The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-23
CITY IN FEAR OF MASSACRE.
TIFLIS IN THE CAUCASUS RULED
BY RUSSIAN RIFLES.
N~n,pects shot. Because shooting II
IhraDer Than Hanging - Horrors Of
me Last Twelve Months wild Orders
issued by the Russian Authorities.

IIFLlNs ~ NhVh u SIOhoCu Nuo
centre Of the Caucasus the other day every
one goreboded murder and sudden death.
The pass was blocked, the post stations
abandoned, the villages In revolt.
Yet nothing terrible happened. The
tourney took twice as long as usual: where
the bridges had been destroyed it was
sometimes difficult at night Ia discover
the ford over the torrents by striking
matches before the horses nose and II I
we're not accustomed 70 the Near East I
might nave thought it peculiar to sleep oil
an inclined plane OF boards with the family,
while the cattle looked on and sighed.
But nothing happened. The danger
vas not in the mountains. The danger
was in that strange city upon the edge OF
Asia which | was slowly approaching as I
struggled over that $50 miles through tho
SHOWS and precipices where Prometheus
was once chained up.
found Tihis in the state Of
apprehension which the British soldier
calls -jumpy'; with good reason.
| need not go back upon the horrors OF
the last twelve months-the massacre in
the school, when Russian soldiers dragged
bows Of o from under the desks and
bayonetted them in the gutter; the massacre
In the street, when beautiful ladies' were
hacked to pieces beside their husbands,
their fingers cut of for their rings, their
feet for their boots; the massacre in the
market, when the people were surrounded
and fired upon in mass and the bazaar
burned over their corpses.
Reports OF these things nave reached
England from time TO time, and I write only
- ,rhaN Ia honnaninn The ntfxy IL in
. state Of simmering terror. Any loud
crash might u a panic; and a panic
means massacre.
Since two days ago the sentries at all
corners OF the streets have been doubled.
Patrols. mounted or on foot, move con-
tinually up and down. They rush into
shops and private houses and drive the
suspects to the central guard house, where
the drumhead court-martial sits.
A private order came from Stolypin this
week ~forbidding any more executions by
hanging. The hangman wanted GO a man.
It was outrageous. No exchequer could
stand it, least OF all the Russian, with its
official deficit of els 500 900.
Some consideration is due TO foreign
creditors, and all the public officers nave
pledged themselves to reduce expenditures.
In future the suspects are TO be shot. That
is 50 cheap.
Violence is answered by violence. While
was coming over the mountains among
the harmless brigands two bombs were
thrown, n in the street, one in an Office,
and many were killed.
For ages the city has been famous for
health of body and soul-first for its hot sui
nh,,r -,-,,&, .z,o,lIx, n. Sba g,,rtba.e mi
post of ChTistendom against Islam. The
day before yesterday I came out of the
baths unframed, but the General who
followed me was shot in the neck with a
Nauser revolver and is expected 10 die.
He had been Governor Genera of Jeliss-
avetopol, the biggest place between this and
Raku. and, favoring the Arnenians, had
treated the Tatars with extreme harsh
ness. The baths are in the Tatar quarter
of Tihis, and now the Tatars are standing
silent in their ~cavernous shops and over
hanging balconies, terrified at what may
happen next.
A great gap in their quarter, marked by
fhe blaCkened ruins of former vengeance,
shows what they have to fear. Yesterday
smother officer was killed at the railway
station. but l nave not heard the details or
the motives. y
In self-protection the Russian authorities
have issued all manner of wild orders. All
balconies are to be covered with wire netting
10 prevent the hurting of bombs. But every
house has a ba~lcony-some houses are moth
ing but balconies-and all the wire netting Of
Birmingham could not cover them.
No house il TO have more than one exit,
10 prevent the escape OF fugitives. But
every house in Tifiis has "a back door. Many
houses seem to be nothing but back doors,
and there are not bolts and bars enough in
the Caucasus to block them up.
At the first appearance of a crowd on the
streets the Russian soldiers ave orders
TO fire into the brown" and il there are
any survivors after the firing these are to
be brought at once before the military
tribunal for sentence.
| was at a Georgian play last night "A
romantic drama Of the glorious days when
the Georgians held the fort for the Cross
against Persia. 1t was given in the Georgian
language, said to be the nearest surviving
relation 10 the ancient Babylonian tongue
that was written in wedges, and patriotic
enthusiasm ran high.
After midnight the excited crowd boiled
out into the frosty streets. The Russian
soldiers. in their browny gray coats, their
bayonets fixed, theiC rifles at the order,
stood around US thick as gnats. But not a
shot was fired and the survivors reached
their homes. There are some orders which
are too absurd even for Russian authorities
10 attempt to fulfil.
have mentioned the Georgians. or
Grusians, as they ought TO be called, and I
shall have mach to say about them In the
future, for they are the patriots and natural
heirs to the country which from the earliest
centuries OF our era they nave rendered
famous by their fine physical type, their
courage and their peculiar devotion to
Intellectual things.
In the Caucasus they are supposed to
number about two millions, and it is they
who will lead the country in the not very
distant time when the Russian Empire will
become a confederacy OF national states
under home rule. l will not now speak OF
their history or of the successive branches
Of faith by which the Russian autocracy
has Established its power among them.
will only notice that by the n treaty
Of a century ago Russia pledged herself