Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1875 — A Tragedy in a Russian Circus. [ARTICLE]

A Tragedy in a Russian Circus.

Startling scenes have heretofore occurred in circuses, notably the murderous struggle between the two brothers Reiner during a performance of the Wollschlager troupe at Innspruck, in the Tyrol, on the 6th of August, 1843. But an event of still more interest took place on the 31st of March last at the Eisseff Circus, in Novgorod, Russia. The Eisseff Circus is one of the largest in Eastern Europe. It is known throughout the Russian Empire, and its performers rank very high. Its clowns were native Russians, and their quaint capers and jokes were among the chief attractions of the performances. The best of these clowns was Maxesoy Lidersky, a young married man of thirty. He seemed to be a bom Centaur; his body seemed to be destitute of bones, and his face, all muscle, was susceptible of the most wonderful changes. He received a higher salary than any other member of the Eisseff Circus. Among the funny acts in the performances of the latter at Novgorod was an English horse-thief’s capture, sentence to the gallows and ludicrous escape, when already dangling in the air. The horse-thief was personated by Lidersky, and his miraculous escape from, death by the halter was effected by his jerking himself from the cross-beam to which the rope had been fastened, and the spectacle of the cnlprit making his escape from the gallows after kicking the air for a few seconds, and then running away with the rope round his neck, would invariably elicit thunders of applause from the convulsed spectators. For ten nights in succession the horsethief scene had been enacted without an accident, but on the 31st of March it terminated in a terrible tragedy. Lidersky, who received a salary of one hundred silver roubles a week, was a man of extravagant habits. His princi pal pastime was playing at cards for high stakes. On the 30th he had won from another member of the Eisseff Circus nearly three hundred rubles. The loser, MazzeffTjer : ring, had asked the loan of fifty rubles from him, which Lidersky had somewhat scornfully refused. Tjerring had left the bar-room of the tavern, where they had been playing, muttering threats against Lidersky. These threats had been overheard by a waiter, Ivan Grossyk, who spoke to Lidersky about it. * “ Oh, he is nothing but a braggart,” had been Lidersky’s reply: “When he gets his next week’s I will give him satisfaction, but not with my own money.” The two circus men met at the evening performance, and Lidersky addressed a playful remark to'Tjerring.

“ Don’t speak to me, flog," had been the surly reply of the latter. The horse-thief scene was enacted that evening, and it passed off as usual. Lidersky slipped from the cross-beam, which, to facilitate the escape, had been planed and greased, and bowed to the applauding spectators. “ It is strange,’’ whispered to another member of the troupe, “that Lidersky is not afraid of meeting with some accident while enacting this scene.” This remark attracted no notice at the time; but it served to fasten, in connection with the facts which we have related, the guilt of what followed where it belonged. Next evening the circus was again densely crowded. When the manager announced the horse-thief scene there was an ah! of suspense among the spectators. Lidersky, in the oddly exaggerated costume of au English jockey, pushed a fellow from his horse, was caught, sentenced to be hung by a Judge dressed up as King Louis the Fourteenth of France; a horribly grotesquely costumed hangman appeared, put the cross-beam into the hole in one of the wooden pillars, and then marched the culprit clown up the ladder with the rope round his neck. The rope was fastened round the crossbeam, and then Lidersky was launched into eternity! Yes, into eternity; for the rope did not slip off as usual; but it remained fixed to the cross-beam, anti the poor clown kicked and struggled in reality for his life. Horrible to say, the spectators believing all this to be in the play, applauded the desperate struggles of the poor devil in the most enthusiastic manner. For full two minutes had he been suspended in the air when the truth flashed at last upon the manager that there was something wrong. The ladder had to be brougnt back to the cross-beam; the rope was untied; Lidersky was lowered to the ground—he was dead. The scene that ensued in the circus beggared description. The arena was at once filled with a surging, violent mass of indignant men, who wanted to know how their favorite clown had been brought to so untimely an end. Surgeons endeavored to bleed him, but without effect. He was stoaMlead. Then the important question arose: What had prevented the rope from slipping as usual from the very smooth cross-beam? The latter was examined, and then the cause of the lamentable accident was discovered. A notch had been cut into the crossbeam about six inches from its and, and, to still further prevent the rope from slipping off, a couple of nails had been put into the cross-beam, exactly under the notch, the nails being left to protrude about one-third of an inch from the wood. It was plain from this that the poor clown had been murdered! The indignation of the crowd increased to the highest pitch when this startling fact became patent. The corpse of the clown was removed to his house, where his young wife received it with heart-rending manifestations of grief. The crowd meanwhile refused to leave the circus, notwithstanding the efforts of the police to clear it. Outside aD other immense multitude gathered. Threats against the manager, to whom the event was attributed, were uttered by thousands of voices. Finally the authorities resorted to the peculiarly Russian fashion of dispersing a crowd. The fire-engines were ordered up and six streams of ice-cold water were turned upon the multitude. The bath had au instantaneous effect. Drenched to the skin, the mujiks ran away howling and cursing. The facts inculpating Tj erring as Lij dersky’s murderer were evolved during the night. Tjerriqg had made preparations to leave Novgorod when he was arrested. He has confessed his crime, and, as he is the son of a Russian serf, and, therefore, belongs to the lowest class of Russian society, the barbarous punishment of being branded with the letters K. A. T. (meaning penal servitude) with a redhot iron on the forehead, one hundred lashes and transportation for life awaits him. Not long since a graduate from one of our Eastern theological schools was called to the pastoral charge of a church in the extreme Southwest. When about to start for his new parish he was unexpectedly detained by the incapability of his presbytery to ordain him. In order to explain his non-arrival t* the appointed time, he sent the following telegram to the deacons of the church: “ Presbytery lacked a quorum to ordain.” In tbe course of its journey the message got strangely metamorphosed and reached the astonished deacons In this shape: “ Presbytery tacked a worm on to Adam!” The sober church officers were greatly discomposed and mystified, but after grave consultation concluded it was the minister’s facetious way of announcing that he had got married and accordingly proceeded to provide lodgings for two in stead of one. The schooner Alfaretta, .eighty-six tons, Capt. George Warner, arrived at Boston a few days ago, from Port Gilbert, Nova Scotia, with a cargo of wood and piling and four passengers. Capt. Warner is a lad of only eighteen years of age, and this was his fifth trip as master. He has a crew of five, all told, and is in business for himself, buying his wood in Nora Scotia and selling it ip Boston.