and sarcastic terms:

The _Imperial Messenger_ is comforting the public by the
announcement that it would in due time and at due length report all
cases of excesses perpetrated upon the Jews. One might think that
these are every-day occurrences forming part of the natural course
of events which demand nothing else than timely communication to the
public. Is there indeed no means to put a stop to this crying
scandal?

Events soon made it clear that there was no desire to put a stop to this
"scandal," as the Moscow paper politely termed the exploits of the
Russian robber bands. The local authorities of Balta were forewarned in
time of the approaching pogroms. Beginning with the middle of March the
people in Balta and the surrounding country were discussing them openly.
When the Jews of that town made their apprehensions known to the local
police commissioner, they received from him an evasive reply. In view of
the fact that the Jewish population of Balta was three times as large as
the Christian, it would not have been difficult for the Jews to organize
some sort of self-defence. But they knew that such an organization was
strictly forbidden by the Government, and, realizing the consequences,
they had to confine themselves to a secret agreement entered into by a
few families to stand up for one another in the hour of distress. On the
second day of the Russian Easter, corresponding to the seventh day of
the Jewish festival, on March 29, the pogrom began, surpassing by the
savagery of the mob and the criminal conduct of the authorities all the
bacchanalia of 1881. A contemporary observer, basing his statements on
the results of a special investigation, gives the following account of
the events at Balta: