was reason to fear that the pogrom at Rostov was only a prelude to
a new series of riots in the South. But more than two months had passed,
and all seemed to be quiet. Suddenly, however, on July 20, on the
Greek-Orthodox festival dedicated to the memory of the prophet Elijah,
the Russian mob made an attack upon the descendants of the ancient
prophet at Yekaterinoslav. The memory of the great biblical Nazirite who
abhorred strong drink was appropriately celebrated by his Russian
votaries in Yekaterinoslav who filled themselves with an immense
quantity of alcohol and became sufficiently intoxicated to embark upon
their daring exploits as robbers.

The ringleaders of the pogrom movement were not local residents but
itinerant laborers from the Great-Russian governments, who were employed
in building a railroad in the neighborhood of the South-Russian city.
These laborers, to quote the expression of a contemporary, attended to
the "military part of the undertaking," whereas the "civil functions"
were discharged by the local Russian inhabitants:

While the laborers and the stronger half of the residents were
demolishing the houses and stores and throwing all articles and
merchandise upon the street, the women and children grabbed
everything that came into their hands and carried them off, by hand
or in wagons, to their homes.

The looting and plundering continued on the second day, July 21, until a
detachment of soldiers arrived. The mob, intoxicated with their success,
attempted to beat off the soldiers, but naturally suffered defeat. The
sight of a score of killed and wounded had a sobering effect upon the
crowd. The pogrom was stopped, after five hundred Jewish families had
been ruined and a Jewish sanctuary had been defiled. In one devastated
synagogue the human fiends got hold of eleven Torah scrolls, tearing to
pieces some of them and hideously desecrating other copies of the Holy
Writ, inscribed with the commandments, "Thou shalt not murder," "Thou
shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not commit adultery"--which evidently ran
counter to the beliefs of the rioters.

The example set by Yekaterinoslav, the capital of the government of the
same name, proved to be contagious, for during August and September
pogroms took place in several neighboring towns and townlets. Among
these the pogrom at Novo-Moskovsk on September 4 was particularly
violent, nearly all Jewish houses in that town having been destroyed by
the mo