Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1881-08-13 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

ATTEMPT TO BLOW OP THE LATE CZA.B. A long letter from Leo Hartmann has been published in the Item York Humid, giving a detailed account of the attempt to blow up the late Czar on the Moscow Railway in 1879. He says the plan was his own. Be formed it otter Solobleff's unsuemesful attempt, went to. St. Petersburg, and was made a member of the Executive Committee, submitting himself unconditionally to ite commands. The committee had elected three of its members, Sophie Perovsky, Rvjatkovsky (both now executed), and another person, an Administrative Council. The highest military authority of the Social Revolutionary party laid a plan before this Connell. Agents were sent to examine all the railways over whisk the Czar might pass on his way from the Crimea, and find • house which might be used as an available point for starting a mine. The agents found a house for wile in Moecow, within a hundred feet of the Southern Railway. The Council purchased this for 2500 roubles. Hartmann was instructed to select cooperators and take possession. Sophie Perovsky, Goldenberg (who later committed suicide), and two others volunteered to accompany him. Sophie and he preceded the others, criaguised as a Russian me,chant and wife, and the house was fitted up after the style of religious and loyal busineee subjects. Two workmen were employed to dig a large hole, Mend* for an ice-cellar. Help was then telegraphed for to St. Petetsburg, and three men arrived next day. It was then decided to dig a gallery from the cellar under the street four feet beneath the surface to the railway line, which was a distance of 150 feet. Considerable difficulty wits encountered during the program of the operations. The party were employed at the work from five o'clock in the morning until eleven or midnight daily. Only two, Hartmann and another, were small enough to work in the gallery. They dug daily seven feet, and the earth was carried an iron pails to a dark closet in the rear of the house. "Whoa within twenty-two feet of the line heavy rain washed& hole in the middle of the street, letting water mto the gallery and exposing its roof. We were three days advancing seven feet, but were unable to go faster on account of the commotion made by the passing trains. The last fifteen feet were pierced witli a lerge steel bore. The shaft was now barely large enoagh for a man to crawl into on his stomach, where we worked, stretched at full length, in icy water. When the work was finished, we found the supply of dynamite insufficient. Goldenberg was sent south to bring eighty pounds more and 200 roubles. Agents were sent along the line from Simpheropol to Moscow, and telegraphed that the Czar would leave the former place on the 15th. Then news came of Goldenberg'. arrest. Only four days remained. We decided to risk all with what we had. We filled • large copper cylinder, seven tent Ion?, and half a foot diameter, with dynamite. Next day we placed it in the shaft, at the farthest end. There were 120 pounds of dynamite in nine cylinder.. They were armed with capsules, and wires were fastened communicating with a spiral Ruinkorf, in a trunk full of linen, in Peroveky's bedroom. Thence the wires were communicated with a commutator placed with a galvanic battery in a barn overlooking the railway line. The morning of the explosion dawned. The two who were to accomplish It were alone in the house. They were Sophie and another. The former had to observe the approach o: the train, and give the signal. The latter was posted near the commutator, and had to close the galvanic chain on hearing the signal. The moment of the explosion had come. The train sped along the line, the signal was given, the chain was locked, a deafenening report was heard, a column of earth rose over the bed of the railroad, two carriages were lifted into the air, and thrown with terrible violence into the field below. In the meantime Sophie Pero,sky and the other crossed the yard to the farthest end, passed through an opening in the railway prepared beforehand, into a neighbouring yard, then through the doorway into the street, and sauntered off quietly into the city, where there was a safe place of conocalmeat. The mass day we left for St. Petersburg by the night express.