The peasants of the village had assembled for their work of destruction.

When the rural chief, or Elder, [1] called upon the peasants to disperse, the latter demanded a written guarantee that they would not be held to account for their failure to comply with the imperial "orders" to beat the Jews.

This guarantee was given to them.
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.