Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1904-12-15
RIOT ON THE NEWSKI

lGlOl YIN lI1T NEW ShI
SOCIALISTS GET UP ANTi-Gov
EMINENT DEMONSTRATION.
Newspaper Notices Ordering People
to Remain Away Increases the
Crowd-Meeting is Held to Pro
test Against war.
st. Petersburg, Dec. PA popular
antl-government demonstration, the
participants in which included large
numbers OF students OF both sexes
began at midday in the Nevski pros,
pect and lasted about two hours.
Hundreds OF police and mounted gen
darmes, who We're hidden in the
court yard OF the public buildings,
emerged suddenly and charged the
crowd at full gallop, driving the
demonstrators in headlong confusion.
This led to serious encounters, fifty
persons being more or less severely
injured. Large numbers were ar.
rested.
Not since the riots OF 1901, when
Cossacks, reaching across the Nevski
prospect 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 excitement as this. The au-
thorities got wind of the big anti
government demonstration planned
by the Social Democratic Labor party
to demand an immediate end of the
war and the ~convocation of a national
assembly and leading every paper in
black faced type was an explicit warn.
ing to the people at their peril to de-
sist from congregating in the Nevski
prospect near the Kazan cathedral.
at the same time extensive prepare
lions were made to quell any disturb
ances. The police on the Nevski pros
pect We're seXtupled. Half a dozen
squadrons of mounted gendarmes
were massed in the real of Kazan
cathedral. Minister of the Interior
Sviatopolk-Mirsky gave strict orders,
however, that no Cossacks should be
used, and Fulton, chief of police, is
sued explicit directions to avoid harsh
measures unless it should become alb
solutely necessary.
Newspaper warnings, however, by
giving notice to those not appraised
of the prospect Of a demonstration, de-
feated the very object for which they
were designed, attracting seemingly
the whole population of this vast city
to the broad ~thoroughfare, and long
before the hour fixed, despite the
pleading of the police, who literally
lined the sidewalks, the throngs on
the pavements were so dense that
movement was almost impossible,
while the snow-covered boulevard was
black with a tangled mass of sleighs
filled mostly with the curious. In the
throngs on the sidewalks were prac-
tically the whole student body of the
capital, including many young wom-
en-. and also thousands of workmen
belonging to the social labor party.
From the heart of the thickly
wedged crowd a blood red flag sud-
denly shot up. 1t was the signal.
Other flags appeared in the crowd,
waving frantically overhead, and they
were greeted with a hoarse roar of
Down with the autocracy!" The
students surged into the street, sing
ing the "Marseillaise."
Dismounted police made a single at
tempt to force their way into the
crowd to wrest the flags from the
demonstrators, but the students and
workmen. armed with sticks, stood
close and beat back their assailants.
A double squadron charged the flank
of the demonstrators with drawn
sabers. Five other squadrons cir
cled the mob, cutting through the
fringe OF spectators, who gladly sour
ried to cover. The main wedge Of the
demonstrators stood fast only a mo-
ment or two. There was a sharp rat
tie of cudgels and sabers, though the
wounds showed the police struck prin-
cipally with the fiat of their sabers.
The women were especially fierce in
their resistance. Many were struck
and trampled and blood streamed
down their faces. The intense excite
ment lasted about ten minutes, after
which mounted squads of the gen
darmes patrolled the streets and the
policemen devoted themselves to keep
ing the crowd moving.
JAPANESE LOSSES ARE HEAVY.
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