Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1906 — SUMS UP THE MATTER [ARTICLE]

SUMS UP THE MATTER

Correspondent Tells All He Has Found Out About the Bialystok Deviltry. PAINTB A SLAUGHTER PICTURE Figures That 120 Were Killed and 157 Wounded Daring the Biot Result of Three Days of Unrestrained Butchery—Government and Authorities Acquitted of Being Partioepe Criminia. Grodno, Russia, June 21.—Owing to the refusal of the censor at Blalystok to permit the free telegraphing of the result of the Investigation by the Associated Press of the massacre of Jews there Its correspondent came here. The anti-Jo wish rioting at Bialystok is now ended. The troops ace in full control. When the correspondent arrived at Bialystok Sunday morning the worst was already over, but on all sides there was revolting evidence of savage bestiality on the part of the blooddruukeu mobs, which sacked and burned the Jewish houses, shops and stores. Three Days of Unbridled Bloodshed. For seventy-two hours, witli a slight abatement during the daytime, the mad orgie of blood and pillage went on unchecked. The inhumanity displayed would have done credit to the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan in his conquests of China and Central Asia early in the thirteenth century. At first police and troops urged on the mob, but finally, when dismayed by the bloody deeds accomplished, they reluctantly sought to obey the orders of their superiors to put an end to the work of the rapacious bands of roughs, they were far beyond control of the local forces. Mob Was Not Restrained. During the rioting the Jews were hunted down by ferocious pursuers, who in the majority of eases were not content with killing more victims, but tore them to pieces like wild animals. And while this was in progress the troops either stood idly by, or, as was more frequently the case, fired into the houses and shops where Jews were concealed under the pretext that they believed them to be revolutionists, hut really to make way for the murderers and plunderers who followed in the soldiers' wake. APPROXIMATE DEATH ROLL Total Is 100 Jews, 20 Christians. While 157 Are Wounded. While It is -impossible to give the exact figures the visits of the correspondent to the hospitals and cemeteries enables him to approximate the killed at 100 Jews and twenty Christians and the wounded at 150 Jews and seven Christians. The question of tiie origin of the massacre was carefully investigated. Although many of the Jews denied that a bomb was thrown at the Corpus Christi procession last Thursday the fact that a bomb was thrown is established beyond a doubt, but the question of who threw the bomb remains unsettled. The accounts of impartial witnesses, however, demonstrate that an insulting cry enraged the Jews, who attacked the religions procession. Then from one end of the city to the other the police spread the report of the attack, thus fanning the religious fanaticism of the Christians and setting loose the worst elements upon the Jews, on whom the crowds watching the procession had‘already turned. The Jews at first fought witli revolvers ami 1 tombs, and with these weapons the majority of the Christian victims was killed. But the Jews were soon overwhelmed and tied for shelter, like rabbits to warrens, into cellars or attics. The soldiers watched this chase and butchery, never failing to fire into houses where Jews, sometimes to the number of 100. were making a stand against their assailants. The authorities who wanted to do something to stop the massacre were, with the j>olice and troops in open sympathy with the mob, utterly powerless. Although it is freely charged that the higher authorities of Bialystok deliberately organized the massacre, or. if this was not the case, that it was carried out under orders from St. Petersburg. there is no evidence to support either charge. The |*nr!iamentary commission, which was sent here, composed entirely of enemies of the government, wished especially, so one of them, Schepkin. said, “to bring home the responsibility to the government." but had to conclude that it eould not be done, nor can the chief of police be accused. The mob and its diabolism wa* due to the position of the Jews in the country, which makes them In the view of the ignorant Russians pariahs, with no rights, and outside the law's protection. Three official investigations to determine the responsibility for the excesses will be prosecuted. These are to be conducted by the commission of the lower house of parliament, the minister of the interior, and the ministry of Justice. All witnesses of violence and sufferers by excesses are invited by the ministry of Justice to submit depositions to the judge of the local court The polled are enforcing the reetoratlon of pillaged property.