholera broke out the driv-
ers OF teams who used to convey corpses to
the cemetery began to talk about noises |
which they had heard in the cofins, and it |
was soon rumored about the town that the |
doctors were burying people alive.
The excitement eliminated on July 8. 1t |
was Sunday, and special morning prayers |
against cholera had been offered up at the |
cathedral. At about II o'clock in the dav |
some officers or the sanitary corps were en- |
gagged, in the poorer part of the city, remov- |
ing some women who had been attacked BY |
cholera The men had ambulance wagons |
with them, and the removals were effected |
by means of long poles each armed at the end |
with hook. As the women had to be lifted |
into the wagons by their clothing, some of |
them got frightened and clamored SO loudly |
that crowd of people came to their assist
ance. The sanitary officials, together with
the few police accompanying them, were Sc
verely beaten by the populace. In its rage
the mob threw one of the ambulance wag-
ons into the sdjacent canal, and having
made bonfire of the other deliberately |
killed an assistant physician who had tried
to do his duty.
Meanwhile a similar scene was being en-
acted in Selenia, the commercial quarter of
the city, where the crowd not only NAL
treated the police, but mistaking a passer-
BY for q doctor beat him to death.
At o'clock in the evening a mob of
from 10000 to 10000 people proceeded to
the cholera hospital in the Yangurcheff dis
frirf aud fharo hapon 20 hr.al tbo |