inquire into the causes of
the disorders. This committee was presented by the local Christian
burghers with a set of demands, some of which were in substance as
follows:

[Footnote 1: Comp. Vol. I, p. 145.]

That the Jewish aldermen of the Town Council, as well as the Jewish
members of the other municipal bodies, shall voluntarily resign from
these honorary posts, "as men deprived of civic honesty" [1]; that
the Jewish women shall not dress themselves in silk, velvet, and
gold; that the Jews shall refrain from keeping Christian domestics,
who are "corrupted" in the Jewish homes religiously and morally;
that all Jewish strangers, who have sought refuge in Pereyaslav,
shall be immediately banished; that the Jews shall be forbidden to
buy provisions in the surrounding villages for reselling them; also,
to carry on business on Sundays and Russian festivals, to keep
saloons, and so on.

[Footnote 1: This insolent demand of the unenlightened Russian burghers
met with the following dignified rebuttal from the Jewish
office-holders: "What bitter mockery! The Jews are accused of a lack of
honesty by the representatives of those very people who, with clubs and
hatchets in their hands, fell in murderous hordes upon their peaceful
neighbors and plundered their property." The replies to the other
demands of the burghers were coached in similar terms.]

Thus, in addition to being ruined, the Jews were presented with an
ultimatum, implying the threat of further "military operations."

As in previous cases, the example of the city of Pereysslav was followed
by the townlets and villages in the surrounding region. The unruliness
of the crowd, which had been trained to destroy and plunder with
impunity, knew no bounds. In the neighboring town of Borispol a crowd of
rioters, stimulated by alcohol, threatened to pass from pillage to
murder. When checked by the police and Cossacks, they threw themselves
with fury upon these untoward defenders of the Jewish population, and
began to maltreat them, until a few rifle shots put them to flight.

The same was the case in Nyezhin, [1] where a pogrom was enacted on July
20 and 22. After several vain attempts to stop the riots, the military
was forced to shoot at the infuriated crowd, killing and wounding some
of them. This was followed by the cry: "Christian blood is flowing--beat
the Jews!"--and the pogrom was renewed with redoubled vigor. It was
stopped only on the thir