Bomb, Old Style

In the realm of Little Tsar Boris III assassins still throw bombs with long sputtering fuses in the good old way. The bombee, if an experienced official, has at least a sporting chance of snuffing out the fuse before explosion happens. Therefore, last week, when a bomb hurtled past Chief of the Secret Police Ikonomoff as he was entering his house at Sofia and rolled ahead of him down the dark hall, the worst was not necessarily to be feared. . . . Experienced, adept, Chief Ikonomoff did not flee out into the street, but sought to protect his household by darting forward to extinguish the bomb. Similarly Little Tsar Boris, when fired upon by assassins (TIME, April 27, 1925), whipped out a heavy automatic pistol and fired back. . . . As Chief Ikonomoff searched rapidly in the dark hallway of his home, vivid questions may have flashed before his mind. Who was the bomber? Perhaps an accomplice seeking to avenge the three political "outs" who were executed (TIME, June 8, 1925), after they blew up the Sveti Krai Cathedral, in Sofia, just before a state funeral. Or perhaps the bomb thrower was "just a man with a grudge." There was no telling. In Bulgaria the Tsar sometimes finds poison in his dessert (TIME, Sept. 14, 1925) ; and a Premier may be prostrated but scarcely surprised if his own brother is shot down in the street (TIME, Nov. 9, 1925). . . . Most unfortunately, Chief of the Secret Police Ikonomoff was not able to find the bomb for which he searched, in time. The black iron sphere became a white cloud of gas which pushed out the walls of the Chief's house and drove iron splinters through him. Mercifully he died an almost instantaneous death.