The Grit-advocate., 1905-12-29
SCENES IN RUSSIAN CAPITAL.
Men on Strike Orderly and Law
Abidjno but Determined


Percival Gibbon writes from St
Petersburg of conditions which pre-
vailed in that city about the middle
of November: THE police are still
at their work in the streets, the brisk
traffic is undiminished, the handsome
shops are still open. Such business
as can be carried on by the shop folk
and so OH continues. but along the
wharves the snow lies untarnished on
the merchandise, and the derricks are
idle on the ships. There is no cleo
trio light and no gas, the trains have
ceased to run: we are without mails
or the means of sending letters. Here
and there around the town troops are
in waiting, but not in evidence, for
the fact Is that these strikers of the
new sort give no occasion for the use
of violence. They are orderly. law
abiding and quite inaccessible to rea-
son. They have their orders not to
work. and they make it abundantly
plain that they will obey these orders
and no others, and. moreover, their
attitude will make it difficult for the
usual hooligans, who are at home in
a riot, to complicate matters.
For instance, saw little row
this morning in that quarter which is
called Goose island. place of
wharves and shipping on the east
fringe of the city. The cold was NOR
dant, with tooth like acid, and the
thin snow was trodden to slush in the
roads. There was no work going on,
3pJ tn hp
high-booted. were everywhere IN
groups, busy in talk. Their idleness
and the plenty of them at all corners
made one feel wary; they were big.
timber fellows. with SO obvious a
capacity for the use OF force, and
their rude clothing, with some tag of
bright color at the belt or scarf, gave
them so barbarous touch in the long
streets that their reacefulness was al
most incongruous.
"Of sudden, at point where
number of wagons complicated the
narrow entry to yard, came shouts.
the high voice of man in fury and
the pay of quick feet on the snow.
Seven or eight men issued in a con-
vuIsive group, struggling noisily
about an unkept and vociferous fig
ure in the middle, man of pale face
and a shrill, tremulous red mouth.
The thing acted itself in breathless
moment The man in the middle tore
loose and drove forward at one of the
others; something cleaned, brief as
spark in the wan sun, and man
cast up one arm, crumpled at the
knees and fell among the feet of his
fellows-knifed in the heart.
There was staring second of
quiet, an instant of horror and reali-
zation, and then from round about
the workmen closed in and pat hands
on the murderer. There was no rush,
no frenzy; they came gravely, eyeing
him with an enmity that was half
wonder, with the manner Of RESPONSE
BILE men; they twisted the knife from
his hand and his hands behind his
back, and held him in a silence like
the isolation of the scaffold. while
others went to bring the police.
at may be, of course. that in some
stage of this war of the classes, the
policy of their leaders may discover
yet be unleashed, they may be slipped
at any quarry. But at this moment,
whatever may come afterward the
Professional Musicians Revolt.
Leading professional musicians of
Philadelphia have joined in a move
ment to correct an abuse known as
society graft" For years persons of
high social standing have been OBJ
tanning the services of talented artists
at musicales, without pay by lead
ing musicians to believe that future
profitable engagements would result
from such appearances. Little or no
such benefit has been derived, SO now
the musicians have decided to turn
down all requests Of the kind indicat-
ed.