Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-04-11
RUSSIANS THROW CARES
 ASIDE AND MAKE MERRY
Easter Festivities Now On in Full Force-Prince HilkoF's Great Work in Buildi 3 Railroad Official Explanation of the ShoOtir lat New Chwang Last Night Which Caused Some Excitement

St Petersburg. April 1.-The Easter merrymaking is in progress, business is suspended, the government depart ments are closed, and the war bull letin boards are bare, except for the order for tue mobilization of the naval reserves Only three newspapers ap- pear and they are in the form or ny sheets. M. Meshcheriky, in the Crash danin pays fine tribute to Prince Hilkoff, the minister of railroads, whom he compares with Peter Lne Great. working with his own hands on the Baikal railroad to stimulate the workmen to perform maryels, Ike Peter at the foundry in St Peterspufs. The minister will return soon to BalkaI to resume personal direction or Duliu, ing the circular line which 1t is hopeu vii be running by July. a year carrier than planned. Prince HilkofT expecN soon 10 have seven two-section mlll- taisy trains running daily.
 In addition to the list printed yester' day the Novoe Vremya to-day contains the belated Easter greetings of ..Ie officers of the warships Retyizan, fe tropavlovsk, GaydamaS, Vsadnyk anu Gilik and the transport Anagra-
 New model Russian three-inch qulcK- ] ta,,ipr puns. firing eighteen shots q min lite. are being issued to the artillery colleges of St Petersburg, for the pur- pose of instructing the senior cadets in the handling of these pieces. The emperor will confer diplomas on them in May instead of next fall.
 New Chwang, April 11.-An ofheial explanation was issued to-day of the firing of guns from the forts here lasl night. which caused certain amount of excitement and the killing or TWO Chinese. It appears that the oHceFs or the carlson did not understand the system of customs flash signals in use a+ the mouth of the river, for the pun pose of signalling the depth of th' water on the bar. and the fire was opened at some pilot boats and out ward bound merchantmen. The eHect of the fire had not been reported up lo noon to-day During the excitement among the troops a sentry nred OH anu killed two Chinese sanpan men.
 Tn view Of the reports received here of Japanese activity in Korea and Of tile arrival of Japanese troops on the Yalu river, it Is understood that the troops of the garrison had been fully warned that it was possible the Japan csc would make an attack on rn1s place, and the citizens, on hearing the firing. naturally supposed that the at tempt was being made last night
 Che Foo, April III, 6 p. m.A Chi nese steamer has just returned from New Chwang. The port pilots would not respond to her signals for them to take the vessel up the river Two British steamers found themselves 1n the same predicament. The port of New C,hwang is practically closed to commerce.
 Tien Tsin. April I'M. Pavlotf, recently Russian minister to Korea, returned to Tien Tsin to-day. He will proceed to Mukden Thursday next for the purpose of assisting Viceroy Alex ice
 yladfyostok April 11.-The church es to-day have been crowded in ob- servance of the Easter holidays with people praying for victory.
 Many of the inhabitants who fled from vladivostok to Khabarovsk, eastern Siberia. at the outbreak of the war, are now returning here.