The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-03-28
Bid
for a Throne

An Audacious Hazard Of Nikolai, Independent Agent, as
Related by His Lieutenant, Summers
BY H. m. EGBERT

"O MClO III oOdNh ANaDbAo NhaN
Bouthernmost portion Of the vast en-
pire where the black earth yields two
harvests a year and the grape ripens,
the pleasant land which the Romans
colonized and which their descend
ants, the Roumanians of today, in
habit, though under Russian rule. We
we're at Kishineff.
l knew that beneath his cynicism
and contempt, Nikolai cherished an
indispensable love for the land of his
birth. That was the magnet that had
drawn him back. Exiled in childhood,
his fathers vast lands confiscated on
account of his adhesion to the abor-
tive instruction of 1863, he had re-
turned a dozen times to aid the people
of his unhappy country, risking i'm
prisonment and death.
This was during the blacklist year
of the reign of Nicholas, when the
land groaned beneath his oppression
and his troops, desperately resolved
to crush out the revolt, diverted the
hatred and %preiudices of the mobs by
organizing massacres of the Jews at
their rulers command.
All through the district the mas
sacres had spread, from the borders of
Germany to the south. Everywhere
fire and the sword had made women
widows and children fatherless; age
nor sex was sacred to the fanatics.
1t was because they we're heart and
soul with the movement for freedom
that the czar let loose his hordes upon
these people. And every time a new
report of a revolted city reached the
despot, covering in his palace upon
the Baltic's shores, the order went
forth for another riot of blood.
We had reached K%ishineff, the scene
of the first slaughter, in the guise of
American commercial agents. Even
yet the streets bore witness to the
scenes of violence hat had occurred.
Windows we're still broken, doors
burst in, ominous splashes of blood
showed darkly upon lodges and stairs.
And the cars yoke vas still heavy
upon the victims of his fury.
And yet again he planned to let
loose his soldiery and his Black Hun
dreds. Whispers of a coming massacre
were everywhere. We heard them in
our hotel; they foated up to our win
dows through the still, summer air;
strangers ceased speaking and looked
at us with startled eyes as we passed
them. Most ominous of all, bars OF
thick steel fastened the shattered
doors of houses and churches.
Krushevan, the organizer of the last
massacre, wrote in his newspaper:
The time has come to make an END
of these traitors to church and czar
We wait only the word of our illus
trious ruler. Humbly, with barred
heads and %throbbing hearts, we await
1t. May it come soon!'
Nikolai flung the sheet way as
though 81 were something vepomous
and uhclean, rested his chin upon his
hands and remained silent, motionless
as a statue for a long time. At las
he reused himself and burst into such
a torrent of execration that l trembleG
for fear his words would reach the
ears of some spy lurking behind the
thin partitions Of our bedroom walls
1T is the desperation of impotence
Summers" he said to me when he
grew calmer. "The monsters throne
is lettering. You know that the PEG
pie are armed, that a spirit of re
prisal has taken hold of them. thai
they are prepared to resist massacre
more desperately than their fore
fathers resisted Titus and his Romans
If this determination could be turned
into the right channels, the imperia
throne would fall.
Look at the facts, Summers" HI
continued. Five millions of them ar
shut into a small square of Russian
territory. They number at least half
often ~three-fourths of all the popula
ton of the cities. They are organ
lied and their adversaries are not
Russia is splitting into fragments
Five million-an army of five hun
dred thousand men. more than thu
threw down the thrones of a dozeI
emperors-why should they not sui
flee to set Russia free and establish
themselves as a nation?"
He lit q cigar, pulled at 1t furiousl.
and strobe up and down the room
Now is the time" he cried. lie
them rise here in Kishineff and fit.
cities will follow their example. The.
need but some leader, some oppoI
tunity."
And, knowing Nikolai, I knew tina
already he dreamed of himself as botl
that leader and that opportunity. Blu
l said nothing, and presently he Out
lined to me the plan he had formed
The people Of Kishinef, he said
were organized under the Leadership
of Rabbi Jacob, a man of middle age
whose Intense piety nevertheless ha'
not prevented him from identifying
himself secretly with the revolution
airy cause. While they dwelt o.
friendly terms with their Russian an
Roumanian neighbors, 1t needed blu
a few drinks OF vodka and a few word
from the priests of the Greek churche
to rouse the latter's murderous II
stincts. Suppose, said Nikolai, tina
both of these parties could be incite
to attack the prosecuted quarter, VI
der the belief that its denizens wer
arming against them Suppose the a
tack was timed 80 that they woul
SHINING MARK IN C0MMUNIT'