Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-01-21
CLOSE CALL FOR Gar
RUSSIAN RULER NARROWLY ES.
CAPES DEATH az SHOT FROM
HIS OWN ARTILLERY. Vs.
OFFICIALS CLAIM IT WAS AN &C.
ClpENT BUT OTHERS INIT.
MATE IT WAS A PLOT.

st. Petersburg, Jan. 20.-The cere-
mony Of the blessing of the waters
this year was accompanied by an event
more mysterious, unprecedented and
extraordinary than any afforded by
the annals of Russian history. For a
Russian sovereign to fall by the hands
Of an assassin is no new thing in Rus.
sian records, but that the emperor
should narrowly escape death by a
shot from his own artillery while he
was engaged in solemn religious
rite, surrounded by priests of his
church, is so difficult to realize as to
be almost incredible. Yet this is what
happened Thursday, and the Russian
public is left wondering and mystified.
BY the merest chance the imperial
family escaped unhurt but public
opinion is stunned by what might have
been the tragic results of the affair.
The festival of the Epiphany, the
| blessing of the waters, had just con-
| cluded at l p. m. when, simultaneous
| ly with the salute fired from the St.
Peter and st. Paul fortress, either a
rain of bullets or a shrapnel shell
swept over the little chapel built over
the frozen Neva in front of the Winter
palace, where Emperor Nicholas and
every member of the Romanoff family
were participating in the service. The
missiles went high, entering windows
of the splendid row of salons along the
water front from which the empress,
the ladies of the court and the mem
bers of the diplomatic corps, including
Ambassador Mccormick, Secretary
Eddy and Second Assistant Bliss of
the American embassy and all the high
dfgnitaries of the state, army and navy
were witnessing the glittering specta-
Gle below. Fortunately the bullets
passed over the heads of all present,
striking the opposite wall and clatter-
Ing down on the floor of the white
salon.
Outsiders Ignorant Of Event.
| There was no evidence outside of
what occurred. The crowds of people
who formed black lines along the
quays, the palace bridge, the steps
of the Bourse and every other point of
vantage in the white Arctic landscape
did not betray the slightest excitement.
Neither did the imperial party in the
chapel below. Although the actual
ceremony was ended the emperor re-
NAMED and accompanied the metro
politan and clergy as they circled the
pavilion around the chapel to bless the
gorgeous standards of the famous
guard regiments assembled there.
Then the procession moved back to
the palace and the original programme
was carried out. The emperor dis
played splendid nerve. He did not
show trace of excitement. He re-
ceived the diplomats in his usual cor
dial manner, reviewed the guard regi-
ments on the square behind the palace
and subsequently had luncheon served
in the state diningroom.
The official account of the affair says
that by accident a charge of grape in
stead of saluting charge was fired
from a gun near the Bourse. The only
person wounded was policeman. The
inquiry continues.
In spite of the official statement that
the cannon shot which might easily
! have wiped out the whole of the Ro.
manoff family was the result of care
lessness in leaving shotted cartridge
IN the breach Of a gun after target
practice, the mysterious case is still
under the combined investigation of
the military and police. and the public
seems as little inclined as the authori.
ties to accept the published version.
ArtiIIerymen Confined to Barracks.
The officers and men of the battery
have not been arrested, but are con-
fined to barracks, and by the militaIs
regulations are so closely under re-
straint that it is impossible for the
| culprits to escape until the RESPONSE
bility is determined. r -
1t cannot be said definitely whether
the affair was an accident or the result
OF design. The general belief is that
widespread plot did not exist, but
evidences of design are so apparent
that the statement attributing the
presence of a loaded shell to previous
target practice evoked smiles in many
quarters. It is pointed out as being
highly improbable that the gun had not
been cleaned for two days, and it is
impossible that second cartridge
could have been inserted for saluting
purposes behind the first; and it il
certainly a startling coincidence that
the gun containing this missile should
have been trained directly on the i'm
perial chapel. Whatever may be the
solution, it Is strange fact that the
shot came from the Bourse esplanade,
where was stationed the First horse
artillery of the guard, the premier ar.
tillery organization OF the empire and
one OF the most noted regiments in