Nihilist Reminisceenses.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 20902, 23 May 1887, Page 2

Nihilist Reminisceenses.

The following account of an interview with Steyniak appeared recently in the columns of a French contemporary, which introduces tho famous Russian Nihilist as a man of about .TO years of age, with tho figure of an athlete and ail enormous head:—“His rough beard grows downward from his ears, overrunning his cheeks, without, however, veiling his mouth —tho blood-rod mouth of a barbarian. But notwithstanding these dreadful details,” says his interviewer, “ there is something in tho face of Ptepniak which gives it an almost infantile expression of kindness, and wnich reminds one of the gentleness of great powerful beasts. Stepniak’s muscular powers, carefully preserved by constant gymnastic exercises, are indeed altogether extraordinary. I have seen him take up a chair on which a man of middle height was sitting and lift it with one hand from the ground and on to a table. To this enormous physical vigour corresponds the almost monstrous development of certain intellectual faculties, those, for instance, of the memory and the imagination. He speaks every European language without any difficulty, and his great knowledge of history' and political economy is considerable. I have never, before I heard Stepniak, felt the almost magnetic fascination which this apostle exercises on individuals and on multitudes.” On a visit to the country seat of M. A. Baudot, whore the French journalist took his “ terrible comrade,” tho latter told the following gruesome anecdotes apropos of two oj tlie most terrible crimes committed by Nihilists. “ General Mezentreff,” said Stepniak, “was assassinated by’ one of my friends one morning when he was walking with a functionary in] the Nevski Prospect, which was then rather dose rted. My f riend rushed upon tho General, stabbed him with a knife, and jumped into a carriage which was waiting for him. As you may imagine, the comrade who drove lashed tho horses furiously, for rapid flight was the only alternative to being hangd. Nevertheless, my friend the assassin took tho whip out of the driver’s hand, saying , “.Don’t lash him- —the animal is doing what he can.” And my friend was afterwards ploasod with himself for having folfc this pity, for he said to himself “After all I am not altogether a bad fellow.” When the “execution” of the Emperor Alexander 11. had been decided upon, two men armed with explosive bombs were placed near the bridge where the Emperor must pass, with instructions to throw them into the carriage as soon as opportunity offered. The two assassins were placed at a distance of about 15 yards. The first bomb fell down under the horses’ hoofs, and, upsetting the carriage, threw the Emperor on his face into the snow. The second assassin, forgetting tho object which he had in view, and seized by pity, rushed with tho soldiers to the rescue of the f'zar, and was arrested with His bomb under his arm while helping to lift the wounded man from the ground.