Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-25
SHOT DOWN LIKE o G

| Details of the Massacre of Chinese Miners
in Wyum!ng-Five Hundred Celesttals
Driven Into tho Mountains-Their Quar-
tiers B~urned-slxteen Dead Bodies Found.
Rock SPRINGS, Wy. T., Sept. 4.-For
| the first time in many years there is not a
| Chinaman in Rock Springs. except the dead
| and wounded. The five or six hundred who
| were at work in the mines here have been
| driven out, and nothing but heaps of smok-
ing ruins mark the spot where Chinatown
| stood. The feeling against the Chinese has
| been growing stronger all summer. The fact
| that the white men had been turned off
| the section, and hundreds of white men
were seeking i'll vain for work, while the
Chinese were being shipped in by the car
load and given work, strengthened the
feeling against them. 1t needed but little
to iLcite this feeling into an active crusade
against the Chinese, and precipitated the
little battle of Wednesday at No. 6 mine,
about one mile north of town. Through
some misunderstanding two Cinnamon took
a room in the mine belonging to TWO white
men. When the white men came they or.
dercd them out. They would lot go and a
fight ensned which was participated in by
nearly all the whites and Cinnamon in the
mines. The Cinnamon were worsted in the
fight and four of them were badly wounded,
one of whom has since died. The white
miners then came out, armed themselves
with firearms, md notified the men in the
other three mines to come out in the after
noon.
Meantime all was excitement in China
town. The flag was hoisted as a warning,
and the Chinese working in different parts
OF the camp fled to their quarters. After
dinner the saloons closed and no liquor has
been sold since then. The miners gathered
on the front streets, about one hundred Of
them armed with guns, revolvers, hatch
cts and knives, and proceeded to-
ward Chinatown. Before reaching there
they sent a committee of three
warning the Cinnamon to leave
i'll an hour. This they agreed to do and
started to pack up, but in about half an
hour the white men grew impatient and adj
vanccd upon the Chinese quarters, shouting
and firing their guns into the air. Without
Offering resistance the Chinese fled with
whatever they could snatch up. They fled
to the hills about a mile east of the town,
the miners firing at them as they fed.
All the stores i'll town were closed, and
men, women and children We're out watch
ing the hurried exit of John C%hinaman, and
every one seemed glad to see them on the
wing. Soon a black smoke was seen issuing
from tic peak of a house in Hong Kong, then
from another, and very soon eight or ten of
the largest of the houses were in flames.
H~alf-choked with fire and smoke numbers
OF Cinnamon came rushing from the burn
Ing buildings, and with blankets and bed
quilts over tllclr heads to protect themselves
from stray riiie-shots they followed their
retleating brothers into the hills at the top
OF their speed.
A laundry in town was next visited and
the inotfensive inmates shot dead. All the
employees of the coal department OF the rail
road were ordered to leave town, which
they did OH the evening train.
During the night all of the Chinese
houses in town, numbering nearly fifty, were
burned to the ground. Anumber of China
men who were hiding fled from the burning
buildings.
The light of Thursday morning revealed
some terrible sights. In the smoking cell
lar of two Chinese houses the blackened
bodies OF six Chiramen were seen, three
Others were in the cellar OF another, and
four more bodies We're found near by. From
the position OF some it would seem as
though they had begun to dig a hole in the
cellar to hide themselves, but the fire over
took them, burning their eXt:emities 10 q
crisp and leaving the upper portion of their
bodies untouched.
At the east end of Chinatown another
body was found cllarred by the flames and
mutilated by hogs. The smell that arose
from the smoking ruins was horribly sug-
gestive of burning flesh. Further east were
the bodies of four more Cinnamon, shot
down in their flight.
A Coroner's Jury wa summoned, which,
after examining the bodies, returned a YER
dict that eleven of the Chinese had been
burned to death and five shot by parties I'M
known to the jury.
A number were found seriously wounded,
and how many more may still be wounded
out i'll the hills is unknown. Large num-
bers OF Chinese have been picked up by the
trains going west, and a quantity of pro-
visions was sent out for them Yesterday
morning.