The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-04
ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
Striking Cloak Makers Driven to
Desperation
Starvation Turns Them Into a Desperate
Band Of Rioters.
Bosses and NOl-UliOl Employers Attacked
and Many Persons Seriously
Injured.

~ Special Dispatches to THE MORNING CALL
NEW YORK. July at has been feared
for some time that starvation would
force the striking cloak-makers to
acts Of violence. Those fears were
realized to-day. 1t has been a
matter of common notoriety for several
days past that these unfortunate people
have actually been in awful straits. and
few have been confronted with the neces-
sity of leaving their homes for lack Of
money to pay rent
Last night several families were out on
the streets all night, and the men this morn
ing were driven to point of desperation,
and about 200 Of them went over to their old
workshops. They massed in front of Meyer,
JonassOn & Co.'S place, and the Mercantile
Cloth Co., two of the largest firms in the
city. Joseph Lereburger. buyer in the
employ of Meyer, Jonasson & Co.,
came down the street and when
the strikers saw him they made
q rush at him, and Lereburger was badly
beaten before he managed to escape from
the mob.
The success Of their attack upon the first
victim seemed TO- turn the usually peaceful
men into body of rioters. They ran down
to Jonasson's store and, the front doors
being open, a few of the bolder ones
entered and seized the Office boy, Charles
Butler, and in a second he was receiving
tie same kind of blows which fell upon
Lereberger
William Wyner, an operator. Joseph Roe
delheimer, packer, and Book-keeper Sims
were next to receive similar treatment 10
that accorded to the other two. Two
Italians were then attacked, but
they drew weapons, and the strikers
fed The mob next gathered around a
cUak-maker named KunZe. He did not
get away so easily as the other men. When
the police, who had been notified, came run
ming down the street. they strikers scattered
leaving Kunze on the sidewalk bleeding
from half a dozen cuts in his head. They
must have kicked him, as his injuries
were serious.
All this time another detachment of
strikers had been busy two blocks below
They were men who had been in the en-
ploy of the Mercantile Cloak Company,
in front Of Meyer, Jonasson &
Co.'S and waited for the workmen
to come along. They were rewarded Just
DEIOI6 . o CLOCK. Nltn LLlbS SuITOuDuHu the
men aud struck them badly half dozen
times. aud then chased them upstairs. The
mob was then scattered by the police.
While all this was going on another
angry mob of striking cloak-nakers
collected at the corner of Rivington aud
Eldridge streets, determined to obtain
work or prevent the bosses from employing
non-uniOn workers.
Samuel Villet, Pole. had about a score
of men making cloaks for him. He did not
like the looks of the strikers. Accordingly
he locked and barred his doors.
About 11:30 o'clock, when the crowd
was the largest, Villet and his en-
plOyes were startled by a crash, The
strikers had broken open the door
and a mob OF about thirty, led by
Abraham Rosenberg, rushed in upon them.
They demanded that all hands stop work,
aud meeting with no success began to make
threats and intlmidate Nillet and the work
men.
The strikers threw out of the windows
the plush cioaks which were being made,
Pandemonium relgned and the streets
in that vicinity were filed with a
becoming terrorized, and after receiving an
ugly slash across his right eye with a
knife, whipped out a revolver and
fired two shots. One bullet lodged
in the back of Abraham Rosenberg
and with shrek he staggered out on the
street. At this moment the police arrived.
They captured Nilet and eighteen other
persons and carriedthem off to Jail Rosen-
berg was removed to the hospital, where he
lies in a precarious condition.
Tonight 200 Jews on the East Side
mObbed the driver of cloak manufacturers
loaded truck, on which also rode a
policeman. The latter caught the mob
leader and let his club fall on his head so
often that he collapsed and the crowd skunk
away.