FIGHTING THE NIHILISTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 179, 27 January 1912, Page 10

FIGHTING THE NIHILISTS

MOW A POLICE AGENT SAVED THE CZAR. Colonel James Persitz (late chief of a political division of the Secret Service of Eussia) writes in the New York World an experience (luring his office as one of the chiefs of that dread organsiation. the Secret Political Department of the Russian Police. During his service of nearly 20 years he had many thrilling adventures in running down Terrorists in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He had I served as a special bodyguard to the Dowager-Empress, accompanying her to England. He writes in this narrative of a plot to blow up the Winter Palace, which he nipped in the bud:— If I had not dropped into a little thirdclass restaurant on a side street off the Xevsky Prospekt one November night three years ago, a youthful Czar might be reigning in St. Petersburg to-day. Every department of the Government has its spies and secret agents, and it was to meet one of iny agents that I, dressed as a mujik, or common peasant, dropped into this little restaurant on that November night. While I was waiting for my man to appear I diverted my mind by listening to the conversation of half a j dozen workmen who were drinking vodka at the next table, who seemed to be listening to one of their number who was telling a story. From their conversation I gathered that he was the proprietor of a grocery store, and that he had been greatly puzzled by one of his customers, an old woman, who came daily to purchase supplies for at least eight persons. As this old woman and her husband lived alone in a house close by, the grocer could not understand why she bought such large quantities of food. When my spy arrived I received his repoft, and sent him off immediately, in order that I might give my undivided attention to my neighbors. I ordered several glasses of vodka, and by singing snatches of familiar songs attracted their attention. They had been drinking more than was good for them, and I was soon invited to join their circle. This, of course, was just what I wanted.

AWAITING THE MYSTERIOUS OLD WOMAN. I ordered vodka all round, and when the party broke up after midnight I pretended to be intoxicated, and asked the grocer to take me home with him. He agreed, being very much under the influence of liquor himself. We occupied the same bed, and rose early in the morning. I appeared to be very grateful for my night's lodging, and I offered to assist the grocer in his work until noon in order to repay his kindness. This opportunity, I thought, might enable me to see the old woman who bought the supplies for so many persons. So I swept the floor of the little grocery and made myself generally useful until I was rewarded by the arrival of the old woman. She purchased several basketsful of supplies, paid for them with a gold piece, and departed. I immediately bade good-bye to my grocer host and followed her to her home, a one-story brick house a few blocks away. Here was a mystery. The most careful investigation showed that only two persons, the old woman and her husband, lived in the house, yet every day supplies for no less than eight persons were taken there. There seemed no way of getting into the house until I struck the idea of impersonating a beggar, and asking at the door for something to eat.

The next day I disguised myself as an old soldier, and went from house to house in the neighborhood asking for; alms. At the little one-storey house my knock was answered by the old woman herself, In a feeble, quavering voice I begged for something to eat. She did not hesitate a minute. In truly hospitable Russian fashion she asked me to come into the kitchen while she prepared tschi, or thick soup, for me. This enabled me to inspect the three rooms and hall into which the little dwelling was divided. It was simply the Jhouse of a poor couple; there was not a single feature but what was in keeping with its aged occupants, who, by the way, bore an excellent reputation. But while I was seated at the kitchen table waiting for the tschi to cook, a tall, dark man in the uniform of a student suddenly appeared before me. How he entered the room I am to this day at a loss to know. He appeared as if by magic. Then in German, which he evidently thought I didn't understand, he began to upbraid the old woman for allowing anyone to enter the house. She explained that an old soldier needed food, but the tall stranger said, soldier or no soldier, she should not admit anyone in the future. I pretended not to understand, and, after t eating the tschi, thanked the old woman I and the tall, dark man, and departed.

SECRET TUNNELLING OPERATIONS. ; I ordered two of ray spies, men whose ears were trained to detect underground ! workings, to make investigations, but ' the}' were unable to hear anything suspicious. However, I was convinced that a tunnel was being dug, and consequently I reasoned that the dirt was being de- i posited somewhere. Before any further steps could be taken I must discover where this was being done. I had every street in St. Petersburg watched by my agents, and within a week I received information that waggons laden with barrels left a delicatessen store about half a mile from the Winter Palace every night, and that these barrels, which were iilled with sand, were emptied into a marsh outside the city limit?. This was the information I needed. It gave me the location of the other end of the tunnel. Accordingly I surrounded the store and the little house with a cordon of soldiers and police. With three of my subordinates I made a sudden raid on the store. Entering the door with a loaded revolver in my hand, I shouted to the proprietor and clerk, "Hands up, in the name of the Czar!" Our entrance was so sudden that the inmates of the place had no time to do anything but raise their hands. "Where is the entrance to .the tunnel?" I demanded. IX THE TUNNEL. Immediately the proprietor and his clerk began protesting their ignorance of a tunnel, but a few blows on the lloor behind one of the counters revealed a (light of steps to a fresh!y-dug though carefully reinforced tunnel. I descended quickly, followed by my men. I had not gone more than a hundred feet when a terrible explosion took place, and the j tunnel caved in directly in front of me. Had 1 advanced 10ft further I should have been buried alive in the falling rocks and sand. As it was, it was with difficulty that I was able to crawl back to the opening. I was blinded by the smoke and sand and bleeding from the mouth and nose and ears as a result of the explosion. A few minutes after the explosion, which had been by the men working in the tunnel so as to prevent my reaching the other end, six men rushed out of the little house three-quarters of a mile away, where I had tracked the old woman. Of course, they ran into the arms of my cordon of police, and were placed under arrest. So great was their surprise to find the little house surrounded that they did not make the slightest show of resistance, and within half an hour after their attempted escape they were lodged in separate cells in one of the political prisons, alonw with liv delicatessen dealer and his assistant. They were the six men for whom the old woman had been buying the supplies, and investigations of their records showed

them to be members of one of the most active Nihilist societies. WHAT THE POLICE RAID PREVENTED. An examination of the tunnel revealed a dastardly attempt to blow up the Winter Palace, and at one fell swoop wipe out the Imperial family. The entrance at the delicatessen store was merely an artery of the main tunnel, which had been pushed to within a quarter of a mile of the Winter Palace. The six workers lived and slept in the little one-storey house occupied by the old couple, and left the tunnel only by the delicatessen store. As many people entered and left the store, their movements never excited suspicion. If we had not discovered the tunnel when we did it would have been pushed to the Winter Palace within another month, and undoubtedly a few hundreds of pounds of dynamite would have blown the wonder ful palace and everyone in it to kingdom come. That the Director of Police regarded our discovery as an exceptionally good piece of work was made evident by the handsome medals and gift's of money that were made to myself and my subordinates. The Czar himself was especially grateful for the service rendered, and he presented me with a ring from his own hand. A letter of appreciation from the Czarina, I treasure among my most valued belongings. But the arrest of these Nihilists and their confederates did not end the adventure. Indeed, the sequel of the story is even more surprising and dramatic than the tale itself.

It was discovered that the prisoners hailed from Warsaw, and to connect them with other crimes they were conveyed there placed in solitary confinement in the military prison or citadel, while our agents were engaged in gathering more evidence against them. The mori? ing they were to be arraigned in the court before a magistrate an officer arrived at the prison with a squad of soldiers and an order, signed by the magistrate, to bring the prisoners before him. As the order was perfectly regular and the soldiers were on hand, the commandant of the prison turned the prisoners, ten in number, over to the officer. Heavily chained, they were loaded into a prison van, and, surounded by a squad of soldiers, started for the courthouse. They never arrived. Not a vestige of the van or thtf soldiers or the prisoners was ever found. One of their Nihilist friends, disguised as an officer, and with a forged order, had presented himself at the military prison just before the bona fide order was expected. The squad of soldiers were more Nihilists in disguise. Had the slightest detail gonewrong they would have been arrested and shot. However, the prisoners were turned over to them without question and undoubtedly they had other Nihilist friends waiting near by in some deserted house with disguises and funds to help them across the border. ■