The Dickinson press., 1905-01-28
CROWDS REFUSE TO OBEY ORDERS
DEADLY VOLLEY OF BALL CART.
RIDGES FOLLOWS TWO VOL.
LEYS OF BLANKS.
WHOLE CITY IN A STATE OF PANIC
FIGHTING PROCEEDS SlMULTA.
NEoUsLY IN SEVERAL DIFF.
FERENT PLACES.

st. Petersburg, Jan. 23.-The first
blood in the Russian revolution has
been shed.
Sunday thousands of Russian work
ingmen, with their wives and children,
gathered in the streets leading to the
palace square.
Tho movement toward the square
began early in the morning. The peo-
pie found all the bridges leading to
their objective point closely guarded
by strong bodies of troops, but by twos
and threes they crossed the Neva on
the ice. hurrying to the palace square,
where they believed Emperor Nicholas
would meet them and receive their
petition.
The emperor was not there. Instead
the people were met by thousands Of
troops, massed in solid squares.
Then the crowd began to abuse the
soldiers. Every move of the troops
was met with Kisses and cries.
VAAdlly lAc VI ucl was S5AFCA W NASAA
the crowds away. The horse guards
charged. Shrieks of the wounded re-
sounded for time. Then came ST.
lence.
Again the crowd refused to obey an
order to disperse. Then two com.
panies advanced. The commanding
officer ordered the crowd to disperse.
The people refused. The troops fired
q volley with blank cartridges; then
another. Still the crowd did not move.
Then followed deadly volley with
ball ca1tridges. At least one hundred
people fell. Firing was repeated and
corpses strewed the ground in every
direction. Blood flowed down the
streets in streams.
Then the crowd fled, denouncing the
soldiers as "murderers and murderous
dogs"
The police ordered out sleighs to
care for the dead and heartrending
scenes were witnessed as the dead
were recognized by relatives. Men,
women and children had fallen before
the volleys of the soldiers.
FIVE HUNDRED LOWEST
ESTIMATE OF THE DEAD.
The scene was repeated at other
points until the number OF dead and
wounded is variously estimated to be
from 500 to 5000 persons.
At the Putiloff works the scenes re-
sembled a sham battle. There the
workmcn facing the troops when the
order was given to fire threw them
selves upon their faces on the ground.
The troops fired on them as they lay
PROSTATE.
Men and women, infuriated to frenzy
by the loss Of loved ones, cursed the
soldiers while they retreated. Men
harangued the crowds, telling them
that the emperor had failed them and
that the time had come to act. Men
began to build barricades in the New
sky Prospect and at other points, u.s.
ing any material that came to hand
and even chopping down telegraph
poles.
Fighting meantime continued at va
llOuS pltCcSy oOluASlS AuS 0uu
charging the mob. The whole city
was in state of panic. Women were
running through the streets seeking
lost members of their families. Sev-
eral barricades were carried by the
troops.
Towards 8 o'clock in the evening
the crowds, exhausted, began to dis
perse, leaving the military in posses
sion. AS they retreated up the Nevsky
Prospect the workmen put out all the
lights.
With darkness it was feared the mob
might begin to loot and pillage and
even burn, but beyond the breaking Of
q few windows in the Nevsky Prospect
and the pillaging of fruit shops little
disorder was reported. Most of the
theaters were closed.
eoLDIERs SPARE LIFE
OF FATHER GoPoN.
There was a very dramatic scene at
the Narva gate when Father Gopon,
in golden vestments, bearing aloft an
ikon and fianking two clergymen
carrying religious banners, approached
at the head of a procession of 5000
workmen.
Troops were drawn up across the
entrance. Several times an officer
called upon the procession to stop, but
Father Gopon did not falter. Then an
order was given to fire, first with
blank cartridges. Two volleys rang
out, but the line still did not waver.
Then, with seeming reluctance, an
officer gave the command to load with
was followed by shrieks and cries of
the wounded. AS the Cossacks fol-
lowed up the volley with a charge the
workmen fed before them, leaving
about 100 dead or wounded.
IT was evident that the soldiers de-
hberately spared Father Gopon. One
of the clergymen by his side was
wounded, but he escaped untouched
and hid behind wall until the Cos
sacks passed and he was then spirited
| away by workmen.
| The estimates of the number of dead
and wounded continue to vary greatly,
as at least majority of the killed and
wounded were carried off by their
comrades. Few of these taken to the
hospitals have been reported. The
official account of the rloting by no
means indicates the total of killed and
wounded From careful investigation