TRAGIC SCENE IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9617, 15 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGIC SCENE IN RUSSIA.

A terrible scene, says the Odessa correspondentof the London Daily Chronicle, was witnessed the other day in the village of Polyani, in the province of Kazan. There had been a service in the church, and the villagers were lounging about outside. A woman, aged 35, was seen to ascend the belltower with her two children, one a girl of seven, the other a year-old boy. She went high up to where some scaffolding had been erected. The villagers below noticed that she began undressing the children and herself. As soon as this was accomplished she seized her daughter and flung her out over the scaffolding on to the iron roof of the church far below. The girl rolled off the roof dead. Then taking the baby the woman threw it also over the parapet. It fell on its head on the stones at the people's feet. It was evidently the woman's intention to precipitate herself as well, but before she could execute her purpose she was secured. She is believed to be a member of one of the numerous half-mad sects to be found everywhere along the Middle Volga.