The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-05-31

ter are tnat Z,0UO DoQleS nave already Deeu
recovered.
MOSCOW, May 3o.-The official report
places the number Of killed at !, 138 This
includes those who were so severely injured
that they died after having been removed
from Hodynski Plain.
MOSCOW, May So.-Moscow, which for days
has been gay beyond measure as a result Of
the elaborate festivities attending the corona
tion of the czar. was today plunged into
mourning by disaster terrible almost be-
yond example. According to official reports
thousands were killed. and nearly as many
| injured. great public fete and banquet had
been planned to take place on Hodynski plain.
| fronting the Petrovsky palace. Arrangements
had been made to feed 100000 people, and to
present to every person present a drinking
mug adorned with pictures Of the czar and
| czarina- The banquet was to take place at
noon, but early In the morning. before an ade-
Quate police force was on hand, the hundreds
of thousands Of people present began wild
scramble for the food and presents. The
confusion resulted in panic, in which thou
sands were killed.
The passages between the various booths
which had been erected were the scene of the
widest struggles. Here 1t was that most Of
the victims were killed. Despite the efforts of
the Cossacks and Of the police, who unfortu-
nately arrived too late to be of great service
the crowd constantly increased. 1t was a long
time before the place could be cleared enough
to allow the work of rescue to proceed. Many
of the injured were carried to the various hos
pitals, which were soon filled TO overfowing
Hundreds Of persons who were wounded how
ever, were removed to their homes or taken
to private residences. Most of the victims
were women and children.
The disaster occurred between and
o'clock this morning. It was not intended
that the banquet should commence before
noon, bat the immense throng which had
gathered around the sheds, where the mugs
were to be presented and the food distrib-
| uted, became so dense that the attendants
we're overpowered and thrown TO the ground
| in the mad struggle which commenced for
| the food and the gifts. many of the attendants
being numbered among the dead. The small
force of police present made desperate at
| tempts to control the people, but all their ef-
/ forts were futile, and men, women and chill
dren were trampled upon by hundreds, the
shrieks and groans of the victims being heard
| afar.
For time the officials in charge of the
banquet lost their heads entirely. The
crowds seemed to have gone
MAD WITH RAGE
and excitement shouting and cursing as
! they pressed onward over a path strewn
| with dead and dying human beings Even
| tually, however the troops and firemen, who
! were hastily summoned, restored order to
some extent and then began the work of ex-
tricating the dead and injured, ranging them
| on the ground in groups of ten, twenty and
thirty at every hundred yards or so, and
! despatehing to the city as speedily as pos
/ sble in the military transport wagons. fur
niture vans and food wagons, the injured.
| giving preference to the women and chill
| dren.
Some terrible, heartrendiDg scenes were wit
messed among the survivors who were seeking
relatives among the victims. The latter were
mostly peasants, and few Of them have as yet
been identified. They were lying in heaps
| they had been extricated, their crushed, blood
stained and horribly distorted faces upturned
in the scorching sun. Gray-haired men and
women lay alongside children. and sturdy
men, all crushed as If beneath heavy rollers
scme of the heads being trampled into a
shapeless jelly So immense was the con-
course of people upon the plain that hundreds
| of thousands were not aware for long time
! tLat disaster had occurred, for there was
noise caused by the excitement of the ceiebra-
tions, by the music in the open-air theaters
! by the bands drawing crowds to other amuse-
ments all the entertainments provided for
the people being in full swing at midday, and
yet the work of gathering up hundreds of
crushed dead was in progress in another part
of the plain, and the work of tending many
hundreds Of injured people was being carried
on by large force.
| Among the dead found were ladies' evidsnt-
/ ly OF high rank dressed in the finest silk
adorned with the richest jewels. The police
! barracks, to which the bodies of the dead
were taken by the authorities, are besiesed
with persons beseeching for news Of friends
and relatives The scenes at the barracks,
where the process of identification is going
on, are terrible in the extreme. The re-
mains of the dead will all be conveyed dur
ing the course of the night to the cemetery,
where a large morgue is located.
The disaster, it is explained, was due
mainly to the absence of the police. who
had not arrived at so early an hour in the
morning at the scene where the festivities
were scheduled to take place. Fully 200 900
persons of all grades of society had gathered
| on the plain at the time. Only abou. d
| thousand attendants were in charge, and
| they seemed unable to control the mob.
Hoping to lesson the pressure of the as
sembled hundreds of thousands all moving
! toward a common center, they tossed the
packages and presents into the midst Of
| the crowd This seemingly
PRECIPITATED THE PANIC,
since a scramble to obtain possession OF the
| gifts ensued and the hollow piece Of ground
| near the center formed death trap for the
! thousands.
The buildings on all sides of the plain,
/ where by the way, Napoleon concentrated
/ his troops before moving upon this city, are
| in many cases being used as temporary hos
pitals and the soldiers have been rendering
! great service in removing the dead and caring
for the wounded.
| Fu-shor time must elapse before accurate
| figures as to the number actually killed and
! the number of persons who are victims OF the
i disaster but who are only suffering from in
irries. is ascertained; but there is no doubt
/ that the official estimate OF 1000 victims can
not be far from right and the affair may be
/ said to have put an end to all coronation fes-
| lie is concerned
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