Anarchist Conspiracy.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 183, 18 December 1886, Page 13

Anarchist Conspiracy.

A vast Anarchist plot, almost unpre cedented in revolutionary auiiale, has just been frustrated by the vigilance cf tbo Vienna police. Tbe facts revealed in the official report testify that part ct the city ha 3 narrowly escaped destruction. It i 3 uncertain whether the whole of the diabolical conspiracy has been disclC'eJ, but the particulars that have been allowed to see the light prove th"\t the skill arid dis cretion of the police ha\ o =aved Vienna from a terrible catastrophe, exceeding everything of the kind hitherto attempted in'vievrof terrorising civilized society. Since the trial of Scellmacher and Kammerer littlo iad been heard of the Anarchists. Miny of tbem had left Vienna for tho United State 3 , but a certain number had latterly retuined, and according to tho official account, it ia thej' who organised tho'plot recently detected. So far a? the authorities have thought proper to tnako known the desist:-* of tho conspirators, it wad intended simultaneously to set fire to the -western quarter of Vienna, where the workinc classes reside. They had divided thoiQs-olvG* into four groups. One of th^m vra* to becrin operations in the suburb of Pominjr, in tho neighbourhood of tho Imperial residence of JSchoenbrunn ; another v as entrusted v, ith the district of Ro^an, and had actually placed incendiary apparatus in a ir.rge timber-yard, where they were fortunately discovered in time ; a third was already at work at Meidlingand Hottendirf in a timber store, but there, too, the incendiary stuff was removed before it had taken efi'ect ; and tbe fourth grouo va=? engaged in carrying out its sinister purpose in the euburb of Favoriten, v/hen appears to have been given that c^sed the conspirators to decamp. The incendiary material used consists principally of an ingeniously contrived c-r.uaie tottle containing about t-wo litres or inflammable liquid connected through .- pa-= tube with a fute which burnt) devsral minutes before Eettinp: tire to tho liquid it3elf. Tho latter on igniting produces a large flame that keeps aUght come little time. If propcily manipulated thi« contrivance, v. hich ha-- been the cb]"O*- of numerous exporirnenta, cannot pos?iDly fail. The conspirators were initiates: in the preparation of the neceeaary ingredient at a small wine-chop in Penzinfr, whcio a private room ?a- set apart for the-n. About twenty of them used to meat thero on the plea of &tud\in£ chemiptry, but the police ascertained that the real object was to Icain how ro make exp'oiive" Tnc authorities obtair.ei timely informi' icn of "what wag on foot, hot were bent on &eci:i::i£ full evidence and a complete li:t o. tl.r-et l .r-e implicated. The\ thor«forc allov, oc irin^-* to go on until thu CTn^rjiratorr. havir-r 'Cr tninatcd their preparations, -i lie pi or v, a on the very eve of execution. Sc^arcecn arrests havo been effected. Tbe inveetigationa and •iom:r]";^:y searches made hive led to >3omo st.-i » t_i"cj tiiecuveriea. Two hand-£:hell3 hilea v-icb dynamito wsre found «it the lodgin?;'- cf ,1 weavers apprentice. They were the~->i .5 of a large orange, and were provided v;ith sixteen nippleq, any one of which, or- iecciving the eliprhteat chock, would c.-u-e tlie shell to cxplcdo. They were concealed in the wall, and it required the utrno=t caution to removo them without accident. A quantity of Ioo?e dynamite and chlorofoim was found in the same room. Four Incendiary bottles, .such as described above, were seized in the apartment of a mechanic. In another instance the police laid hands en a number of forged " permits " authorising the bearer to proceed with a domiciliary ee&rcb. The signature of the Prefect of Police and the atamp of the Prefecture wore imitated to perfection. These papers wore ueed for extorting money. Thus last August a party of Anarchists, disguised as police officials called on a lady residing at Schodnbrunn, and, exhibiting one of these " permita,' searched tbe apartmnet on the pretext of looking for forgad bank notes. Tho Utdy handed them 470 florins, but her-daughter, suspecting eomoth ing wrong, gave the alarm, -whereupon tbe intruders hastily withdrew. The money was to have been employed for a dynamito laboratory ; but this waa net the only illicit moans resorted to by the conspirators for raising funds. Four of the men in custody had made complete preparations for fabricating 1 false coin. They intended to lesue Austrian silver florins. 2,500 grammes of silver had been sold to a local bank in order to raise money for the purchase of some material that waa still Tenting btfwe the coining could begin,