The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-10
POWERS OF DUMA
TO Be INCREASED
Russia May Yet Have Consti-
tutional Government
EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL
Farmers Are Convicted for Breaking
Open Old Church and Killing
Foxes in the Sacred Edifice.
The Imperial Stages

The powers or the DuIiid dio ~ w 'S'--
further increased and 1t Is not improo-
able that within few years Russia
Will have advanced in the path of con-
stitut,onal government until she is
abreast of Prussia.
| This is the opinion held by many
who are high in the favor of the Car.
IT is stated that his majesty has foll@T-
ed the work Of the Duma with Keen
interest. He is convinced that the fact
that Russia Is less afflicted with ac-
tive revolutionary ideas than she has
been for many years Is due In great
part to the work of the Duma and
that a gradual extension of the parlia-
mentary idea means safety, peace and
progress Hence 1t is his intention to
extend the scope of parliamentary au-
thority as rapidly as circumstances
will permit. It is understood that he
has so expressed himself not only to
some of his leading ministers but also
| to non-official members of the Duma
| The uph olders of orthodoxy have
been awaiting with great impatience
the result of the extraordinary trial
which has just been concluded at Mosyr,
in the government of Minsk, with clos
ed doors.
| Five landowners and farmers, Polish
Roman Catholics and two Orthodox peas
ants were charged with desecrating a
Russian church, by pulling up the
flooring and shooting two foxes, which
had made their lair on the premises.
In doing this they invaded the sanct-
uary and covered with shot marks
an ikon of Christ, which was also be-
spattered with blood.
| The church of ST. Nicholas, the mira
Gle worker, where the Dissertation oc-
CURED Is situated in a wood some
three miles from the village of Rojist-
sha. 1t is old and tumbledown, the roof
| Is described as rotten, and only one
service is held there annually, 1t be-
| ing shut the rest of the year.
! The charge against the prisoners
dated from December, 1905. They
had already been, tried, and acquitted
on technical grounds. The Indictment
described how the prisoners went fox
shooting with a number of dogs. and
| forced an entrance into the church.
heir footsteps and tracks were dis
| cernible on the snow, which had fallen
| through the roof on the floor of tn e
building. There were blood stains in
many places. What had occurred was
quite evident. One of the foxes on
being driven from the hole under the
church, had dashed toward the ikon
screen, and the hunters had fired at 1t
| as It made leap onto the ikon of the
Saviour. Twenty-Five shot marks were
found on the ikon itself
The second fox unearthed in the
church was killed by the dogs.
| The court condemned the five land
owners and farmers to terms of hard
labor varying between eight and four
years. The two peasants received less
punishment.
THE Imperial stages are kept up by
the Car, and no less a sum than ST.
| 100000 Is drawn annually from the
royal treasury for their maintenance.
Some time ago a whole family was
murdered at Potchep, in the southwest
of Russia. Two men named Cluster
Shmakhin, were charged with the crime,
and although protesting their inno-
cence to the last, the former was hang
ed, and the latter sentenced to a long
term of hard labor.
1t was subsequently ascertained that
there had been miscarriage of justice.
and the real murderers were arrested
and tried by court-martial at Cherni-
goff, and condemned to death. This
occurred on May 26 and the three MUIR
derers were confined in Chernigoff jail
pending the execution of their sentence.
The other day two of them were found
dead in their CELL They had been
strangled by their companion with a
twisted piece of linen
| The three had drawn lots as to which
of them should kill the two others, and
then commit suicide. The man who lost
fulfilled the first part of the bargain.
but at the last moment shrank from
doing away with himself.