ttempted to defend their own. Alas! the little
group was soon routed by the infuriated mob. Their resistance served
only to increase the anger of their assailants, who now left the shops
and turned their attention to the dwellings of the Hebrews.

Zolotwenski's house was the first to be attacked. Down crashed the door
and a hundred excited brutes forced their way through the house. They
seized his wife, whom they found in bed sick and helpless, and choked
her into insensibility. They followed his two daughters to a room in the
upper story in which they had locked themselves, and with threats of
vengeance worse than death they broke open the door. The poor girls
threw themselves from the window to the ground below.

In the meantime, the Rabbi, accompanied by a number of his congregation,
again hastened to the Governor's palace and besought him to protect the
innocent women and children. This time the appeal bore fruit. The
Governor promised to call out the military, and an hour afterwards a
detachment of soldiers appeared upon the scene. At first they stood by,
amused spectators, cheering the mob whenever it broke into a dwelling,
taunting the poor women who ran hither and thither in frantic endeavors
to escape the wretches who pursued them; but later in the day the
temptation to join the plunderers proved irresistible, and the soldiers
became active participants in the outrages which continually increased
in brutality. Indeed, the leaders of the soldiers soon assumed command
of the mob, and, with a refinement of cruelty, incited the people to
lust rather than to pillage.

A number of rioters and soldiers broke into the dwelling of an old man
named Pelikoff. The poor fellow had carried his sixteen-year-old
daughter to the attic and barricaded the door. In vain his resistance.
The rusty lock yielded to the onslaught from without; twenty men
precipitated themselves into the apartment, and twenty men threw
themselves upon the trembling child.

"Kill me," cried Pelikoff, "but spare my innocent daughter!"

"To the devil with them both!" laughed the leader.

Pelikoff fought with desperation. With his bare fists he felled two of
the stalwart soldiers to the ground, but he was no match against the
overpowering numbers. They seized him in their arms, carried him to the
roof, and hurled him over into the street below, while a dozen of the
ruffians attacked the unfortunate girl. When sympathizing friends
visited the house nex