The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-11-29
A NEW YORK MOB.
ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK ON THE
TRIBUNE OFFICE IN 1868
A Set of Alarmed Typos-Rioters sackina
the Notwithstanding the Doors
Charge of the Police Navy Yard
Bombs.
IThe Journalist /

Tribune office in lS65. SAID Amos NuHi'
mings in the Press club recently, "but none
of them written by any ono who was
a participant in that fight l saw the whole
thing from the beginning to the end On
the day before the riot i had been mustered
out of service from the Twenty-sixth New
Jersey volunteers at Newark, n. j. / had
left a competitors case in The Tribune oilic &c
to join the regiment, AMI had served my
time in the field. On receiving six months'
pay and ray discharge papers, | felt Ike a
bird loosed from r. cage.
son the morning of the 18Th went to
The Tribune office, and was surprised to see
quite crowd collected around tho count
ing-room The building where the draft
was being made had been burned down on
the preceding night and there was much ex-
element All the militia had been sent to
Pennsylvania to stop Gen. Lees advance,
and there was no regiment i'll the city.
went upstairs into The Tribune composing
room to talk with the boys. Smith o. Brien.
an old Tribune compositor, offered me $40
to sub for him, or work at his case that
night / took him up on the instant All
the compositors vera alarmed, and If
/ had waited 1 could probably have
got $50 bonus. Every man supposed that
the office was going to be mobbed, and stood
in fear of his life. | had hardly begun to
distribute type when my brother who had
served in the army with me, came in and
accepted IA bonus of $50 to work for another
regular conpositor.
SACKING THE OFFICE.
'"rhs crowd in front of the Office grew
greater, and the air was fllal with curses
and imprecatioas A few compositors de-
serted their cases early in the afternoon.
Those who remained were extremely nerv-
Gus, and did but little work. AT
twilight l went to the corner win
dow on the top floor and looked
out into Park place. The mob had
grown until it reached across the street,
end stopped over into the park. IL was COM
posed of boys AMI many men, who APP
pearsj to be respectable. The day was
very hot, AMI many were IN their shirt
sleeves. The sidewalk was packed so that
pedestrians could not pass. The doors OF
the counting-room were closed, but the gas
was lighted, and old Ephraim <. Jenny and
a few of the clerks stood at their desks
The yelling and confusion was indescriba-
ble 1 heard jingling of glass on the
pavement / saw rush and l knew that
the doors had been broken open, and that
the office was being sacked. l saw in the
twilight bundles of newspapers, ledgers and
stationery, hurled through the windows a
bundle of newspapers was caught by man
wearing linen coat, whose ferocity was SO
great that he tore the loose Tribunes in bits
with his teeth.
"The mob had possession of the counting
room fully ten minutes The affrighted
competitors climbed up a narrow rickety
stairway leading to the roof of the building,
and made their escape through the scuttle
on Tammany hall. Only four of them re-
manned III the composing-room These four
were: Peter Hackett, now dead. Sylvester
Bailey, now a compo5tor on The Sunday
Democrat, my brother, also dead, and my
SaYf hiatt boI of rafia olr=
and Charlottesville, this row seemed to be
only a farce. / could conceive of nothing
more ridiculous. As to leaving the build
ing, never thought of it. We got the old
printing "turtles, for there was no stereotyp-
ing then, together and barrica1ed the door
of the composing-room with them. had a
revolver and the three men with me armed
themselves with lead side-sticks We knew
that we could hold the narrow iron stair
way against 1000 men if necessary
Bailey and my brother had been
in the army with me and were old soldiers.
Peter Hackett had learned military tactics
at Irish fairs.
after barricading the doors l went to
the front windows The mob had set the
counting room on fire, and many of them
were in the street shouting to me to come
down and avoid being burned with the
building. l drew the revolver and. was
Rocker, now editor of The Albany Press
AMI knickerbocker, and then night editor
OF Tho Tribune, caught me- by the arm and
said:
"'Don't shoot, for Gods sakel 1t is bad
enough as it ISL
"He had come up stairs from the editorial
room and climbed over tho turtles took
his advice. part OF the mob stood
around the Spruce street entrance to the
ppxjn nj pal Of
positors, editors and reporters, who had
tried to escape in that way, had been
roughly handled.
SQUAD OF POLICE.
"While was standing at the window /
saw a dark line Of men coming M
Spruce street Wy few gas lamps had been
lighted. the upper windows OF The Times
building were filed with compositors AMI
others watching the scene. The line of men
proved to be squad OF police headed by
Capt. Thomas Thorne. q warm friend of
Horace Greeley. l could sec them advanc-
ing with q steady front by the light III The
Times building. Mr.. Greeley was not in
the Office when the attack was made. He
had lett early in the afternoon and had mar
rowly escaped violence at the hands of the
mob
"Thorne'S force came upon the rioters
like tornado. Clubs alone were used, but
the hands of the rioters. In one minute the
plaza cleared. Probably fifty men
were writing on the pavement, and it
looked as though some of them had been
killed. All, however, were wounded The
most of them Were suffering from blows in
fiicted by the billies. It must have been
about o'clock in the evening whom Tkorne
made his charge.
Il went over to the Park barracks and got
some old soldiers who were quartered there
to come over to The Tribune office and stand
guard. Among them was Tom Holmes, of
the Fifth Wisconsin regiment, a brother OF
Ned Holmes. now managing editor OF The
New York DISPATCH / remember that in
walking tn rough the debris of the counting
room Tom picked up a roll Of greenbac&s,
aggregating over $500, which he afterward
returned to Sinclair, the publisher of the
a. III ho| al off,