Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1896 — DEATH AT THE FEAST. [ARTICLE]

DEATH AT THE FEAST.

MORROW ATTEND* THE CZAR’S CORONATION. Nearly 3.OQQ People. Killed. and Injured at a Banquet—Mad Ruah for Free Drinks—" Crowd Overpower* the Attendant* and a Panic Ensue*. Fatal Crush in Moscow. Over 2,000 people, including tnaay personages of high rank, were trampled to death in Moscow. The catastrophe occurred at a public feast, which had been suread in the Hodynsky Plain, in front of the Petrovsky Palace,, ip honor of the coronation of the Cxar. The disaster occurred between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning. It was intended that the banquet should commence before noon, but the immense throng which hud' gathered around the sheds where the liquor mugs were to be presented and the food distributed became so dense that the attendants were overpowered and thrbwn to the ground in the mad struggles which commenced for food and the gifts, and many of these attendants being numbered among the dead. The police made desperate attempts to control the people, but all their efforts were futile, and men, women and children were trampled upon by hundreds. Some terrible, heartrending scenes were witnessed among the survivors who were seeking relatives among the victims. The latter were mostly peasants, and few of them have as yet been identified. They were lying in heaps, as they had been extricated during the afternoon, their chushed, blood-stained and horribly distorted faces upturned in the scorching sun. Grayhaired' men and women lay alongside children and sturdy mpn, all crushed as if beneath heavy rollers. Among the dead were ladies evidently of high rank dressed in fine silk and adorned with rich jewels. Cause of the Dianater. The disaster, it is now explained, was due mainly to the absence of the police, who had not arrived at so early an hour In the morning at the scene where the festivities were scheduled to take place. Fully 200,000 persons of all grades of society had gathered on the Hodynsky plain at the time the disaster occurred. Only 1,000 attendants were In charge, and they seemed to be unable to control the mob. Hoping to lessen the pressure of the assembled hundreds of thousands, all moving toward a common center, they tossed the packages and presents into the midst of the crowd. This seemingly precipitated the pnqjc, since a scramble to obtain possession of the gifts ensued, and the hollow piece of ground near the center formed a death trap for thousands. No Halt in Festivities, The following evening the Osar and Csarina attended and danced nt the brilliant ball nt the French embassy. Preparations had been made on a most elaborate scale for this ball, and it is asserted tlini $70,000 was expended on the supper alone, rare viands and delicious fruits and vegetables being brought from the most distant climes to udd to the delights of the feast, while France furnished the costliest and most elegant fabrics and furniture to set off the beauties of the palace where the embassy Is lodged.