Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1905 — GUNS RULE MOSCOW. [ARTICLE]

GUNS RULE MOSCOW.

SOLDIER 3 AND POLICE SLAUGHTER STRIKERS. Deadly Result of Riots In Russia’s Ancient Capital—Cossacks Are Accused of Extreme Brutality—Bombs Are Thrown with Fatal Effect. A dispatch from St. Petersburg says martial law has been proclaimed at Moscow. Special dispatches describe a desperate state of affairs at Moscow Saturday and Sunday. Many persons were killed or wounded on the Tverskoy boulevard at the site of the monument to the poet Alexander Pushkin. The troops used sabers and rifles. A pitched battle between a crowd of strikers and Cossacks took place shortly before noon Monday. The troops fired three volleys at the strikers and the latter replied with revolvers and stones. It is Impossible to estimate the number of casualties, for as soon as the mob was dispersed the streets were- cordoned and the dead and wounded removed and the gates closed. It is known that the number of victims is large. After the fighting was over men, women and children were dragged into the prefect’s court yard, the gates to which were also closed. Thereupon began what is known as giving a lesson to “intellectuals,” Scores-were taken to a long stable. Along the sides were drawn up two lines of picked troops, mostly Cpssacks. The victims were made to run the gantlet. There were fifty men on each side, who brutally struck them with whips and the butt ends of rifles. It is stated that a bomb that was thrown at the game market killed twelve Cossack patrols. It is feared that employes to the number of 30,000 in the great factories may join the demonstration. The populace is exasperated to the last degree, less by the open street fighting than by the action of the police.

More Power than an Army. The prefect has issued a proclamation which places the police and troops In absolute possession of more rights than a civilized army would employ against an enemy in time of war. In virtue of the proclamation, the police seize any person they pleass. Any pretext is sufficient for arrest. The number of strikers in Moscow is increased by‘ the bakers joining their ranks. No newspapers are printed and even St. Petersburg papers are scarce, striking printers having waylaid the supplies and torn them to pieces at the railway station.