The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-09-20
RUSSIAN MURDER
CITY IS FILLED
WITH MUCH LORE
Place Where Thousands Were
Executed by Bolsheviki Has
Interesting History

Washington, D. c., Sept. 20.-Ekat-
erinoslav, where the Bolsheviki evac-
uation was accompanied by wholesale
executions of more than a thousand
citizens, according to reports which
have just reached the United States,
is the subject of the following bulle-
tin from the Washington headquarters
of the National Geographic society:
"Once there stood on the banks of
the Dnieper, some $50 miles southwest
of Moscow, and just above the deep
assures and whirling rapids of the
region where that river struggles
through granite barriers, Polish cas-
tie. The Cossacks destroyed it.
"A hundred years later, toward the
end of the eighteenth century, another
castle stood there, which had much to
do with the history Of Ekaterinoslav
and with Russia itself. Until the be-
ginning of the World war that castle
still was standing and was used as
a palatial club for the nobility.
"Originally that club was the pal
ace of Potemkin, a Russian Walter
Raleigh who won the favor Of Cath
crime II by handing her a plume on
the day she dethroned her husband,
kept in Her graces by maintaining a
social lobby for lavish and bizarre
entertainments, died Of eating whole
fowl when he had high fever, and
was buried in pretentious tomb only
to have his bones thrown on scrap
heap when Paul succeeded Catherine.
ITO tickle the vanity of his royal
mistress, Potemkin arranged that she
should found the city adjoining his
estate, and that it should bear her
name. So happily chosen was the
location that, though the city is less
than $50 years old, it ranks among
the first ten cities Of Russia in pOpu-
lation.
"Ekaterinoslav stands in the midst
of the government or district, of the
same name, which not only lies in the
fertile black soil grain producing re-
gion which the Germans coveted so
strongly during the war; but there
also are rich deposits of iron and coal.
The Dnieper drains wooded area
down which timber is floated until it
reaches Ekaterinoslav, which became
a timber center because it is the last
station before the rapids and twisting
of the river farther south. Beside
grain and timber, horses, cattle and
wool also were marketed there.
BUSY as it was, and large as it
was, for Russia, with it's 100000 in
l. {o e;,
gularly devoid of distinctive or pic
turesque features. It has grown like
an American boom city, for fifty years
ago it had less than 10000 people.
One may imagine that provincial Rus
sian cities had their inconveniences
for the traveller when it is recalled
that, since the days of our Civil war,
certain city fathers of Moscow op-
posed street lights because, they said,
it was the duty of citizens to carry
their lanterns with them by night.
Ekaterinoslav law, within the Jewish
Pale of the Tsar's regime and a
fourth of the inha bitants were Jews.
"The broad Catherine Prospekt, a
bronze statue, and other reminders
are to be found in the name city of
that strange German woman who was
elevated by the intrigues of Freder-
ick the Great, espoused her adopted
Russia so devoutly that she begged
the court doctor to bleed the German
blood from her veins, formed her cab
met of her lovers and yet ruled Rus
sia so acceptably that her public acts
won the praise of many historians
while her private life furnished con-
slant scandal for the courts of Europe
to gloat over. There is suggestion
of the 'Nicky-Willy' correspondence
of recent fame in her letter to Fred,
erick William II, whom she addressed
as Brother" and of the mysterious
influence of the latter day Rasputin
in the methods by which Potemkin
remained political master of Gather
inc long after she had ceased to be
his royal mistress"
LARGE TOURIST LIST
Ottawa-The Canadian Pacific has
1,-o if;pu 1ictc of twe1ve Thousand