The Western news., 1904-12-14
an Il GOVERNMENT IN REVOLT.
RUSSIAN CAPITAL AMID A WILD
SCENE LAST SUNDAY.

Everybody in Confusion-Fifty |
People Seriously Injured-Many Ar
rests Followed.
st. Petersburg, Dec. PA popular
enforcement demonstration, the
participants in which included large
numbers of students of both sexes, be-
gan at midday Sunday in the Nevsky
prospect and lasted about two hours.
Hundreds of police and mounted gend-
armes were hidden in the courtyard
of the public building. They emerged
suddenly and charged the crowd at
full gallop, driving the demonstrators
in headlong confusion, and screaming
with terror, upon sidewalks and into
adjacent streets. This led to several
encounters, SO persons being more or
less seriously injured. Large numbers
were arrested
Not since the riots of 1901, when
Cossacks stretched across the Nevsky
prospect from building to building and
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 authorities got wind of the big
antigovernment demonstration planned
for Sunday by the socialist labor party
to demand an immediate end of the
war and the convocation of national
assembly, and leading every paper
Sunday morning in black faced type
was an explicit warning to the people
at their peril to desist from congre-
eating in the Nevsky prospect, near the
Kazan cathedral. At the same time
extensive preparations were made to
quell any disturbances. The police on
and the Dvornicks, or house porters.
were marshaled in front Of their re-
spective buildings. Half dozen squad
rons of mounted gendarmerie were
massed in the rear of the kazan cath
edral and battalions of reserve police
were stationed in several courtyards
out of sight. Minister of the Interior
Sviatopolk-Mirsky gave strict orders
that no Cossacks should be used, and
Fulton, chief of police, issued special
orders to avoid harsh measures unless
it should become absolutely necessary.
The newspapers warnings, however,
by giving notice to those not appraised
of the prospect of demonstration, de-
feated the very object for which they
were designed. attracting seemingly
the whole populace 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 move
ment 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 sidewalk were practically the
whole student body of the capital, in
Guiding 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.
The Peoples Proclamation.
Following is the text of the procla-
nation of the social democratic labor
party calling Sundays demonstration:
1--WE have raised our voices calling
for better things, but the government
has turned a deaf ear to our Cry. We
from day to day draw out laborious
existence, condition worse than con-
victs, while they convert millions into
smoke and sacrifice thousands of work
mems lives under incompetent gen
erals. We are shedding our blood for
our torturers while they are entering
into a shameless bargain with wealthy
landlords and zemstvoists. Enough,
men! We can not endure it longer.
We must arise and boldly proclaim
that We want an end of war.
Down with the war.
Down with autocracy.
"All who are ready to fight for our
demands assemble in front OF the
Kazan cathedral at o'clock"
An Official statement issued tonight,
with reference to the riOting today,
says:
During the confusion and jostling
the demonstrators freely used cudgels,
and the police we're compelled to beat
back the rioters with the fat of their
swords. The demonstration naturally
was not suppressed without casualties,
but none were serious"
The police have forbidden the as
sembling of crowds on Tuesday, when
another demonstration is threatened on
the occasion of the opening of the trial
of SasonOff for the murder of Won
Plehve.