AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN ODESSA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13385, 11 September 1905, Page 3

AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN ODESSA.

(By "E. T.," in tho Daily Mail.) Looking back at the exciting times I havo lately t. passed through, tragedy and comedy, tears ami laughter, petty everyday details, and cataclysms of violence, all seem so blended together that X am sure they must form a uniquo experience worth recording. Odessa was transformed. Instead of living in a peaceful, busy, commercial town, wo seemed to bo on a devil's playground. Bombs, riots, fire, and tho exncctation of bombardment from the mutinied crow of Hie I'otemkin combined to mako tho How wc hated, that great hirrcted ship, with her heavy guns trained night and day .on the defenceless town! JTor ,uolcncc- • less wo wero during thrco long dnys. Ono thing alone was certain: tho Jewish '■'bund"'had armed its people, and the bombs thrown on tho cathcdral square told us that the:society was provided with moro powerful weapons than mero firearms. PBEPARINO FOR BOMBARDMENT. On Wednesday morning tho newspapers wero missing from tho breakfast tables, and prudent housewives, mindful of tho great striko of 1903. laid in stores from tho grocery and " delikatcssen " shops. Still ind.ro prudent folk hurried their families out of tho town. - In tho afternoon tho fire broke out. By 10 that night every inch of tho harbour scorned on fire. i'ho glaro from tho burning. ship 3 and buildings, the thick black smoko columns of tho coal wharves, tho _ blood-red light on land ami sea mado a picture I shall never forget. A storm of threats, a rattlo of pistol shots, and a shower of stones greeted tho firemen, and some of them fled back to their stations. And at tho top of tho military '•spuck,". or .incline, a party of Anarchistswore stationed on tho roof of a wing of the_ Crimean .-Hotel, waiting their opportunity ivhen tho rush of tho ■ populaoo should come.

About midnight a roar of human tumult told us that the • i>eoplc were coming from tho harbour. So fierce and vodka-maddened wore they that tho ofliecrs doubted their power to stem tho rush of tho yelling smoke-blackened . mob. Hugo, powerful grain-carriers and dock hands wcro-there, and slim agile Circassians; Jews mixed with Russian student*; uu&cxed, shrieking women we'ro everywhere. And cverywhoro was tho scum of our cosmopolitan town, howling, firing, and surging towards tho square. The soldiers wailed between two fires, tho mob in. front and tho Anarchists in the roar. Stronger aiid ltioro furious pressed tho mob, whilo we, who watched, blanched thinking of tho riot and destruction that threatened the city. Tho rioters gained ground, but tho soldiers ncvea* wavered, "Yolloy after volley rang out again and again, and yet again, and then tho arrival of the machino guns settled tho content. For there was no hesitation in using them. Tho soldiers' faces were stern set; the safety of some 500,000 of fellow creatures and their own lives were at stake, and so tho guns mowed furrows in tho ranks of the rioters, decapitating hero and amputating there, itntil tho mob suddenly scattered in Jioadlong flight. They left mora work behind than our doctors could grapple with.

APATHT IS -TIfE MOST OF ALARMS. _ Hut danger was still, at our elbow—tho side streets were choked with rioters. The peaceful, frightened inmates of the houses made ready for flight. ' , "Hero .are your passports," exclaimed tho mistress of our housa to her maids. "Make haste."

"And your ' jewellery." Barina?" asked the '.lady's maid.

"It's all under my dress," was the lady's reply, and then tho maid Macha rushed off, to return in a few moments wearing her best dress and carrying a. sheet. Into this she swept all the small articles'of plato and everything valuable that sho could lay

hnndq/on, -and then threw horself into an attitude that oxpreised hcj readiness for

any emergency. ' Thon tho Russian apathy camo out. "I boliovo you could all go to bod," said tlio -master of tho. house. Indeed, ho had already niado sovoral attompts in that direction. "It is getting light, and Ivan cotild wake us if anything happened, Whero is'ho?"

/'".Why, Ivan and Boris havo been making targets of themselves on .tho roof!" exclaimed Macha scornfully. "And then suddenly they foil flat on tho leads and crawlo daway. Some soldior thought they had bombs, and fired ac them." An hour passed, tho strcot omptied and grow quiet, and our household at lait' dccided on bed. Our oxcitablo Polish cool:, Whoso affections aro centred on tlib coneiergo of, tho "duma" (municipal hall), and wno >had been, with difficulty prevented from rushing off I ,to tho,boulevard, had tlio key of tho kitchen returned to her, and. soon all of us woro in bed, and somo of us actually asleep. It was strango on Thursday morning to watch tho town striving to' resume its ordinary course. The icemen, milkwomen, and bakers again began their rounds. Tho sunriso was beautiful that morning over tho red-tinted clouds and sea, but what tho sun illumined in tho harbour few of us hero care to remember. The Jewish bund" and Maxim Gorky's heroes had had their day, and I do not' think the results could havo, been' satisfactory oven to thorn. Ruined buildings, burnt and sunken 3hips, quays that had been'crowded with busy workers and woro now turned into smoking ash heaps, wero on every hand, 'and everywhere, too, lay the charred fragments of Jmtnan beings who had been • burnt besido tlio vodka casks, fioin which they had boon too intoxicated to movo when tho daniea .had swept up to them. It had been a holocaust indeed, j\o wonder the men whoso duty took them to tlio inland harbour do not caro to speak of that morning's work. Twenty-five waggons of dead bodies passed up the iolish spuck"; tho military "spuck" must have had more, not to mention the Aicliolas Bouluvards, whero tho rush was tho. most dcspcrato of all.

' - I BITTV TO TIIE LAST. But amid iilio wild drunken lust and virilenc° of tho nig.il bravo men had done their duty fo tin 'lost, Tho sfatioiimaster and some.of his staff sent tho last train of off in tho face of tho howling, threatening mob, and then, tearing off oap and badge, had to run for their lives, Perhaps tho bravect work that night was done by eix workmen, who of their own free will remained to gfiard «, machinery depot on. imlTun" i i 1"?' 12 i lontf ll(nirs ' stripped and lialf-blmded by tho smoko and glare, Wiey kept the water playing on tie building. Tlio doors warped with tho hit, but the men never wavered, risking life and limb tor tlio property of a master who had treated them well. ,

That Thursday was an interminablo : day. •Ilio entire town seemed on tlio watoh for somo surprise, ami about 8 o'clock it oamo in the shape of a live shell from the Potem-' km. Tlicro waa a general rush to balconies, roofs, and any place whero a view could bo gainod of tho ship.. People living on or noar tho ' spuefcs" began/to prepare for

Mania," said the mistress, entering the kitchen off a flat on tho Polish street, " leave everything and dress at once. Hero is your passport."

. i have not washed myeelf yet, Barina," said the cook crossly, but true to her sex oven in tho hour of danger, "and if wo are to fly I must put on clean linen and a. good dress."

Half- an hour passed. Then another crash. But by this timo the entire house(with tho oxccption of tho cook) wore in walking* (iircss. Glicquo books, passports, and money had been fashioned into a cunnmg littlp dress-improver under the Banna's" skirt, and small hand-baskets packed with cognac, bread, and sausages. Then wo waited again. The soldiers closed the street. They ordered lis to "cloeo all windows on tho _ Polish street." At midnight all was quiet and still. Tho master of tho houso- retired to rest. Then we coaxed the servants to bed, Mania (tho cook) remarking that at anyrato her corpse would bo buried clean.

And,, strango ,to say, most of' us,-' worn out by. the anxiety and. watch of tlio previous night, contrived to get somo 6lcop. On the Friday, owing to tho. prospect of a naval battle in t'ho harbour, and tho mysterious movements of tho fleet, matters again, bocamo cxoecdingly exciting. But by Sunday tlio Potemkin was gone and confident was restored. It was wonderful' how tho pooplo adapted themselves to tho ; changed eircumstanccs. -■ ■ ,Tho squares had been turned into encampments,. and tho dvorniks -and workmen and tboir wives sat about gossiping, joking, and laughing with uio soldiers off duty. They gavo quilo a homelike look to tho stato of siege. • In the ovening camo tho call to prayers, and ihe sound of tho strong voices of tho men' ohanting the evening hymn added to tho sense of:.sccurity and,order.. Looking lxiek, I only, now begin to 'realise how great was tho danger wo-van and how great- is tho debt wo'all owo to tho forIwaranco and courago of tho soldiers. TJiov saved Odessa-from destruction; arid tens of thousands of her. pcoplo. from unbridled Just and rapine.