The Springfield herald., 1905-12-29
MOSCOW HORROR
FIVE THOUSAND KILLED IN
FIERCE STREET FIGHTS
MANY THOUSAND WOUNDED
Awful Carnival Of sloodshed on Christ
mas Day-insursents Moved Down
With Grape and canister-Fiend-
ish Deeds Of Drunken cossaeks.

London.-The correspondent OF the
Telegraph at St. Petersburg. in u dis
patch dated at GAS p. M, December
25th, says:
"At an early hour this morning the
casualties at Moscow were estimated
at 5000 killed and $4,000 wounded,
with the fighting still proceeding.
1.-The inhabitants of Moscow have
been forbidden to leave their dwellings
after z o'clock In the evening.
''It is impossible to move about the
city in consequence OF the frequency
of stray bullets. Many innocent per-
sons have been accidentally killed.
IA scarcity of provisions is threat
ened"
The same correspondent, telegraph
ing at 10:3S p. M, says.
your Moscow correspondents tele-
grams have not been accepted, be-
cause all the details were refused.
Cannon firing is now proceeding in
various part of the city, where to
night very near the railroad stations
the barricades erected by the revolu-
tionaries are being desperately de-
Tended.
1.-THE Kursk terminus at Moscow is
being pillaged and many wagons laden
with provisions are being looted.
From fragmentary accounts re-
ceived from Moscow l gather that the
civil war has brought no decisive &C
ton, but only thickening Of the blood
cloud, an intensifying OF the horrors
and an increase of the prevailing bit
terness.
1.-THE driving force behind both the
troops and the rebels is no longer that
of enthusiasm or of any human I'M
pulse. 1t is the force Of superhuman
hate, and hence the deeds reported are
not the acts of patriots, soldiers or
otherwise, but the enormities of mad
men.
at Is impossible to understand how
any emotion, even of the extremes of
despair or hate can impart such fool
hardy courage as some of the rebels
display.
"For every barricade destroyed Sun
day two or three appeared In other
places. Orders were given by the revo-
lutionists to shoot only when there
was good hope of bringing a man
down, but otherwise to tire out the
troops until they lost patience.
I'm the meantime in their houses the
bulk of the population covers in the
innermost recesses of kitchens and cell
lars, stricken with fear and trembling
at every boom of the cannon or explo-
sion of a bomb.
1.-THE most surprising thing OF all is
the loyalty of the troops, which nobody
here anticipated"
All reports agree that the fighting
yesterday, which continued until mid
night, assumed the nature Of a butch
cry by the machine guns OF the artil-
lery. grape and canister being EN-
ployed mercilessly against the ILL
armed insurgents.
Atrocious tales are told Of the Cos
sacks, who, piled with vodka until
drunk, fred down the streets, some
times charging with lances.
The insurgents displayed great stub
bornness in holding barricades. even
advancing in mass to the slaughter.
At the. same time bombs were
thrown from the windows Of houses
near the barricades occupied by the
revolutionaries. The artillery was
summoned and battered the houses TO
pieces.
The plan of the insurgents, 1t is
stated, is to hold the outskirts and
gradually enclose the troops In the
center of the city.
Strike leaders announce that an
army of 10000 Is concentrated at
Orechoffseuf, northeast of Moscow.
and will soon be ready to march to the
city's assistance. Both sides were ex-
hausted at midnight Sunday. when f1r-
ing practically ceased. The streets
were then In absolute darkness save
for searchlights in the towers of biv
ouacs behind barricades.