Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-03-16
GAPON TELLS
LIFE STORY
A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF
SLAUGHTER IN FRONT OF
cZAR's WINDOW.

Chicago, March 15-Father George
Gapon. leader of the great procession
Of peaceful workingmen who were
nlassacred in cold blood year ago in
front of the cars winter palace, tells
all about that sinister event in book
called "The Story of My Life," cop
les of which were received here today.
II is a simple, sincere, convincing
story of an earnest mans efforts to
help the poorest of his fellow men.
The book is as interesting as novel
and must be classed with those of
Stepniak and Kropotkin in the light
II throws upon Russian tyranny.
This remarkable labor leader comes
OF humble peasant family in south.
ern Russia. His deeply religious
temperament led him to study for the
priesthood. and he tells briefly the OBJ.
stacles and discouragements that beset
him in his student life, first at Poltava
and later in st. Petersburg. Every.
where he saw the church honeycombed
with hypocrisy and Journalism, and
transformed into kind of bureau.
cratic department of religion under
Pobiedonostseff. He was tempted to
give up the priesthood, and the artist
Verestchagin was among those who
urged it, but he got into mission work
among the laboring classes and began
to see how he could use his priestly
powers for practical good. His SYM
pathy and sincerity soon won him q
large following among the working
men, and then for the first time he
found himself Observation-Disclosures eff
fusively-by the police and even by
Won Plehve and other high officials.
The cause quickly becomes apparent
as the story proceeds.
A Graphic Recital.
The government was itself organic
ing the workingmen for the purpose
Of keeping them in subsection and
"spotting" all who showed any tenden-
cy to liberal leadership among them.
Father Gapon was to be the tool of
This scheme. He saw the object, steer
q clear of it, and quietly organized a
great labor union of his own. which
grew with such strides that it con-
eained 10000 members at the time of
phe strike. His plan was to use this
power to help the workmen bring their
pltiable condition to the attention of
the car: hence he drew up his historic
petition and led the fatal procession
10 the Narva gate. He tells how the
soldiers shot them down in cold blood
without warning, even killing the po-
licemen who We're keeping order in the
procession. Father Gapon called upon
the whole crowd to lie down. which
they did, but the Cossacks went on
6ring into them. He continues:
AT last the firing ceased. I stood
Mp with few others, who remained
nninjured, and looked down at the
bodies that lay PROSTATE around me
cried to them: Stand up But they
lay still. l could not at first under.
stand. Why did they lie there?
looked again, and saw that their arms
were stretched out lifelessly, and
saw the scarlet stain of blood upon the
snow. Then understood. 1t was hor
rible. And my Vassilieff lay dead at
my feet"
The account of Father Gapon's es
cape from Russia is intensely interest.
ing. At first he tried to stay, in the
hope OF leading an insurrection, for the
cars bloody act had banished his
former faith in peaceful reform. But
the police We're hot upon his trail, and
he was forced to flee for his life. Ev
sn at the last moment, when he ran
under the barbed wire that marks the
boundary between Russia and Prus
sia, he escaped only because the gen
darme pursuing him happened to fall
France and England. and has publish
ed his book in London. but he says he
must go back to Russia and take W
his work again as soon as possible
He believes that revolution is close al
hand in Russia. Whence" he asks
can the salvation of my people come
if the nation will not rise, armed a.
best it may, and determined to chase
away the blasphemous car and hi!
satraps at any price Of blood it ma!
cost"
WHOLE FOREST IS NOW STONE