The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-03-29
PEASANTS SEIZE PENZA|
Cars Advisers Regard Uprising as
Nest 0m:nous Of All.
THE GOVERNMENT Is ALARMED

Autocracy Faces Eebe!lion-The MOSCOW
Gazette Calls For q Massacre Of Rioters
policeman is Sh"t-Cprisings in Po-
land Continue - Troubles Increase
Everywhere In Russia.
st. Petersburg. Russia.-At last the
autocracy is face 10 face with actual
revolution. The province Of Penza,
lying in the very heart of European
Russia. was taken by armed peasants,
who not only gained complete control
Of the country regions. but soon be-
came supreme in Penza, the capita!
city. with a thriving population Of
about 10000. In the Caucasus the
Government no longer tried to conceal
the gravity of the situation, and it was
decided to suppress the rising by arms.
General Alihanoff led a force out Of
Batoum against the recalcitrant Geor-
gians in TranS-Caucasia. The body
consisted of sever battalions of infan-
try. six companies Of Cossacks aid a
battery of light artillery. Alihunof is
hated in the Caucasus, as he has been
unchanging. in brutal attitude toward
the strikers and disaffected peasants.
The leading merchants and foreigners
in the Caucasian regions have been
threatend with death in the event OF
any action in opposition to the revolu.
tionary committee. This threat has
been applied to the United States and
British consuls in Batoum.
It was said by a prominent Govern.
ment official that the Car and his
Ministers are keenly distressed over
the situation in PenZa. The violence
Of the peasants there vas taken as a
more ominous sign than the rising
general over Poland. The fear Of the
Emperor arises from the precedent of
the French Revolution, when the ris-
ing of the peasants turned out to be
the real starting point of the strife
which had its climax in the death of
Louis XVI. There are numerous
signs Of history promising to repeat
itself, as, in the case of the French
peasants. the country population OF
Penza has taken to burning the homes
Of the landed classes. The police OF
the city of PenZa have been unable to
suppress the peasants, and. it is said
that an overwhelming force will be
drafted from the Moscow garrison to
bring the peasants speedily to sub
mission. Penza is $50 miles from Mos
cow. and troops are said to have been
already dispatched from the old cap
ital.
In a minor degree the activity of the
PenZa peasants was enacted in almost
every corner Of the empire. The in
tense seriousness of the crisis was not
known generally here, as the Govers-
ment maintained a.rigld censorship on
all dispatches. The alarm Of the En-
peror and his advisers. however. was
reflected in an editorial in the Moscow
Gazette, the traditional mouthpiece of
the autocracy, and the most rabid OF
all the reactionary organs. The Ca
zette unqualifedly asserted that the
present revolt" in the. interior should
be put down Immediately in the way
which General Michael Muravfef
crushed the Polish and Lithuanian re-
bellion in 1858. This was the first
published admission Of rebellion, and
coming from an inspired organ. it was
taken as a practical announcement
from the Government.
Warsaw, Poland. - Renewed out
breaks on all the railroads became i'm
minent as a result OF the different
companies having decided that it would
be impossible to pay the increased
wages conceded to the strikers q
couple Of weeks ago. The manage
ment Of the Vienna railway called a
meeting of the stockholders to discuss
the financial problem raised by the new
conditions. A careful revision of the
lists of employees showed that the in
crease in wages promised to the strik-
ers summed up TO 100000 instead of
the sS75.000 as originally estimated.
The workmel who returned from
strike say that they would walk out
at once should the company revoke its
concession. The railroad officials said
they could not pay the existing wages
and rim their lines. The Governor
General tried to break the deadlock,
but so far without success.
A policeman was shot by striking
shop assistants, and at the same time
in i%nfantryman. enraged by the taunts
Of strikers. seriously wounded 4 man
and a little girl. A bullet from the
soldiers rifle pierced the bodies of the
couple, and it is feared recovery is i'm
possible.