petency, you know that our wives and
children are hungry," and more such pleas. The Cossacks and the other
soldiers who tried to keep order were caught, they begged the crowd to
break up and go home, they pointed out that they had to do their duty
and that somebody might get hurt. It was reported that in some places
the soldiers did fire and kill several persons. During Saturday, men
were sent, it is not clear by whom, to the different factories to
persuade the workers to join in a great demonstration on Sunday. The
military commander of the city telegraphed to the Emperor for orders
and the latter sent word to shoot, if necessary, and to put down the
uprising at any cost, and that accounts for the posters that were put up
on Sunday morning warning the inhabitants not to gather in the streets
because the soldiers would shoot to kill. This had happened before and
was no joke, and many people would not leave their homes that day.
Those who did had to walk; there was no other way of getting about. Few
people, on the whole, were on the street that morning aside from the
soldiers and Cossacks who were guarding the bridges and keeping an eye
out for disturbances. After luncheon I started to make a call and as
I passed the barracks of the Volynski regiment, situated near where I
lived, I saw a company of soldiers lined up, heard the command to load,
to shoulder arms, to march, and off they went to the Nevski. I followed
them for a distance and then turned aside and went my way. In returning
I had to cross the Nevski and found that all avenues thither were
guarded and that no one was allowed to go in that direction. I managed,
however, by showing my American passport, to get through the line and
reach the street. Excited people were moving up and down and from them I
learned that about three o'clock a number of people forced their way to
the Nevski and were fired upon by the soldiers and the machine guns that
were concealed. Among the killed of the day was a captain of police who
was knocked down by a Cossack.

Sunday night was full of excitement and fear and there were not many
who slept soundly. Firing was heard at different times but what it
portended, none of us could tell. It became evident that the situation
was becoming serious, yet we all felt that the Government could handle
it. When I went out on the street Monday morning, the first thing I saw
was the placard of the military commander announcing that unless the
workm