The Portland daily press., 1886-02-09
TREMENDOUS DISTURBANCE.
Fifty Thousand Unemployed Men Riot.
ing in London Streets.
The Police Brushed Away Like Men
Of Straw,
Beaten and Compelled to Release All
Prisoners.
Hotels, Club Houses and Residences
Raided and Ruined.
John Bright's Old Home Almost
a Total Wreck.
Not One Person Killed Or Reported
Seriously Injured.
The Mob Quietly DisperSes at Mid
night.
John Bright's Old Home Almost
a Total Wreck.
Not One Person Killed or Reported
Seriously Injured.
The Mob Quietly Disperses at Mid
night.

LONDON, Feb. S.--The starving mechan-
ics' of London held mass meeting today in
Trafalgar Square around the Nelson monu-
ment, and it resulted in a riot. The proceed
ings were opened with an assemblage of 1O,-
600 men. The police were present in large
numbers. The socialistlc element of London
greatly predominated in the crowd, which
was also managed by well-known Socialists,
and extraordinary vigilance was ordered to
preserve the peace at all hazards. Conspic-
uous among the leaders of the multitude was
Mr.. Burns, who ran as the Socialist candi-
date in Nottingham in the recent election.
He sneered at the police and acted generally
as if he wished to bring abouta conflict be-
tween them and the people. Finally he as
cended the pedestal of the Nelson column
for the purpose of delivering a harangue
He was well aware that this act wonld not
be tolerated and the police politely ordered
him to get down. This he refused to do,
appealing to the crowd to resist the Inter
ference with the exercise of popular rights"
The officers, however. were determined, and
they pushed their way through the excited
and surgng mass of humanity, and by force
moved Burns from the pedestal.
BY this time the crowd had vastly increased
and the streets adjacent were packed with
surging mobs. The stir on the elevated spot
where the Burns incident took place was
easily perceptible over almost the entire
area covered by the concourse, and the sight
of helmets and uniform in the struggle was
accepted as visible proof of the commence
ment of fight. This sight was responded
to with general and fearful howl, and an
attempted rush from all directions to the
point of interest.
Burns had now been removed some dis
tance from the position he had attempted to
fcARyu Ha hefaaeeffI anu rAabberafe Der effort
to recover his ground. He was so effective
" helped by the mob that the officers on
the spot were brushed out of the way, and
the orator was soon pressed up against the
monument. He quickly reaScended the ped
estal accompanied by number of other So
cialist leaders. Burns bore red flag, and
he waved it to the assemblage as a signal
of his triumph over the authorities He was
greeted with deafening shouts repeated
again and again.
Burns then leisurelv finished his address
and read forcibly worded resolution. This
denounced the authors of the present dis
tress in England" demanded that Parlia-
ment start public works to give employ
ment and bread to the tens of thousands of
deserving men who are out of work through
no fault of their own, but because of bad
government; declared that it was the duty
of the government to afford every facility for
the employment of British capital at home
for the benefit of the British people and to
give British enterprise the preference over
foreign and asserted that the time had ar
rived for Parliament to earnestly legislate
for the relief of the depression in the Eng
lish agricultural industries. The resolutions
demanded the immediate appointment of a
minister of commerce and a minister of agri-
culture They concluded with the resolve
that copies should be forwarded to Mr. Glad
stone, Lord Salisbury, Mr.. Parnell and the
board of public works.
The reading of the resolutions was accom-
panied by fierce comment and short speeches
of explanation by various orators who stood
with Burns. Some of these orators went so
far as to warn the government that, although
the Starving machines" of London were at
tempting to draw attention to their needs by
quiet and peaceful agitation, they were
bound to get bread and would get it by at
tacking the bakers shops next, if the gov
ernment did not come to their relief.
Burns himself, in one of these side
speeches, denounced the present House of
Commons as body Of landlords and capital
lists, for whom hanging was too good He
also declared that the people had assembled
to summon Parliament to relieve Immediate
ly the distress of the British working men,
that the people wanted the question settled
at once, and peacefully II possible, otherwise
a revolution was inevitable.
All this so aggravated the excitement of
the huge mob that the police formed with
increasing force and made another assault
They succeeded in forcing their way up to
the pedestal They reached this point just
as the resolutions which had already been
offered and seconded were about to be sub
mitted::. They ordered the proceedings to be
discontinued on the pedestal, dragged Burns
and his colleagues down by force and drove
them from the PEDESTAL 1t was evident that
Burns expected that an application Of force
to him would precipitate riot, and that it
was also apparent that the officers imme-
diately edgaged in removing the orators
feared an attack. But the men composing
the mob were not yet in fighting humor, and
the mob contented itself for the time by
hootng the police and smothering them with
flour, dirt and garbage. The officers be-
hayed admirably under this abuse and at
tempted no revenge
After they were elected, neither Burns nor
any of his colleagues made any further at
tempts to get back; They at once left the
scene and proceeded to the wall Of the Ma
tional Gallery. They mounted the wall, point
ed to the doors and bitterly denounced the
inmates. This looked like an attempt to set
the mob on the building. The mob was ex-
cited, but not up to the point of violence
yet
Burns and his colleagues seeing this va
Gated the National Gallery wall and proceed
ed to the Carlton Club, where they repeated
their tactics. BY this time the mob was tre-
III duu NClSillS Ou utSpSI-
alton. Stories of what the police had said
and done at the Nelson column had been cir
culated from mouth to mouth, to be exag-
gerated with every repetition until the
starving mechanics" were convinced that
the authorities had actually dared them to
conflict, and such fire as was ready for igni-
tion and within touching distance was in
famed by the speeches delivered on the Carl
ton Club steps.
The mob was then split up into many di-
visions by being forced down different
streets by the pressure from Trafalgar
Square to get nearer the occurrences at the
club houses. and various divisions started
off, hooting, bowling and challenging the au-
thorities. The invaded streets were at once
abandoned to the rioters, who, finding them
selves no longer opposed, vented their i'll.
will against the well housed people, and
against the clubs, by stoning the dwellings
and club houses along the way.
At the time of the closing dispatches, all
that part of the city in the neighborhood of