THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE CZAR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 936, 26 March 1880, Page 3

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE CZAR.

The Moscow papers contain some curious particulars concerning the house which was the centre point at the late attempt on the life of the Czir. Shortly after the explosion a cordon of police was stationed around the neighbouring houses. The door of the two-story house which lay nearest to the railway was shut ; light was seen in the windows, but repeated knocking failed to bring anyone to open the door The police went round to the back of the house and obtained admission through a cap in a hedge into the yard, and so into the house. The windows of the lower story were all nailed up and barricaded with boards, but light was visible above, A police officer ascended the stairs, opened a door, and found himself in the kitchen. There was a Russian stove opposite the door, upon which a white cat was sitting. In the next room there was a moveable dining table, and upon it a small lamp, a flask in which a little wine still remained, and a bottle of brandy, out of which a small quantity had been taken. There was also a heap of wire and two pairs of small tongs. In the right-hand corner of the room a lamp was burning before the image of the wonder-working Nicholas. Portraits of the Emperor, Empress, and Ozarewitch, hung on the walls to the left, and of the Metropolitan Macarius on the walls to the right. Over the table was a picture representing the Czar’s visit to the Wounded in the military hospitals. In a third room lamps were burning before the images of the Redeemer and the Virgin Mary, the images being placed in gilt frames. A small gilt candle was standing before one of these images, but it was not lighted. There was a red box beneath the images. Some chairs were in the room, and a large wooden bedstead ; a woollen shawl, such as would be worn by women, was thrown carelessly on the bed. Above, hanging against the wall, were a woman’s cloth jacket and a calico petticoat. In another room there were a sofa and chairs, and in the corner the imago of the Virgin. A species of small window had been cut in the hedge close by the stable ; two little metal plates had been fitted in this window and two wires ran out through those plates It was plain that the approach of the train was observed from this spot, and that when the locomotive was running past the stable the fatal plates were broil.ht iu-

to contract. There was another considerable hole in the side wall of the stable, which had been evidently knocked out quite recently, and through which the assassin must have escaped when he had brought the plates into contact. The mine was Cft. deep, the entrance in the corner being concealed from view by some boards. A tin tube had been brought up into the upper story, and placed in contact with the stove ; in this way two objects were gained—the mine was ventilated, and the wires which passed through the tube were preserved from rust. Boards were laid along the bottom of the gallery of the mine to facilitate the removal of the excavated earth, which was placed in tin buckets and carried away in a wheelbarrow. The gallery was zigzag, and at the end under the railway it was built up in strong stone walls for the purpose of concentrating the effect of the explosion.