3-086-269 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Riots in Italy: street scenes in Milan - Bersaglieri assaulting a barricade, 1898. 'Italy, afflicted last week suddenly and lamentably with a fierce outbreak of attempted political insurrection at Milan, apparently contrived by a conspiracy of the Socialist Red Republican faction, simultaneously with riots in other towns and provinces, excited by the dearth of food, the stoppage of work, and the pressure of excessive taxes, has recovered a gloomy tranquillity under the coercion of a loyal army supported by all prudent citizens... Only at Milan during three days, Saturday, May 7, Sunday, and Monday, did this deplorable conflict, joined in by some Republican enthusiasts from neighbouring places in Lombardy, assume the character of a design to subvert the Constitution of the Italian Kingdom. It was there suppressed with severe fighting by General Bava and the strong military garrison. The insurgents, who were not aided by the ordinary townspeople, erected street barricades in the Parisian fashion, but were gradually overcome; artillery, as well as rifle volleys, were directed against them. It is now ascertained that eighty was the number killed, and two or three hundred wounded'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.