The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-23


Although We Americans dwell at dis
tance of at least four thousand miles
from the Russian capital, electricity has
made us eve-witnesses and ear-witnesses
Of frightful catastrophe, which is
probably the prelude TO a cataclysm
such as the world has not beheld since
the FIVE terrible years that followed the
meeting in 1889 of the States General at
Versailles.
As regards, indeed, magnitude and
stupidity no mistake was committed
by the purblind upholders of the
French ancien regime comparable for
moment with the awful butchery to
which Yesterday were subjected thou
sands of the Cars most devoted subjects
who ere approaching the Winter Palace
with no other purpose but humbly to
petition the august and venerated SOW
eregn who still to their hearts was their
Little Father The consequences of
dreadful disillusion and of the madden.
ing disclosure that, judged by his acts
or by those of his trusted representa-
tives. the ruler whom they have been
taught to regard az GODS anointed
and their guardian angel is really an
onthroned devil are likely 10 be tn more
appalling than anything seen in Paris
during the Reign of Terror, in proportion
as the Russian people have borne for
centuries aoitcr suffering with more
patient fortitude, and in proportion as
they are less articulate and far more
desperate than were the subjects of
LOUIS XVI.
What was the crime for which on Sun
day upward of two thousand Of the in
habitants Of st. Petersburg were killed
and five thousand wounded? Accom-
panied by their wives and children and
headed by poor priest, Father GAPoN,
more than hundred thousand working
men, unarmed or very poorly armed,
and with no intention Of using their
ing their sovereigns abode in the firm
hope that in compliance with the prayer
, conveyed to him the day before he would
receive at the hands of his children
, petition embodying the following not
f. exorbitant requests namely: That equal
political rights should be granted to all
classes from Grand Duke to workman
that there should be freedom from
search by the police that there should
e be freedom Of speech and Of religious
1 belief. and finally that the question
r whether the war with Japan should be
D STOPPED should be left to representa-
lives Of the Russian people for decision,
: Now. even in Oriental despotsms the
right of petition is held sacred, and
assuredly in the requests just cited there
was nothing so overweening, so inso-
lent, SO monstrous that only by wholesale
and premeditated massacre could the
petitioners be fifty answered
g In the letter which Count LEo ToLsToT,
g the novelist and patriot three years ago,
d when he had reason to believe himself
diving addressed TO the Car. whom he
called MY Brother he adjured his
imperial master TO believe that the Rus
sian Governments first duty was TO stop
the strangulation which prevented the
p people from expressing their desires
T. and needs One cannot do good TO a
= man. said To1sTo1, whose mouth has
been gagged in order that nobody shall
ut hear what he believes essential TO his
welfare. Only after having ascertained
the necessities and wishes Of his sub
b, iccts, or Of majority thereof, is it pos
sihle for the best meaning autocrat tc
nile them usefully and wisely This
% patent and fundamental truth, which
never was lost sight Of by the Successors
d of MoHAMMED while the Calphate was
e mighty. should have been recognized
- by Christian Emperor as lying at the
b root Of the consecrated right Of petition
which constitutes the sole moral bond
le between the personiier of a paterna
Is despotism and the millions Of human
~ beings committed to his charge That
a moral bond, as the patriot priest, Father
sr GAPoN, pointed out on Saturday in a
ut letter addressed to Prince MIRsKY, tbs
x suspended Minister of the Interior that
le, moral bond might be broken if the Czal
~ could not find il in his heart 10 receive
n at the hands Of his people petition
ID inspired 10y pious. regard for his owr