The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-10

New York since war times; had the right
of line in the famous riots of 1871, and not
even in that occurrence or IN any ether
similar one before or since, have l seen a
| crowd either attack the police force or
openly resist them. The American rioter
does not fig t. Fe will throw stones from
a house top or from some ether safe want
age ground he may pile distractions upon
the car tracks when the police are not look
ing, but if the bluecoats app ar be either
takes 10 his heels or staEds still so inn ocently
that no ore can say that he has boon an
offender. Nevertheless, the methods pur-
sued by the rioters in this city, who by the
way are very largely made up in all in
stances Of men who have no connection
with the Gauss that induced the excitement,
are such as TO give the police great annoy
ance and put them in considerable personal
danger. 1t is no pleasant thing to be sub
jecsed to a fire Of missiles from house tops,
nor is it an easy thing to prevent it. More
than once during the recent strikes l sent
men 10 the house tops to clear them, one de-
tacnment going up at one end Of the block
and the other at the other end. My aim
was to place the rioters on the house tops
between two fires, but when the police
had reached the roofs the stone throyers
had disappeared down the scuttle Of one of
the intermediate buildings. 1t Is so whom
out of dense crowd of several
thousand men volley of stones is
fired at a mere handful of police
men. This policemen charge and the crowd
scatters, f ring as they go, but never stand
ing up to make fight of it. Ii they did
once take it into their heads to resist the
police vigorously, am afraid we would be
hard pu- to it. | cannot help thinking of
one incident mat occurred on Second avenue
during the recent strike. We heard at
headquarters that several thousand people
were ob5tructing the tracks between Thirty
4. 1
wagons full Of policemen Immediately went
to The scene and found the report true We
removed the distractions and dispersed the
crowd as well as we could, but there were
so many Of them that it was impossible to
get the streets wholly clear. | was standing
on the sidewalk wden q stone whistled past
my head ami broke against the brick wall
OF a building near me. I could not tell WHO
threw the stone, but directly ia front of
me there was big burly fellow standing
VINO wa plainly melting his comrades to
disturbance. ] ordered him to move on and
he refused to bulge, whereupon | struck
him sInsrtly across the back. He neither
WINGED nor moved, and twice more brought
my loIg night club down upon his shoulder
with all my force, whereupon he turned
about and coolly asked: ''Did you speak to
me, sirI' His nonchalancs is a pretty fair
sample Of the general attitude Of some riot
ers. They do not seem to mind a clubbing
in the least. They will either stand and
take it, or take it running
AGooD DEAL HAS BEEN SAID
about the use Of firearms in emergencies of
this kind. l shrink from advising it. IL is
a bad thing to shoot a man down in the
street. The unfortunate victim may have
been acting out of pure ignorance. He was
undoubtedly misled by INSCRIPTIONS leaders,
and in his intentions was law-abiding
man. AS long as the club proves efticacious
in quelling disturbance, l shall certainly
not give orders for the general use Of pis-
tolls Our policemen understand, Of course,
that in ca5e of necessary defense of their
own lives or the lives of property of inno-
cent citizens, the use Of firearms would not
only he justified, but imperative. l do
not believe that the time is likely to come
when we shall have to adopt more violent
measures to quel disturbances than we did
recently. The prestige Of the New York
police is 50 reat, they are known to
be SO prompt and energetic in dispensing a
mob, that few men except the most desper-
ate ever care to stand against them. In the
great throng Of people brought to the street
by general excitement the really "desper-
ATE characters are comparatively few in
number; the rest are curious idlers; in
many cases mischievOus boys who, while
perfectly content to egg on the excitement,
are in no way willing to take their share in
the penalty for it. THOMAS BYRNEs.