New-York tribune., 1918-03-02
Petrograd Under Bolshevikii
Given y p to Riot and Murder
Nlobs Loot Drink Shops and Stores; HodUp Bands Work
Without Interference and Rifles and Mxims
Pop Almost Continuously

about equal moral effect. Random
shooting never hits tho right people.
Imagine cvon civilized London with
out police for q twclvcmonth, without
police court magistrates, without law
courts or any of the officers Of law and
order. All things considered, We might
be much worse off than we arc, and
life is always something, whatever its
price. Return 10 sanity and safety
comes nearer every day. The news
papers to-day, totalliNg up the num-
bers of the devout who took part in
the professions of the cross on sun
that not fewer than 300,OOo were pres
ent.
Women Thrash Red Guards
highest degree BY the Red Guards vio-
laton of the sanctity of the national
church. Eyewitnesscs say that women
devotces handsomely thrashed a con
siderable number OF armed Red Guards
during one period of this abominable
outrage. 1t says much for the awak-
ened feelings of the populace that this
topic excludes to-day even interest in
the appalling events of the past thirty
six hours. Rifles and machine guns
have been going almost incessantly
during this time. and, apart from the
wounded, some hundrcdr odd lives have
been lost in a drunken orgy such as is
usual when drink stores arc looted.
Thousands Of armed men, soldiers
Red Guards, hooligans, criminals and
members Of the ordinary public were
eager to secure few bottles of drink
for nothing more costly than risk of
life, which is eXceptionallv cheap in
tho DafTonroH ca ithaca IoNc
A body of armed men, with or with
out orders, real or forged, from some
one either in authority or assuming
authority from the Smolny Institute
attacked the closed and sealed VI
vaults under the Church of the Ascen-
sion. Near by were other vaults con
tanning wines and spirits, which had
also long ago been sealed up. The
proletariat of half Pctrograd always
knows when these little events are
about to take place, and thirsty crowds
of all sorts promptly assembled.
Soldiers Join Rioters
The intending maraudcrs, whether
entitled or not, donned military caps
and coats, which are the common wear
of every scroundrel nowadays. AS the
drink cost nothing it passed round
freely, and large area in the locality
was soon filled with q pandemonium
of joyous drunken persons, while hun
dreds, having "filled up" on the spot,
carried homeward all they could lay
hands on.
The soldiers who were sent to re-
store order Joined in as usual, and
these departing drunk amused them-
selves with some fancy rifle firing all
over the city, to say nothing OF other
ont 1hncn n chorup q
Smolny Institute dispatched an
armored motor with machine guns, and
these were freely used, but not with
much deadly effect, upon or in the
direction of the massed crowds. All
night long this edifying spectacle went
on without intcrmission.
Numbers of women and children, as
we'll as men, have been killed in the
indiscriminate shooting. One section
of the crowd proceeded to loot the shops
in the Alexander Market near by, we'll
known to all visitors to Petrograd as
a favorite curiosity and bric-a- -brac
hunting ground.