The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-07

hAps In measure owing to the ioss or some of the leaders In last years riots and to the proceedings against others who survived. But the fighting at Poo- na was sufficiently serious to end In homicide. and to leave behind a tale of victims for the hospitals and the prison,
 Our telegrams have already summa- rized the main features of the outbreak; and the full account Is now before us. It seems that the worshippers of Gan pati. the elephant-headed god of wis dom, have lately been subject to an ex- cess of enthusiasm. They accordingly determined on a magnificent revival of the processions in honor of their deity at Poona this year. and erected festi- val-booths along the route. The great ceremony was to take place on Sep tember 1s. During the previous night a singing party of Hindus, who had been doing homage at one of the Ganpati shrines, happened to pass mosque on their way home. A midnight service
 was going on in the mosque, and the native police officer, who, with small
 number of constables. was keeping or
 der, directed the Hindu musicians to cease playingl as they came close to the
 Mohammedan sacred edifce.
 The minstrel party, some sixty in
 number. obeyed so far as to stop sing
 ing and beating their drums, but, in a
 spirit of insult to the Mussulman wor-
 shippers, they kept on with their bag
 pipes. and continued to play harmo-
 nium which they were wheeling on a
 trolly. The Mussulmans. engaged
 within the mosque on the recital of the
 Koran, found their voices drowned by
 the noise outside. Several of them
 came out and asked the Hindus to de-
 sist until they had passed the place.
 As the Hindus refused, the Mohamme-
 dams swarmed out of the mosque shout
 ing "Din Din" and set upon the musi-
 clans. The few police on the spot were
 speedily overpowered; the Hindu devo-
 tees were joined by co-religionists from all quarters of the city, and the Mussul-
 mans were driven back into the
 mosque, which was at the same time
 carried by rush of the. assailants. In-
 side no quarter was given or received. One Mussulman was beaten so severely
 that he died few hours afterwards. But neither side was prepared for an affray, and. not having weapons, the
 combatants were unable to inflict fatal wounds.
 The Hindus took their revenge on the
 sacred building itself. They smashed
 the pendant lamps. gutted the inner
 chamber, tore down the veranda posts,
 and tried to set fire to the place. The rapidly assembling police prevented this last outrage, although still too few to prevent the work of dissertation from going on Inside. Next morning, says the Bombay Gazette, "the mosque pre-
 sented a dreadful appearance. The
 steps leading up to 1t were smeared
 with blood, and there was small pool
 of blood at the bottom step. Inside the mating was stained with blood in sev-
 eral places, the ground being complete ly covered with broken glass, and sev- eral half burnt pieces of wood and a
 box slightly charred, while a strong
 smell of burnt wood pervaded the place. Further inside to the left where the bier was kept the room was a total
 wreck. At the back two or three tombs were broken, ladder having been brought and placed against the wall, the tiles of good portion of the roof were torn off to be used as missiles. A shrine on the roadside near which was railed in, was broken open, the tombs broken to pieces, and rubbish strewn all over the place. A little further on there was also a shrine. A stack of
 wood stood in this place, and here the mob had attempted to ignite the place by pouring kerosene oil upon the stack. It was fortunate that the police suc- ceeded fin preventing the firing of these combustible materials, or midnight
 confiagration might have spread which would have cost more lives and de-
 stroyed more property than even the re- Hglous riots in Bombay last year. For the mob soon ceased to be content with sacking the mosque and turned their attention to the houses opposite, break ing open the doors and pulling down
 the veranda posts, which would have enabled them to carry abroad the flame. Within short time, however, the Brit ish head of the police, together with the district and city magistrates (happily
 also Europeans) had hastened to the scene. For time they were a good deal knocked about, and, beside casual ties to subordinates, the superinten- dent of the police, Major Macpherson, | got a severe blow which disabled his right arm. By degrees the rioters were driven offthe ground, fighting as they fell back, and receiving the charges of | the police with showers of heavy stones Had the tumult broken out during the day, 1t is estimated that for every hun dred unarmed rioters there would have
 been thousand with weapons in their | hands It's occurrence in the dead of night prevented any concerted action
 among the Hindus, and enabled the Mokammedans to escape with compar- | atively few injuries. At the first out
 burst the only weapons of the comba- l tants were their shoes, but sticks soon came into play, and the debris of torn l clothes and turbans. together with l these primitive arms, were sufficient to fill a bullock ck-cart.-London Times.
 The Next Papal Conclave.
 It has been recently pointed out by the Rome correspondent of the Stand 1 ard that the next conclave was one of the subjects of pregnant interest in the