Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1896 — DEATH ATTHE FEAST. [ARTICLE]

DEATH ATTHE FEAST.

HORROR ATTENDS THE CZAR’S CORONATION. j• ■ u Nearly 3,000 People Killed and Injured at a Banquet—Mad Rush for Free Drinks—Crowd Overpowers the Attendants and A Panic Ensues. Fatal Crush In Moscow. Over 2,000 people, including ma>y personages of high rank, were trampled to death in Moscow. The catastrophe occurred at a public feast, which had been spread in the Hodynsky Plain, in front of the Petrovsky Palace, in honor of the coronation of- the Czar. The disaster Occurred between 5 and 6 o clock in the morning. It was iptended that the banquet should commence before noon, but the immense throng which had 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 thrown to the ground in the niad 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 air 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 geeking 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 ckushed, blood-stained and horribly distorted faces upturned in the scorching sun. Grayhaired' men and women lay alongside children and sturdy men, 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 Disaster; 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 glades 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 precipitate ed the panic, 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 Hutt in Festivities. i The following evening the - Czar and Czarina attended and danced at the brilliant bah at the French embassy. Preparations had been made on a most .elaborate scale for this ball, and it is asserted that $70,000 was expeudetl on the supper alone, rare viands and delicious fruits and vegetables being brought from the most distant cliwids to add t'o'the delights of The feast? while Frdnce-Turnished_the costliest—and most elegant fabrics and furniture to set off the beauties of the palace where the embassy is lodged.