Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1905 — ASSASSINATION OF AN EMINENT FINN [ARTICLE]

ASSASSINATION OF AN EMINENT FINN

Young Man Obtains Access to the Procurator General and Shoots Him Dead. ASBASSIN HIMSELF IS WOUNDED

Brave Son of the Assailed Man Fats Him Hors de Combat

Makes Hla Capture Sure—Prisoner’s Identity Unknown—Deed Prob* ably Political and Aimed at Russia.

Warsnw, Russian Foland, Feb. B. Several men were killed here by strikers In bakeriea and elsewhere, wuere attempts were made to resume work. According to a report from Radom twenty workmen were killed or wounded In strike disorders there, while at Skarzysko, twenty-four were killed and forty wounded.

Helsingfors, Finland, Feb. 7. —Soisalon Solninen, procurator general of Finland, who before he wag ennobled was known by the name of Johnsson. was assassinated yesterday by a young man whose identity up to the present time has not been determined. The assassin and Soininen’s son were both wounded In a revolver fight following the killing. The motive of the crime apparently was purely political, the slain official being a prominent member of the government party. • Uu.e a Fictitious Name. The murderer appeared at the procurator’s residence at 11 a. m. and sent in a card bearing in French the name of Alexandre (Tadd, who is in the Russian service. The young man, who was smartly dressed in an officer’s uniform, was promptly admitted to the official’s private study, and on his entrance fired four shots from a revolver, one of the bullets piercing the breast of the procurator, who expired almost immediately.

Brave Son Does Good Work. The procurator general’s 17-year-old son, hearing the shots, rushed in from an adjoining room and fired three or four shots at his father’s assailant, whose right leg was broken below the knee by a bullet. He was also slightly wounded in the shoulder, and a finger of bis left hand was struck. The assassin fired the one bullet remaining in his revolver at Soininen’s son. wounding him slightly in the calf of his right leg. fie then endeavored to escape, but fell unconscious to the floor in the ante-room. There he was seized.

Procurator Was Past Help.

Dr. Wasastjerna was called immediately, but found the procurator beyond need of liis services. The assassin was removed to the surgical hospital, where he lies guarded by police, answering no questions and evidently unconscious. His recovery, however, is thought to be certain. Up to the present the authorities have been unable to Identify him.

Sketch of the Auaxaln’i Victim.

Johnsson was born in 1856 and practiced at the Finnish liar. He was highly esteemed,* and had held various government appointments, including that of provincial judge. He was ap pointed procurator of the senate in 1901, and in the same year was made procurator general of theduchy of Finland. Johnsson was regarded as a wise and patriotic official. It is understood that it was at his initiative that the Finns exiled by Governor General Robrikoff were allowed to return to Finland.

PRECURSOR OF TERRORISM View of the Asftanatnatlon That la Held at St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg, Febr 7, 1:50 a. m.— The news of the assassination of Soininen, procurator general of Finland, though occurring before noon on Monday was not generally known in St. Petersburg last night, but it produced an immense sensation when it became public this morning, as it is regarded as the precursor of an era of terrorism for which the events of January In St. Petersburg and throughout Russia gave the signal. Until the Identity of the assassin is definitely known It will be impossible, of course, to establish tbe motive of the attempt. But the present circumstances in Finland render It almost certain that the crime is of a purely political character, and of the same nature as the assasslnationof Count Bobrikoff, the governor general of Finland, in June of last year. The Russification of the liTovince of Finland has been meeting with great opposition and creating much bitterness, especially since the formation of the party of active resistance, which was recruited from the bolder spirits of the original party of passive resistance, and to which the perpetrator of this latest crime probably belonged.

KPROPATKIN AND ORIFENBEKO Haulm War Office Tell* Its Version of tho Foots About Thom.

St. Petersburg, Feb. 7. The Associated Press is authorized to announce that not the slightest information has been received at the war office regarding the alleged illness or resignation of General Kuropatkin. On the contrary the war office’s information Indicates no change whatever in the head-

quarters staff In Manchuria, and that the departure of General Griperiberg for Bt. Petersburg is due to illness.

The version of the departure of General Gripenberg now given in the best informed unofficial circles Is that the general left the front because he ceeded General Kuropatgin’s orders in pushing beyond Bandepas, and needlegsly sacrificed thousands of men. This led Kuropatkin to demand Gripenbergfs recall. Saehatum, Manchuria, Feb. 7. —Chinese arrivals here report that the only Japanese force at I.lao Yang is coml»osed of 200 gendarmes and police, though 5,000 troops ar<v quartered in nearby viHqges. The higher officers live at the railroad statiofn where a large eommissarikt and gnnmunition depot lias been Vstiiitbslied. Huge quantities of rice, jhrfi. sugar, etc., are stored there. The railroad from Tort Arthur to Liao Yang is Intact. Ten trains of forty wagons each are .uning both ways dally. St. Petersburg, Feb. 7. —'Telegraphing under date of Feb. 5, General Ivuropctkin reports as follows: “A Russian detachment marched to Santaitse, twelve ( miles southwest of Siboubay. The Japanese at Santaitse and Sandameng were repulsed. The Russian losses were Insignificant. The Japanese assumed the offensive along the line to Chauanchunntse today. Several of their batteries advanced, but the Russian artillery repulsed them.”