The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-19
SHOT 1T Gar.
Unknown Persons Fire In tOthe
Winter Palace
While Ceremony of Blessing the
Water Is In Progress.
'FROMACROSS THE NEVA
Bullets Struck Chapel Where
Emperor Was Standing.
One Policeman Killed and Four
Persons Wounded.
Whole Royal Family Had a Mar
row Escape.
n hole Royal Family Had a Mar
row Escape.
PCORMICK IN DANGER.
Ambassador Nearly
in Line Of Fire.
Surface Indications Point TO q
DeepeLafd Plot.

st. Petersburg, Jan. 19.-The festi-
val of the Epiphany, the blessing OF
the waters, had just concluded at 1
o'clock this afternoon when simultan-
eously with salute fred from the ST.
Peter and St. Paul fortress. either a
rain of bullets or shraDnel shell swept
across 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 en-
press, the ladies' of the court and the
members of the diplomatic corps, in
Guiding Ambassador Mccormick, Sec
retary Eddy and Second Secretary
Bliss and all the high dignitaries of
the state, army and navy were wit
Messing the glittering spectacle below.
Fortunately the bullets passed over
the heads of all present, striking the
opposite wall and cIattering down on
the parquetted floor Of the white
salon.
The first impression of those who
heard the crash was that it was due
to falling crystals from the glass
chandeliers and caused by conclusion
from the booming of the guns. Every
body had been laboPing under a more
or less nervous strain because of the
strike situation and when the truth
was realized the windows were hastily
vacated and the greatest excitement
followed within the palace.
Lieutenant General Fulton, chief of
police of st. Petersburg. himself,
picked I'D a, missile in the white salon.
1t was the size of a birds egg. The
police chief was Immediately sur
rounded by officers of the guards who
examined the bullet and expressed the
opinion that it had come from
shrapnel shell which might have been
fired from the battery located on the
bOurSe eSplanade and which replied to
the salute of the st. Peter and ST. Paul
fortress, explaining that a gun Nigh It
have been charged with a loaded cart
ridge by mistake. Such a thing, how
ever, it was admitted was hard to
conceive without q deliberate plot.
From the holes passing through the
double windows it is certain that the
bullets came from the direction of the
bourse In the meantime there was
no evidence outside of what occurred. /
The crowds of people who formed |
black lines along the quays, the pal |
ace bridge, the steps of the bourse |
and every other point of vantage in |
the white Arctic landscape did not
betray the slightest excitement. Neith- |
below. Although the actual ceremony
was ended. the emperor remained and
accompanied the metropolitan and
clergy as they circled the pavilion |
around the chapel to bless the gor-
geous standards of the famous Guard |
regiments assembled there. Then the /
procession moved back to the palace
and the original programme was car
ried out. The emperor displayed I
splendid nerve. He did not show a
trace of excitement. He received the |
diplomats in his usual cordial. gentle |
manner, reviewed the guard regi-I
mentS on the square behind the pal |
ace and subsequently had luncheon
served in the state dining room.
When the correspondent of the As |
sociated Press. who was about to go
down to the white salon. when one
of the missiles flew right over his
head, left the palace he saw a hole in
the window of another salon and
holes outside in the stucco of the |
massive red building.
The police are actively at work try
ing to clear up the mystery as to
where the shots came from.
The strike situation has not been
changed by this holiday. The men
are holding meetings in various parts !
of the city and a test is expected to-
morrow when the employers will |
make a final answer to their demands. |
While no collisions have yet been re-
ported there is a feeling among all I
classes of high tension
The news that an attempt had been
made on the emperor's life spread like I
wildfire during afternoon, leading to /
all sorts of versions and generally in
creased the tension.
Additional particulars show that the |
emperor had a miraculous escape. |
There is no longer any doubt that the /
missiles came from a gun on the bourse |
battery, which was loaded with grape. |
not with shrapnel. Some of the bullets /
struck the little open chapel |
in which the emperor was standing cut /
the staff Of one of the standards and |
fairly .riddled the basement windows of |
the palace. killing a policeman outright |
and wounding an officer and three |
Had the gun been aimed a
little lower the charge of grape might
have wiped out the whole Romanoff
dynasty
No OFFICIAL statement has as yet been
issued but the suggestion offered that
the gun was loaded with grape as a /
precaution in view of possible strike
rioting hardly meets the fact that 1t
was aimed with such accuracy at the
chapel. Everything on the surface
seems to indicate the existence of
deadly and deep laid plot against the /
emueror in which arfillerymen were en-