Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1904-12-15
St. PETERSBURG
SCENE Of R|0T|NG
An Achievement Demon
Stration is Broken
Up,
POLICE CHARGE AT A GALLOP
Drive Astonished Rioters Like Chaff
Before Them-Many Are Captured
BY the Officers-Day of Wild Elk.
element in Russian Capital.

st. Petersburg, Dec. IA popular
anti-government demonstration, the
participants in which included large
numbers of students of both sexes,
began at midday yesterday in the
Nevsky prospect, and lasted for two
hours. Hundreds of policemen and
mounted gendarmes. who were hidden
in the court yard of the public build
ings, emerged suddenly and charged
the crowd at full gallop, driving the
demonstrators in headlong confusion
and screaming with terror on the side
walks and into adjacent streets. This
led to serious encounters, fifty persons
being injured. Many were arrested.
Not since the riots of 1901, when
Cossacks reaching across the Nevsky
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 yesterday. The
authorities had got wind of the
big anti-government demonstration
planned for yesterday, 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 yesterday,
in black-faced type, was an explicit
warning to the people at their peril
to desist from congregating in the
Nevskv prospect near the KaZan
cathedral. At the same time extern
sive preparations were made to quell
any disturbance. The police on the
Nevs'yy prospect were sextupled. and
the house norters were marsha'led in
front Of their respective buildings.
Half dozen sQuadrons Of mounted
geniar mes were massed in the rear
Of the Kazan cathedral. and bottaliors
Of reserve DOlice were Stationed in
several court wards ort Of sight Min
lister Of the Interior Sviatonolk -Nirskv
gave strict orders. however. that no
CossackS should he used end Fulton,
chief of yolice, issued explicit direc-
tions to avoid harsh measures unless
It should become absolutely necessary.
The newspaper warnings. however,
by giving notice to those not appraised
Of the prospect of demonstration de-
feated the very object for which they
were designed.
Toward l o'clock the workmen AMI
students seemed to swarm near the
corner of the Hotel Europe, opposite
the Kazan cathedral. The police,
recognizing that the critical moment
was approaching, tried in vain to keep
back the human tide. Then, when
there was not single mounted police
man in sight, on the stroke of l, from
the heart of the thickly wedged crowd
a blood red flag, like a jet of flame,
suddenly shot up. 1t was the signal.
Other flags appeared in the crowd,
waving frantically overhead, and they
were greeted with a hoarse roar,
Down with autocracy." The students
surged into the street singing the
"Marseilaise."
Then, like flash, from behind the
Kazan cathedral came a squadron of
gendarmes. The doors of adjoining
court yards were then thrown back
and battalions of police came out. A
double squadron charged the flank of
the demonstrators with drawn sabers.
Five other squadrons circled the mob,
cutting through the fringe of specta-
tors, who gladly scurried to cover.
The main wedge of the demonstrators
stood fast a moment or two. There
was q sharp rattle Of cudgels and
sabers, though the wounds showed
the police struck principally 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.
While the mob stood its ground
those within managed to throw hun
dreds of revolutionary proclamations
over the heads of their fellows. The
police urged their horses fiercely into
the crowd, driving those who resisted
into the court Yards, the Hotel Eu-
rope and the Catholic church. The
intense excitemen lasted about ten
intense excitement lasted about ten
of the Gendarmes patrolled the streets
and the policemen devoted themselves
to keeping the crowd moving
In the meantime those confined in
the court wards who were recognized
as agit"tOrs We're arrested. but Others
were allowed to p0 howe the'wounded
frst having thor injuries dressed.
There we're rr0bobly 100 broken
heads. and several were severely
wounded So far there have been over
100 arrests.
The Torment continued all day and
70 into tho pjpht