Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-12-14
Five Hundred Russian Refugees
Disembarked at New York
Monday.
WITNESSED MASSACRES
Little Children Thrown Out Of High
Windows ~ Odr~sn-.Dcw kiiliug
~ West itusSin started by
imit.inx the Jnils-t.scnp.
81 Here to save Lives.

| New York. Dec. 11.-Five hundred Rus.
| sian refugees, many OF them ego wit.
| ncsscs of the massacres in Odessa and
| other Russian cities, diemba rkcd here to-
day from the steamers Patricia and Chem.
| ntZ. Some Of them told graphic and pitt.
| ful stories of their experiences. Jews
who had themselves lain hidden in houses
n Odessa while mobs searched for them.
| Russian worl<mcn OF the Christian faith.
strikers from the railroads. a newspaper
reporter and Germans who had long
| lived in Russia. joined to-day at the
Ellis island immigration station in de.
claring that they had been attacked ire.
spcctivc OF religion that their assailants
worc led by police disguised in citizens
clothing and that the massacres were
not race persecution but revolution
| There were three Jews from Odessa
~ of whom six weeks ago to-day. OF
Octohnr 50 the day that the Car pro
claimed Russa's constitution. wcr
forced into hiding to save their lives
| All thrr" arc men over go intelligent ana
of fine physique. One Of them. Abraham
| Chanoch, tnsnith. told what he saw
Of the Odessa massage, from its begin
ming when two rival parades which were
| celebrating the new constitution, moi
| AMI began to fight. He told how little
| children were thrown out of high viii
dows. how Russian Christians patrolcd
| the streets in large bands. protecting
Jews. while other bands of mon pillaged
and murdered. Workmen and students,
| he said led the peace parties. while dis.
gused police usually led the hoodlume.
After the first two days he and two COM
panions escaped from the city.
STORY OF TWO REFUGEES.
Two refugees from western Russia
said that there the Jew killing was
started by cmptyng the jails of pris
oners who attacked and stole from
| members of the race. A man from the
province of Kovno asserted that the
police themselves read into the proc
lamation of a constitution an order to
kill all Jews and cried this lie through
| the streets.
4 Russian newspaper man named
Cncchkowitz from the province of
wilma. who received two bullet holes in
| his hat as he boarded train bound
for the border. described the workings
of the society Of self defense known
as the "sanierones" and the last battle
| in which he. as a member of this So
ciety. participated All the stories
agreed that the manifesto and the fes
tivties on the day that Count Witte
stepped into power were made the pre-
text for rioting. The reception of this
| news in Odessa thus was described by
Soloman Mrocznik a Jew candymaker
of Odessa, aged so wears
ION the day OF the manifesto ne
said. there were marchings and re-
joicings by great professions which
waved red flags. These professions
were composed mostly of workmen. \
great party of loyalists gathered and
were addressed by a clergyman VINO
said: 1t is true that the Emperor has
decrecd liberty, freedom Of the press
OF speech and of conscience And he
exhorted faithfulness to the Emperor.
after which his followers marched car
rying aloft pictures of Nicholas II.
When this procession met the other
parades it was stoned and thus the
fighting began.
During the next two days the streets
of Odessa were schlachtfeld.' the
candymaker used the German word for
battlefield. repeating it bitterly several
times and adding: This was what they
called decreeing liberty"
TINsMITH's STORY.
Chanoch. the tinemith took up the
story at this point saying:
six weeks ago to-day l lay with sew
eral Jews for four hours in the garnet OF
a house in Schlabotsky street to escape
from a mob in the rooms below. 1t was
n threc-story building and those who
lived there escaped by crawling on raft
ers into dark holes few inches under
meath the roof
"Whilc We were hiding in this house
men came in after dark to escape from
the streets and to tell us what happened
in the other houses where the Jews were
caught. a man told me that one of these
houses had been entered where perhaps
200 Jews were in hiding. The mob mem
bers carried butcher knives. stone slabs.
some of which were red with blood, and
which were used for crushing and stoning
people. iron bars. revolvers and clubs.
Those in the house ran in every direction.
many of them escaping, but the children
ran with a few older persons TO the third
floor There they were caught and the
babies up to five or six years old were
thrown living out of the third floor vim
dows into the streets. The older children
and the srown-ups were killed before be-
ing thrown out. The men who told ma
this story also said that a band OF sew
eral hundred students and . few police
arrived in time to arrest some of these
nurdcrers and that after they had been
placed in Jail some Of the prisoners werc
recognized by their Keepers as members
OF the police force"