The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-12
ATTEMPT MADE ON
GRAND DUKES LIFE
While Firing Supposedly Blank
Cartridges, Troops Send
Bullets by Him.
RIGID INVESTIGATION TO
FIX RESPONSIBILITY
Belief Is That Conspirators
We're Too Hasty to Accom-
plish Their Object.

ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 11.-Grand
Duke Nicholas Nicholaieyitch, Presi
dent of the Council Of National De-
fense, narrowly escaped assassination
yesterday afternoon at the hands of
the Imperial Guards in the guard camp
at Krasnoye-Selo.
The Grand Duke was personally re-
viewing the maneuvers and putting the
troops through blank firing practice,
when he suddenly was startled by the
wasp-like hiss of bullets about his
head. Fortunately neither himself nor
his horse was touched. The command
to cease frinp was Immediately given
and the soldiers Of the regiment from
which the bullets came were marched
back to their quarters and an investiga-
tion was begun in the hope of ascer-
tanning from the barrels of the rifles
which of the soldiers fred ball car
tridees. Several arrests are understood
to have been made.
One Of the Grand Dukes aides-de-
camp, who, however, was not personally
present, advanced the theory that pos
sibly the bullets were fred by acci-
dent, but he considered that, beyond
doubt, there was plot on the part OF
n number of disloyal guardsmen, who
deliberately planned TO take the Grand
Dukes life under cover of the general
blank cartridge firing.
Calls It No Accident.
"It was no more an accident" the
aide-de camp said, ethan was the firing
of the charge of grape from the salut-
ing battery at the Winter Palace on
the occasion of the ceremony Of bless
ing the waters Of the Neva by the EN-
peror year and a half ago. The bold
attempt on the Grand Dukes life
caused an immediate change in the
plans of the Emperor, who had ar
ranged to go TO KrasnoyeSelo today
and spend week with the soldiers OF
his Imperial Guards.
! 1t was learned that the troops were
in extended order and engaged in vol
! ley firing when The accident oc-
| Cured, rendering IL difficult to deter
mine the regiment from, which the bul-
lets came. The Grand Duke, surrounded
| by his officers and aides-de-camp, was
| Off on ono side of the line Of fire.
| The affair has created deep impress
| sion In military circles and Is the one
! topic Of conversation in the clubs, but
the attempt on the Grand Duke g life
is not generally known here, no word
on the subject having been published
in the newspapers.
Afterwards it was definitely estab-
lished that the shots were fred by the
first battalion Of the sharpshooters of
| the guard, who advanced in rushes
| while making a sham attack on an in
trenched position Fully a hundred
shots were fred, but the impatience Of
the conspirators led them TO open fire
at such distance as TO frustrate their
object.
Cartridges Were Secreted.
Before the maneuvers began all the
ball cartridges were taken from the
troops and the officers had taken the
precaution to make complete exami-
nation of the cartridge pouches Of the
soldiers Immediately before inaugura-
tion of the movement of the troops.
a representative of the Associated
Press visited the guard camp at Kras-
noye-Selo today and ascertained that,
though several arrests had been made,
responsibility for the shots fred at
Grand Duke Nicholas had not definitely
been brought home to any particular
culprits.
It was only after a long investiga-
ton that it was determined that the
| ball cartridges were fred by the first
battalion of sharpshooters, one of the
elite corps of the Russian army. Sus-
picion was directed toward the Gone
year volunteer recruits, who in con
sideration of their educational quali6,
cations and social position escaped with
only one year instead of four years
service. Many of these men are ex-
students at the universities aud are the
principal spreaders of the revolutionary
propaganda among the troops.