However, the sceptical rustics were not yet convinced, and, to make
assurance doubly sure, destroyed six Jewish houses. In various villages
the priests found it exceedingly difficult to convince the peasants that
no "order" had been issued to attack the Jews.

[Footnote 1: The president of the village assembly.]

The series of spring pogroms was capped by a three days' riot in the
capital of the South, in Odessa (May 3-5), which harbored a Jewish
population of 100,000. In view of the immense riff-raff, which is
generally found in a port of entry of this size, the excesses of the mob
might have assumed terrifying dimensions, had not the authorities
remembered that the task entrusted to them was not exactly that of
forming an honorary escort for the rioters, as had actually been the
case in Kiev. The police and military forces of Odessa attacked the
rioting hordes which had spread all over the city, and, in most cases,
succeeded in driving them off. The Jewish self-defence, organized and
led by Jewish students of the University of Odessa, managed in a
number of cases to beat off the bloodthirsty crowds from the gates of
Jewish homes. However, when the police began to make arrests among the
street mob, they drew no line between the defenders and the assailants,
with the result that among the eight hundred arrested persons there
were one hundred and fifty Jews, who were locked up on the charge of
carrying fire-arms. In point of fact, the "arms" of the Jews
consisted of clubs and iron rods, with the exception of a very few
who were provided with pistols. Those arrested were loaded on three
barges which were towed out to sea, and for several days were kept
in that swimming jail.

The Odessa pogrom, which had resulted in the destruction of several city