The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-09-06
RACE TROUBLES.
Serious Outbreaks In Louisiana
and Mississippi

0oIAOuO OuCOr00k9 III 1OA4oA3u0
and Mississippi
lndiscrimlnate Shooting ut Gouldsboro,
La, with Several Persons Wounded
Tho Negro Alliance In
Mississippi.
NEW ORLEANS, Sept 2-Yesterday
morning about one O'Clock, at Gretna, fire
broke out in an old frame building occu-
pied by two girls named Lunks. The fire
department responded and the fire was
extinguished. Some time afterwaId an
elarm was again sounded and a crowd
gathered.
Between two and three O'Clock an ex-
cursion train, composed entirely Of colored
people, arrived at the Gouldsboro depot
from Baton Rouge. A large number OF
colored men and women were near the
depot waiting for the train, which
was due at eleven O'Clock. As 1t
drew in one of the excursionists attempted
to get off and fell to the ground. Some
unknown person said: "Look at the
black -" when the negro drew pistol
and fred four or five shots in rapid sue
cession, one of which struck William
Miller, white, brother of one Of the
Gretna police, in the nose and lodged 1t.
self in the back of the neck.
Then the shooting became general. some
four or five hundred shots being fred In
less than fifteen minutes. A terrible
panic occurred, women and children rum
ming in all directions shouting and scream
ing, leaving dishes, baskets, hats, shoes,
etc.
John Rainy, the superintendent of the
Algiers & Gretna street railroad, who
was about two squares away with four
horse cars waiting for the excursion,
stated that the panic caused by the rapid
discharge of firearms was dreadful. He
did not know what caused the trouble,
but the cars on their way down to Algiers
were fired into and one of the bullets
passed through dash board. For time
he and his drivers were in imminent
danger of losing their lives.
About 1880 yesterday morning the light
of a fire was seen near the line between
Algfers and jefferson Parish and an alarm
was turned in and the Algiers fire depart
ment fastened to the scene and found q
large number of men armed with muskets,
etc, and negro church on fire. There
was no water at hand and the church was
entirely consumed.
just after the fire a colored man named
Rem Watkins, aged seventy-five years,
was shot in the breast and slightly
wounded by unknown parties.
The list of casualties in the riot are as
follows: William Miller. white shot in
the face and seriously wounded; Ell Levy,
colored, shot through the forearm; the
wife of Elder Fleming, colored, shot
through the shoulder and very seriously
hurt; Mary Carroll, colored, shot through
the instep and painfully wounded; Ben
Watkins, shot in the right hand and
seriously wounded.
THE MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES.
New ORLEANS. Sept 1.-The Picayune's
Greenwood, Miss. special says: "There
has been for the last month a negro by
the name of Cromwell who has been or.
ganizing, as it was thought, alliances in
that part of the delta. On Wednesday of
last week a number of negroes belonging
to the alliance demanded that some one
beside Cromwell be placed at the head
of the alliance movement as they
claim he was an ex-convict and they
were afraid to trust him. This oc.
Cured at Shell Mound, ten miles above
here on the Tallahatchie river. A
majority of the negroes alliance voted
in favor of Cromwell and retained him in
his position. The next day Cromwell re-
ceiyed letter signed Unanimously with
cross bones, skeletons, etc, ordering him
to quit his work and leave the country,
giving him ten days. He showed ;he
letter TO the negroes and the same evening
the whites at Shell Mound received a
warning letter from parties (negroes) who
signed themselves Three thousand armed
men, who said that they proposed to
stand by Cromwell and that If any efforts
were made to disturb him that they would
kill, burn and destroy Shell Mound.
About seventy.five armed negroes
came into town and talked in a very
loud and threatening manner. The gen.
erai belief is that Cromwell wrote the first
letter himself and had it addressed and
mailed to him at Shell Mound, with the
object of arraying the negroes against
the whites, so the effecs would be to make
the negro alliance, that were opposed to
him. come over and join forces with the
other negroes; but if such was his object it
failed, as they are still holding out against
him Last night our sheriff received in
formation from Sunny Side. fifteen
miles above Shell Mound, that
there were 500 negroes who
were massed In the johnson
field near there and help was needed. He
wired the Governor the situation and
asked for troops, which was responded
to promptly by Governor Lowry in per-
son, bringing with him five companies OF
militia. Governor Lowry has sent two
companies to Sunny Side to report to the
sheriff, who went up there this
morning to see il he could do any thing
with the negroes. The steamboat running
between here and Sharkey has just
come in, bringing number Of
women and children. Governor
Lowry cautions the people to be
free from all violence and not to violate
the law in any particular. but to assist
the county authorities to enforcei it. There
have been several reports from the scene
of trouble this evening, one of which
was that the negroes had left the vicinity
of Sunny Side, breaking up in small
bands Of twenty or thirty, and seem ed to
be sulky and mad"
Bought by Dan Lamont.
NEW YORK. Sept 1.-The franchises
tracks, etc, of the Broadway surface rail.