Part One - The Hotel Astoria, After it Had Been Sacked by a Mob of Revolutionists

Early Tuesday morning (during the revolution) the Hotel Astoria was sacked. While soldiers were crossing the square of St. Yssack's, some one fired upon the revolutionists. They thought the shots had come from the hotel. This was not true because the hotel had been taken over by the Russian Government for foreign officers and their families. However, the mob didn't wait for explanations, but smashed the windows on the lower floors, and began looting the wine cellars. Had it not been for the fact that some British officers smashed the casks and bottles of wine, instead of only a few being killed, indescribable horrors would have resulted.