The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-12
RIOTOUS SCENES IN
 THE RUSSIAN CAPITAL
FIFTY PERSONS MORE OR LESS
 SERIOUSLY INJURED.

Students Of Both Sexes Take Part in
 Popular Demonstration Against the
 GOvernment--Hundreds of Police and
 Mounted Gendarnes Charge the
 Crowd at Full GaIiop-arany Arrests
 --CrIes of 'Down with AutOcracy.v
 St. Petersburg. Dec. 11--A popular
 anti-government demonstration. the participants in which included large
 numbers of students of both sexes. be-
 gan at midday in the Novslxy Prospect
 and lastd about two hours. Hundreds
 of police and mounted gendarmes, who
 were hidden in the court yard of the
 public buildings, emerged suddenly and
 charged the crowd at full gallow, driv-
 ing the demonstrators in headIong con-
 fusions and screaming with terror upon
 the sidewalks and into adjacent streets.
 This led to serious encounters. fifty per
 sons being more or less severely injur-
 ed. Large numbers were arrested.
 Not since the riots of 1901, when Cos
 sacks stretched across the Nevslxi Pros-
 pect from building to building, charged down the boulevard from the Moscow
 station to the Neva has the Russian capital lived through such a day of ex-
 citement as this. The authorities last night got wind of the big anti-goyern-
 ment demonstration planned for to-day by the social democratic labor party to demand an immediate end of the war
 and the convocation of national as- sembly, and leading every paper this
 morning in black faced type was an ex-
 plicit warning to the people at their
 peril to desist from congregating in the Nevski Prospect near the Kazan ca- thedral. At the same time extensive
 preparations were made to queu any
 disturbance. The police on the Nevsk
 Prospect were sextupled and the Dvor- inks, or house porters, were marshalied 1 in front of their respective buildings. Half a dozen squadrons of mounted
 gendarmes were massed in the rear of the Kazan cathedral and battaiions of
 reserve police were stationed in several court yards out of sight. Minister of the Interior Sviatopolk- Mirslxy gave
 strict orders, however. that no Cossacks should be used, and Fulton, chief of police, issued explicit directions to avoid harsh measures unless it should become absolutely necessary. The newspaper
 warning, however, by giving notice to those not apprised of the prospect of demonstration defeated the very ob-
 feet for which they were designed, at tractingi seemingly the whol population of this vast city to the broad thorough fare and long before the hour fixed, de-
 Spite the pleading of the police, who lit- erally lined the sidewalks, the throngs on the pavements were so dense that movement was almost impossible, while 1 the snow covered boulevard was black with a tangled mass of sleighs filled mostly with the curious. In throngs on the sidewalk were practically the whole student body of the capital; i'm lcluding many young women, who have
 always been prominent in Russia in liberal revolutionary movements, and also thousands of workmen belonging to the social-labor party, which had planned the demonstrations.
 Toward i o'clock the workmen and students seemed to swarm toward the corner of the Hotel Europe, opposite the
 Kazan cathedral. The police, recogniz- ling that the critical moment was ap- lproaching, tried in vain to keep back the human tied. Then, when there was not a single mounted policeman in sight on the stroke of I, from the heart l of the thickly wedged crowd blood red flag like a jet of flame suddenly shot up.
 It was the signal. Other flags appeared l in other parts of the crowd, waving frantically overhead, and were greeted with a hoarse road Down with autoc-
 racy." The students surged into the
 streets singing the 'Marsei!aise. while innocent spectators seeking to extricate l themselves; crowded. into doorways and hugged walls. Dismounted police made 1 a single attempt to force their way into 1 the crowd to wrest the flags from the demonstrators, but the students and worknen, armed with sticks, stood close and beat back their assailants. Then, 1 like flash, from behind the Kazan cathedral came wheeling a squadron of gendarmie. The doors of adjoining court yards were thrown back and bat talions of police came out. A double squadron charged the flank of the dem constructors with drawn sabres. Five
 other squadrons circles the mob cutting through the fringe of spectators. who
 gladly scurried to cover. The main wedge of the demonstrators stood fast only a moment or two. There was a.
 sharp rattle of cudgels and asbles, though the wounds showed the police. struck principally with the flat of their sabres. The women especially were fierce in their resistance. Many were struck and trampled and blood streamed from their faces.
 ! 771o,7 finnad o11 -T5Iird PaoagA