Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1897 — RIOT IN PRAGUE. [ARTICLE]

RIOT IN PRAGUE.

Howling Masses Take Possession of the City. There were fresh disturbances In Prague, Bohemia, Wednesday. The houses of Germans were bombarded with stones and a howling mob which gathered on Wensel-Platz had to be dispersed by infantry and cavalry. The university buildings were threatened by the rioters, and had to be protected by large bodies of police. During the afternoon the riots increased. The synagogue windows were smashed and the windows of the houses of Jews displaying German trade signs in several streets of the Jewish quarter. In spite of the military a large Czech mob made a descent during the evening l upon the German quarter and plundered houses and shops in several streets. The furniture of a well-known German case was piled up in the street and set on fire. When a detachment of troops approached to disperse the rioters the soldiers were greeted with showers of stones, broken glass and other missiles. The officer in command ordered his troops to prepare to fire, but at the urgent request of a police official the order was not carried into effect. Shortly after 9 o’clock a mob attempted to storm a cartridge factory at Zischow, a suburb of Prague, on the other side of the Moldau. Troops stationed at the factory poured a volley into the crowd. Sev-. eral persons were killed outright and others were wounded. The same body of rioters set fire to a house at Zischow, but the flames were soon quenched. In various other parts of the city and the suburbs windows were smashed and German sign boards demolished. It is said that the mob was incited by articles in the Czech newspapers and by false reports that the German students had organized an attack upon the Czech national theater.