Old style Christmas Eve was} marked by a most daring robbery in the very centre of the main street, Kitaiskaya, next door to the Hotel Moderne. Here there is a ye popular exchange shop situated in a Corridor between two shops, both of them having glass door entrances to the place, At about 630 pin. when oth' shops were full of people and che street trafic was at its greatest, two young Russians, watching their opportunity, walked" into the ex~ change shop at a moment when. there was no customer. One stopped at the door and the other presented 2 revolver at the head of the cashier, who leant back in his chair, at the same time pressing a button conpected with alarm. signals in the! two shops. The shop staffs rushed Out into the street for police, while. the owner of the largest shop ran. quickly to the glass door leading to. the exchange shop. The bandit standing at the door fired at him, the. bullet landing in his thick: padded coat, grazing his skin, Ficochetting to his wrist, slightly: injuring this and then flattening itself against wall. "Meanwhile tone of the bandits pulled out the] cash drawer, seized packets money amounting to 350 kuobl and) 150 yen and turned to flee. The other young Russian understanding, that the cashier had given some signal fired point blank at him, but the bullet landed in. the quotation board, missing the intended victim.
Both men were out in the street less time than It takes to write this account of the affair and brandishing their revolvers, they dared any" person to touch" them, They fired one bullet through the window of Tschurin's store and another injured an innocent paper feller, but the police were unable to fire owing to the dense crowd fon the pavement. The two bandit Russians quickly turned the corner into the side with their booty. in a few mo-freet, disappearing} ments police came up from all round, but no signs of the bandits could be found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.