Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-04-02
GREAT RIOT IN CINCINNATI.
Mob Rule for Two Nights
Fearful Loss Of Life and
Property.
HOW THE TROUBLE BEGAN.

II. Kirk. Kirk was killed in stable
several months ago by blow from
hammer, robbed Of about 500 in cash
put into a wagon, hauled off toward
Cumminsville and thrown into Mil
creek, where the body was found two
days later. Suspicion pointed toward
Berner and a negro named Joe Palmer
who were arrested, and confessed the
crime. On trial Berner testified thai
Palmer did the killing, while he Der
ner) only looked on, and got share o
the money. The return of the verdict
of manslaughter IN case where COW
ardly brutal murder was so evident
created feeling of the utmost indigna
ton, the Judge who tried the case him
self declaring it an outrage. The jury
on leaving the court room were hooteo
at by the crowd, and several sugges
tions that they be hanged were made
Since then the feeling that justice
had been outraged has grown in inten
sity, and it has been evident since Mon
day that trouble of serious nature
was brewing. One of the jurors was
on Wednesday attacked and beaten and
another compelled to leave the city by
| friends of the murdered man.
"To THE JATL"-FRIDAY NIGHTS WORK
When the Music Hall meeting ad.
journed, and the 5000 or 1000 persons
were pouring out of the hall, the cry,
"to the Jail 7" was raised, and the
crowd not knowing that Berner had
been taken away, surged thither in one
solid mass, filling the whole width OF
the street. As it moved on others join
ed the throng, and when it reached
Sycamore street in front of the jail it
must have numbered 10000 men The
approach to the jail was made rapidly
and quietly. Sheriff Hawkins, expect
ing some demonstration, had thirteen
deputies on guard in his Office They
were soon startled by heavy blow on
the outside door, and they Immediately
realized that an attack was being made.
Sheriff Hawkins then called up Fire
Marshal Bunker by telephone and the
riot alarm was sounded. The mob had
brought up long, heavy oak plank
and used it as a battering ram. They
began operations on the north outside
door. The blows rained fast and strong
but the iron door resisted every effort
to force it. Then the excited men on
the outskirts of the mob, growing i'm
patient at the delay, and determined to
do some thing to show their indigna-
<;or horon fo throu ctopoo o. tho hui1d
ing and fire pistols into the air. En-
couraged by these demonstrations, the
men handling the battering ram re-
doubled their efforts. For full three
quarters of an hour the blows were
rained upon the door without effect,
and the mob became frenzied and un-
controllable. A proposition to set fire
to the building was made. and thou
sands of voices took up the cry. The
throng started to carry it into execu-
tion, but at this moment shout arose
from the front The doors were be-
ginning to give way. The blows were
quickened and rang out on the night
air as though they came from steam
hammer.
Suddenly the doors few off their
hinges and the bowling mob rushed
pell nell into the building.
When the mob entered the Sheriff's
force withdrew into the Jail proper,
leaving between them and the mob the
heavy grated iron door. which separ-
ates the reception room from the cell
room. This is at the foot of the stair
way leading up to the cell room. The
reception room was jammed, and the
mob kept calling, "Give US Berner
Give US johnson !" and 80 on through
the list of murderers confined in the
building.
They sought for Berner, but soon
discovered that he was gone. They
recognized Ben Johnson, one of the
Avondale negro burkers, and began
pounding at the doors with their bat
tering ram, but the small space pre-
vented it's use with effect.
SATURDAY NIGHT AND UP TO SUNDAY
MORNING.
CINCINNATI, O., March 3O-At.. day
light this morning the Associated
Press reporter walked through the
quarter of the city where the stormy
scenes of the previous right had been
enacted, Against an exquisitely tin
ted sky in the east, the broken walls
of the burning Court House were dis
tinctly defined with it's crumbling
window openings looking like rude
wounds. Over the ruins of the Treas
urer's Office in the northern part of the
building the ruddy glow of the FIRE
was still visible while from other por-
tlons thin white colored smoke and
steam was rising as the water thrown
by the engines fell into the burning
contents. Last night when the sun
went down the occupants of the Treas
urer's Office were sitting at the open
plate glass windows smoking cigars
and reading the accounts of the previ-
| ons nights attempts on the Jail. There
was no thought that in six hours those
windows would be broken and the ac-
cumulated wealth of the building in
ruins. But this building, great as its
loss, was merely property. The other
losses in that locality were of human
life. Only pools of blood here and
there in the trampled dust or on the
brick sidewalk were to be seen. Only
an hour before, on Sycamore street be-
low Court, lay four or Eye dead bodies
of drunken or venturesome men, who
in spite of the policeman's warning, had
gone beyond the limit permitted by the
militia. When they fell under the fire
of the militia, no one dared to 90 and
take them away until the mob had
dispersed and the streets were clear.
| THE RUIN.
One crash after another made the
air shiyer, and men dropped by the
scores in every direction. Meanwhile
| Tho Nnurt Io,,o ln,noJ m -