South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-12-14

bedrooms and a dining room. There
were no beds. no locks on any Of
the doors. IN fact. none of the es-
sentials Of an ordinary house They
were obliged TO eat their meals to-
gether with the servants, and they
only had tive forks for IL people.
The food itself was OF the common
est sort, and their meals were
punctuated BY visits OF the Commits
saire Yurovski. This man would
come into the room. stretch over the
car. seize his fork, anu take the
best piece OF meat ne could find in
the soup. and then having showed
his elbow in the cars face, he
would slowly enjoy his mouthful.
From a photograph which was
taken Of the emperor after his i'm
prisonment at Ekaterinburg. he is
seen 10 be wearing the shoulder
straps denoting his rank as a Rus
sian officer. and also his St George
cross. Not long after his arrival at
Ekaterinburg. he was advised To
take these of, or the guards would
given by a doctor who visited the
family. but who was not allowed TO
speak a word on pain of death, the
emperor was so altered that he was
scarcely recognizable. The rest Of
the family looked very pale, and the
czarevitch as always was ILL., once
or twice during his sojourn at Ekat-
erinburg the car was taken out to
the headquarters Of the local soviet
in order to be cross-exenined.
Empress and Germans.
It is said that ths Germans
sought an interview With the en-
peror while he was at FEaterinburg,
but he absolutely declined 10 re-
ceive them. AT TObolsk he YVES
approached in order TO sign tn,
Brest Litovsk treaty. TO which re
quest he replied that he would
rather have his hand cut off thar
be guilty of such a crime to the al
life Of torture at Ekaterburg for
six weeks. on the night of June
15-16th the end came
At 2 D. m. on the 18th the pris-
oners were awakened and told TO
prepare for a journey. An hour
later they were called down to the
lower room: Yurovski read out the
sentence Of the soviet ending with
the words: And so your life has
come to an end" The emperor
said, II am ready" An eye-wit-
ness who has since died, stated that
the empress and her two eldest
daughters made the sign OF the
cross. The two younger grand
duchesses tainted. The house guard
and the man Medvyedev carried out
the massacre with revolvers. In this
room were murdered in addition to
the seven members OF ne imperial
family the Or Bodkin. the cook,
the valet, and the maid The cooks
nephew, a boy OF IA, was spared.
The bodies were carrie d in a mo-
tor car 10 versts out Cf the town,
and thrown into the shaft Of coal
mine.
Evidence of Murder.
The evidence regarding the muir
der of the imperial family at Ekat-
erinburg shows that there were two
parties in the local soviet. one wish
ing to save the family. and the 9TH
er headed by five Jews. of whom
two. Safarov and Vainen, had ac-
companied Lenin in his Journey
across Germany, determined on the
murder. The central soviet at
Moscow wished TO send the family
TO Nesvig, in White Russia. Be
tween the Sth and 18th the Russian
guard on the house was removed,
the pretext being that they had
stolen 10000 roubles. They were
replaced by a house guard of Is
men. viz, three Jews. Yurovski
Zait, and one other. and 10 Let's.
The guard outside the house was
commanded by a criminal called
Medvyedev, who had been convict
ed in 1906 Of murder and arson,
and in 1911 OF Outraging a girl OF
five.
The evidence concerning their
deaths is too full 70 admit Of any
possibility of any Of them being still
alive. In addition to the above
evidence certain bits Of clothes.
Jewels. etc, conclusively prove that
they all met their end on the night
of June 10. Although there are
some who still hold out hope that
one OF the children escaped there
is no evidence whatever 10 support
this view except one OF sentiment