LISBON'S REVOLUTIONARY ORGY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 317, 3 December 1910, Page 2

LISBON'S REVOLUTIONARY ORGY.

Mr Percival Phillips, the special correspondent of the "Daily Express" at Lisbon during the recent political upheaval, obtained material for descriptive articles which read like pages from the history of the French Revolution. According to Mr Phillips the soldiers and sailors who had aided the revolutionary party threw off all pretence of discipline when their task was completed and plunged into all kinds of wild excesses. Their onslaught was principally directed against the Jesuits, and convents and churches were sacked and priests were hunted through underground passages like rats, chased by gangs of "patrols" armed with rifles, bludgeons, pick axes and great hammers. The Jesuits stoutly defended their principal church, but were overpowered by the revolutionary infantry, who fired indiscriminately and rushed the courtyard, killing one Jesuit and wounding two others. The following day the looting of the great church and the adjoining convent and college was commenced by a vast mob of soldiers, sailors and civilians, mostly under the influence of liquor. Several of the looters attired themselves fantastically in the magnificent vestments of the priests, and two grimy revolutionaries were seen by Mr Phillip dancing in the choir, wrapped in goldcloth capes and singing the "Marseillaise." Another gang smashed the gilt reredos and baklacbino behind the high altar with hammers and axes, and everywhere statues were thrown down from their pedestals, carved work was hacked with hatchets, and pictures were slashed to ribbons. A drunken artilleryman attempted to play a music-hall song on the organ and smashed the keys in disgust at the failure of his efforts A few officers witnessed these proceedings, we'are told, but took nu steps to stop the pillaging