News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-04-24
THE CINCINNATI RIOT.
sooIE INCIDENTS RELATED nv EVE
WITNESSES.
Inc saved and Lesf-The German Paners-
The First Shots.
THE GERMAN PAPERS,

60 d grave mistake. Our militia
Know, and can do nothing else, it APP
pears, but shooting. If reliance had
oeen placed on the police force order
might probably have been restored with
out loss of life.'
The Ft'eie PresSe says:-sgThe indig-
nation OF tine people is on the increase,
on account of the rough, and wholly un-
Provoked shooting upon peaceful citi-
zens, and upon women and children, and
the increase of indignation is becoming
more and more fearful. 1t may be
dreaded upon too reasonable grounds
that the shedding of blood is not yet
ended, but will begin afresh." The ar
ucle continuing, blGmes Sheriff Haw-
h1ns, Mayor Stephens and Governor
doadley, the first two for mismanage-
ment, and the last for not coming here
10 see Tor himself what the situation re-
quired.
THE FIRST SHOTS.
Captain Folleger, who commanded the
detachment of militia which fred the
nrst shots, has published a card deny
ing the statement that he ordered his
men to fire. He says: ''Sheriff Hawkins
gave the order in the words, Give it to
EN-, boys; fire ? and in the excitement
1 could not stop them, so I cried, For
ChrIsts sake, boys, fire high 7 My men
would never have fired if it had not been
that four OF them were wounded with
stones and shots from the crowd and
they shot on the Sheriff's order. 1 have
peen IN the war. / would rather face an
an enemy than such a crowd of citizens,
with whom have fellow feeling, and [
would not rashly give an order such as it
mas been said gave"
THE SAVED AND THE LOST.
The following is from an editorial in
the Commercial Gazette:
The time has come for taking an ac-
count for salvage for three days destruc-
uon and terror. First, we have saved
our jail full of murderers. We have
killed forty-five innocent men and
wounded and MANNED one hundred and
forty-ive more, all to save our iailful of
murderers. We have burned our fine |
Court House, with records of three |
quarters of a century, creating confusion |
which whole generation will not suffice |
to settle. But what is that by the side |
of jailful of murderers saved from |
popular excitement? We have con-
verted Just, popular impulse against |
the prostration of law before crime into |
war between an unorganized people, in
censed to acts OF blind vengeance against
the authorities who killed them to pro-
tect the murderers.
THE GATTLING NOT USED.
The statement that the Gattling gun
was used in the defense of the jail by the
police officers, during the wild and
desperate melee following the firing of
the Court House, is sail by a local
paper to be unfounded The gun was
lot used, so the officers said, at au.
Had the Gattling gun been used as was
alleged every volley from it must have
Killed and wounded over one hundred {
Vt each discharge, as the rioters in range
II the gun on Sycamore street were as
hlck in numbers as the powders in the
treet, upon which they were so wildly !
moving about. The gun has a capacity
If dlscharging over five hundred forty c
musket balls per minute, and
n the event of its being used the car
lage resulting from its death-dealing
mouth will be horrible.
WHY MOB LAW WAS REsoRTED TO.
One of the Ohio representatives in fl
gives an interesting account
Of the eccentricities of justice in Cincin- G
natl. He says he is not at all surprised
1t the upheaval there, and wonders that 4
trouble has been so long deferred. 1t
has been the custom of the lawyers, he I
says, to resort to a peculiar method of
jurors who might be relied ,
upon to look at something else besides |
the merits of the case. Any man who
reads the testimony taken before coro-
ner ID Ohio becomes thereby ineligible
as juror upon the trial of the case. I
The lawyers procure copies of the testi-
mony taken by the coroner, and mail {
them to the men whose names are on
the jury list. They are thus enabled to ,
present valid objections against any man
IN whose hands their client could expect 7
nothing but justice, and in this way
Cincinnati jurors have got into bad re-
pute. A panel of 1,2O0 was exhausted
before the twelve accommodating indi-
viduals who sat as jurors when Berner q
was being tried were obtained. Forty
two murderers have escaped through {
this means.
A LIBRARY GONE.
Among the losses most TO be regretted,
next to the irreparable burnings of the
records, is the destruction of the Cincin-
natl Law Library. It was, probably, |
the finest collection of legal authorities
and OF English, Scotch, Irish and Ameri- {
can reports IN any city this side of the
1t was founded in 1884,
and ever since that time it has grown | a
in numbers and in fame, numbering
twenty thousand volumes. Some OF the {
books may be saved, badly burned, but '
the chances are that very little will re-
main of the valuable collection of legal
learning. g
FERocIrY OF THE MOB.
All reports say that the mob was
most peculiar one for a mob. 1t was
formidable from numbers and ferocity.
It lacked leadership and definite pur-
pose. A good leader with an idea of
strategic combination, would have swept
the city with such force at command. |
As it was the crowd operated in de-
tached bodies. That they were terribly
in earnest was proven by the fact that
they broke into hardware stores and
gunshops and armed themselves with
pistols, guns, croWbars or what weapons
came to hand. The character of this
mob was most surprising too. The
sc tough" element seemed entirely elm {
mated. There were gray-haired men in i
the front ranks with boys of all ages,
and all were respectable IN appearance
and well DRESSED Many colored men !
were found in the crowds.
THE CAUSE OF THE RIOT. {
The murder IN which Berner had a '
hand was committed on the oath of last
December. Berner is a young German,
whose father is quite well off. He was
in the employ of William H. Kirk. The
latter frequently carried considerable
money about him, and Berner planned
the murder for robbery. With Joe
Palmer, a negro, he attacked Kirk in his
own stable. Kirk was killed with clubs,
and the two murderers divided the 800
which they obtained. After dark they
took the body in an express wagon to
MIL Creek and dumped it into the
water
The trial took place few weeks ago.
The jury took the case on Saturday,
March %, and were dismissed until
Monday, when, after they had been out
several hours. the announcement was
made that they were ready with YER
dict. The evidence was so plain that
few thought the jury would dare to let
the murderer off easy. The jurors filed
into the courtroom. The clerk took the
papers from the foreman and read:
1--WE, the jury, in the issue joined, find
the defendant, William Berner, not