The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-10
PISTOL OR KNIFE.
COLD STEEL THE EFFECTIVE
WEAPON OF AsSAssINS.

x1ASAS2AhSeSAAveSs
Strange Devices Organized in Eu-
rope to Combat the Anarchy
Movement.
How much more fatal the knife has
been to the monarchs of the Old World
than pistols, guns, or even bombs has
been shown once more by the method
employed by the Anarchist Lucchesi to
kill Empress Elizabeth. In the New
World, it is true, the pistol has been
more effective, two Presidents of the
United States, as well as a number of
Chief Magistrates and dictators of the
South American republics, having been
laid low thereby. But in Europe the
aim Of the assassin as rule has been
bad, and a long list of unsuccessful at
tempts to kill Old World rulers by
means of firearms could be cited Thus
the anarchist who a couple of years
ago endeavored in vain to kill King
Humbert while the latter was driving
to the races at Rome made use Of q
pistol, and the would-be assassins of
King George of Greece less than year
ago made use of a gun. Queen Vic
toria has been on several occasions shot
at, but never once wounded, while King
Amadeus, as we'll as the late King AL
fonso of Spain, repeatedly had their
lives attempted by regicides armed
with pistols, invariably escaping with
q
shot at at least twice. without being
hit, once by the schoOlmaster, Solovieff
| at ST. Petersburg, and on the other oc-
casion by the Pole, Berezewski, at
Paris. Plus TX, King Louis Philippe Of
France, the Kings Milan and Alexander
of Servia, the late King of Holland
Napoleon Ill, the present Kings Of
Denmark, Wurtemburg and Rumania
and Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria have
similarly remained unframed when
| shot at, and in fact the only Old World
ruler that can recall having been even
wounded by a shot was the old En-
peror William, when fired at by DR..
Nobiling.
The reason for this immunity which
crowned heads seem to enjoy whenever
firearms are used by those who have
resolved to take their lives must be
ascribed to the fact that in order to
insure a good aim with either gun or
pistol practice, and, above all, steadi-
ness of nerve are indispensa BILE, neither
of which is, as rule, possessed by the
regicides.
THE WEAPONS OF DANGEROUS
MEN.
With a knife, however, it Is entirely
different thing, and the assassins who
resort to cold steel as a means of ac-
complishing their nefarious designs are
invariably far more dangerous men
than those who content themselves
with firearms; for whereas the man
who uses pistol or a gun against a
monarch can hope to effect his escape,
the murderer who draws his knife on
the anointed of the Lord faces certain
capture and probable death. Indeed, it
needs a rare dose of courage and des-
peration to assail Old World rulers with
knife, for they are usually we'll
guarded. When one reflects how much
easier it is to protect the chief of a
state, crowned head or a great per-
sonage against an assassin armed with
poinard, who is compelled to literally
thrown himself on his victim in order
to accomplish. his object, than. from
murderer armed with gun or pistol,
who can shoot from behind a hedge or
tree, from a window or from a rooftop.
without even being seen, it is difficult
to understand why the knife should
have been so much more efficacicus in
connection with regicide
A DAGGER BLOW.
Tins Procidapf Carpot 1;l,o
Elizabeth, succumbed to a dagger, be-
ing well-nigh disembowled by the
knife of Cesario. The Emperor Of Aus
tria retains on his left shoulder the
scars of the terrible knife wound which
he received some forty-seven years ago.
while old Queen Isabella of Spain bears
likewise horrible scar caused by the
savage thrust of the poniard with
which the priest Matino endeavo~ad 10
murder her in 1852. King Hurbert
would have been stabbed to the neart
at Naples by Passanante ten years ago
had not his Prime Minister. Carroll
thrown himself in front of his sover-
eign and received the knife in his own
body, deluging both the----:lg ana the
Queen with his blood. King Milan's
predecessor on the throne of Servia was
Prince arageorgevitch while walking
in the gardens of his suburban palace,
near Belgrade. Napoleon Ills life
was thrice attempted by italian as
sassins armed with the same kind of
triangular file used by Lucchesi to kill
Empress Elizabeth, the regicides being
in each case betrayed on the very eve
OF the time appointed for the perpetra-
ton of their crime. These peculiarly
formed .stilettos found concealed about
their persons bore engraved on the hits
the word Remember destined 20 re-
call to the mind of the Emperor the
oath which he had taken when as
young man he Joined, the Carbonari
conspiracy to endeavor to secure the
freedom of Italy The object of the
triangular form of the weapon was
that the lips of the wound made there
by should close of their own accord,
and the bleeding be entirely internal
and therefore beyond the powers of the
surgeons to arrest.
CARVED UP.
Stambuloff, the Dictator of Bulgaria,
was literally carved to fragments under
the ver-r windows of the palace Of
Prince Ferdinand, who owed to him his
thr enc, and who has left his assassins
UNPUBLISHED to this day. The sovereign
Duke of Parma, Bourbon father of the
present ex-Duke of Parma. was MUIR
dered with daggers by assassins, one
OF them dying in Philadelphia hospi-
tai only few years ago. The prede-
cessor of the present Prince of Monte
negro, Prince Daniel, and Lord Freder-