Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-10-11
The Unfortunate. Royalty Treated.
STATEMENT OF THE OTHER SIDE.
One of the Negroes Tells the Cause 81
the Riot-Mahone'- Cruelty.

One of the Negroes Tells the Cause of
the Riot-Mahone'- Cruelty.
BALTIMORE, Md, Oct 1.-The steamer
Pirott arrived here y esterday afternoon from
Kingston, Jamaica. bringing with her a copy
Of The Jamhica Post Of Oct. l, which pub
fishes full story OF the riot recently on Ma
,assa island The Post contains a statement
from Charles Davenport, one OF the negroes
on the island, which puts an entirely differ
snt face on the trouble He saws that the
man James Malone, who was shot, came to
the island ms car boss and from time TO
time he considerably ill-treated the men
After Superintendent TiIton died on Sent
., Malone pun,-n-a Ave s..on aatiy.
This demoralizsd the men, and he had neither
method nor discipline. He punished them
by placing them IN stocks, Handwriting them,
aud hanging them up by the hands.
Boss Ma homes brutality.
Davenport goes on to tell about the cruel
ty pracriced by Malone against a man who
had been IN the hospital for twenty DAYS
When the sick man was discharged from the
hospital Malone put him at work for which
bis condition was not fit. He objected and
Malone took him by the neck, shook him
severely and took him back TO Jail, when
Jones triced him up About ! 80 the doc
tor let him down, but Malone triced him up
again and took away the keys of the hand
cuffs. But DIR. Smith had him taken down
again AMI had the handouts cut off DIR.
Smith was generally recognized by the men
as superintendent, but, in fact, everybody
was boss, for the men had orders written by
Roby and DR. Smith and others as superin-
tendent
The Lsborers Quit Work.
Next morning Roby had a conflict with
two men named Phillips and Francis. Fiji
teen minutes after that the carmen came
down, and Robinson, who was their spckes-
man, demanded to see the superintendent.
They said to Smith, who claimed to be su-
perintendent: ave want to see you with
regard to the treatment Of this man-the
man who was tried by Mahone. We are
American citizens, and not slaves" Smith
made the men go to their quarters at the
point OF gun. Half an hour later all the
white men had their revolvsrs and guns in
their hands. They called on the men to como
up Jones was foremost aud the men fled out
and came over, and they were called off, man
by man. DIR. Smith was the officers spokes-
man, and he and they had cooked revolvers
and guns A. each man filed past he was
"Then pass on"
Outbreak of the Riot.
When James Phillips came along he said:
Yes, II am properly treated" Mr. Jones
Immediately jumped out at him and put a
pistol to his head. 'Don't move" he said.
"or I'll blow your brains out" He shot
with the last word, and Phillips fell, shot
through the jaw. Well, there was about
dozen guns, and Immediately they were fired
simultaneously. The men-about 100 in all
then picked up stones from the road and
threw at the officers The latter retreated
and got under cover, while the laborers
picked up the pistols that fell. The white
men began firing upon the men again.
About 2 o'clock they ceased firing DIR.
Smith then came out and said: "Men, there
Is vessel in the harbor. You can go to
Kingston or England in it. We won't exer-
ercise any further control over you" The