The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-06
HOLDS POLICE At
BAY EIGHT HOURS
Mad Russian NobIeman Shoots
Thirty-four People Be-
fore He Falls.
Special Foreign Service.


WARSAW, March Count Vladi-
mir Dombsky's mad duel with the
Warsaw public and police-as bloody
and exciting as some of the conflicts
with dad men" of which Bret Harte
used to write-appears to have been
due indirectly to the o-Japanese
war.
1t was at II o'clock at night that the
counts sanguinary fit came upon him.
There had been what the Russian press
termed patriotic demonstrations" 60
ing on all day in Warsaw. AS a mat
ter of fact, however, the demonstrations
were the reverse of patriotic. Patriot
ism in Poland, when it dares to vent
itself openly, takes only one form-an
intense desire to free the country from
the grip of Russia. And because it is
realized that only through Russia's de-
feat by some other power can Polands
dream of the liberty that once was
hers be again realized. Poland's SYM
pathies in the present struggle are all
with pIucky little Japan.
Count Dombsky's name alone would
imply that he is Russian, and 1t is
surmised that brooding over the mani
festations he had witnessed had I'M
hinged his mind and filled with with a
blood lust.
With his repeating rifle in hand and
an abundant supply of cartridges, the
count stationed himself in the balcony
of his apartments in the Rue Zlota.
The street was crowded at the time.
Suddenly shot rang out, followed by
shrek of mortal agony, for the count
is a good marksman, and had taken
deliberate aim.
Panic Seizes the Crowd.
The first effect on the crowd was to
cause rush for the scene to see what
had happened. In quick succession
several more shots were fired by the
mailman, two Of which told. Then it
suddenly dawned upon the people that
the man in the balcony was shooting
at them and panic seized them. Right
and left they fed, tumbling over one
another in their eagerness to get be-
yond range of the rifle, and as they
ran bullet after bullet sped after them.
Before the street was cleared the
maniac had shot dead two people, NOR
tally wounded a woman and a boy of
ten, and inflicted dangerous wounds on
many more.
The police, with a prudent regard
for their own safety, for which they
can hardly be blamed, at first con-
tented themselves with closing the
street at either end, thus preventing
any people from entering it, hoping
that the counts mad fit would pass,
or that, growing weary, he would re-
linouish his post on the balcony. But
In both respects they were disappoint-
ed.
At 2 o'clock in the morning the
count still held possession Of the bal
cony, actuated by the same deadly
purpose to shoot any person-man,
woman or child-whom he discovered
within range of his rifle. Nor, despite
the precautions taken by the police, did
he lack for victims in the interval.
In the panic that seized the crowd
when they first discovered that they
were the objects of the madman's fury,
many of them sought refuge in door,
WAYS and behind pillars. AS time went
on several of these who were thus hid
ing concluded that they might with
safety make an effort to regain their
homes and left their places of conceal
ment, some dashing off at full speed,
others striving to sink off unmolested
| by crouching close to the houses.
Watches Sharply for Victims.
But. the balcony occupied by the
| mailman, projecting over the Street
| several feet, gave him an uninterrupted
view of it in either direction for q
considerable distance, and he watched
| for possible victims with all the Wig
| lance of a wideawake sentry on picket
duty, his rifle ringing out instantly
when the sound of hasty footsteps or a
! shadow in motion showed that some
| one was trying to escape him, and more
| than one person was thus shot at a dis
| lance of 200 yards.
Realizing at last that playing a wait
ing game with the maniac would only
increase the number of his victims, the
police summoned the fire department to
their aid. A well directed stream OF
| water from a powerful fire engine will
| knock man cut as effectually as a
i blow from a stout club. But the fire.
/ men found it impossible to play upon
! the mailman without exposing them
selves to his rife, and after one or two
! Of them had been wounded they con-
cluded that fighting a homicidal maniac
behind a gun did not properly form
| part Of their official duties, and told
the police that they would have te
1 tackle the job themselves.
i The policemen then formed them
selves into an attacking force, and, en-
! tering the house from the rear, sough1
/ to gain the counts apartments. Bu1
this method of attack they found ha6
been anticipated by the cunning. of the
i mailman, and he he'd made his prepare