Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-01-29


with propriety, saluting Chilian and other
officers as they met them. Other officers
of the ship and Capt jenkins of the mer-
chant ship Keweenaw cOrroborate Capt.
Schley as to the general sobriety and good
behavior of our men. The sisters of charity
at the hospital, to whom our wounded men
were taken, when inquired of stated that
they were sober when received. If the sit
uation had been otherwise we must believe
that the CHILEAN police authorities would
have made arrests. About p. VI. the as
sault began, and it is remarkable that the
| investigation by the judge of crimes, though
so protracted, does not enable him to give
any more satisfactory account Of the origin
than is found in the statement that it be
gan between drunken sailors. Repeatedly
in the correspondence it is asserted that it
was impossible to learn the precise cause
OF the riot. The minister of foreign affairs
Malta. in his telegram to Mr.. Mont, under
date December 81, states that the quarrel
began between two sailors in tavern and
was continued in the street, persons who
were passing joining in it.
The testimony Of Talbot, an apprentice,
who was with Riggin, is that the outbreak
in which they were involved began by a
CHILEAN sailor splitting in the face of Talbot,
which was resented by a knock-down. 1t
| appears that Riggin and Talbot were at
the time unaccompanied by any other of
their shpmates. These two men were i'm
mediately beset by a crowd of CHILEAN citi-
zens and sailors, through which they broke
their way to a street car and entered it for
safety. They were pursued, driven from
the car, and Riggin was so seriously beaten
that he fell in the street, apparently dead.
There is nothing in the report of the
Chilian investigation made to us that Sc
riOusly impeaches this testimony. 1t APP
pears from CHILEAN sources that almost
instantly, with a suddenness that strongly
/ implies meditation and preparation, mob,
stated by the police authorities at one time
to number 2000 and at another 1000, was
engaged in the assault upon our sailors,
who are represented as resisting "with
stones, clubs and bright arms. The re-
| port of the intendente of October 80 states
that the fight began at r. NJ, in three
streets, which are named; that information
was received at the intendencia at G:l5 and
that the police arrived on the scene at $50,
a full half-hour after the assault began.
| At that time he says that mob of 2OOO
men had collected and that for several
! squares there was the appearance of "a
real battlefield
The scene at this point is very graphic
| ally set before us by the Gillian testimony.
! The American sailors, who after so long
an examination. have not been found guilty
of any breach of the peace, so far as the
CHILEAN authorities are able to discover,
| unarmed and defenceless, are fleeing for
their lives, pursued 10y overwhelming num-
bers and fighting only to aid their own es-
cape from death or to succor some mate
whose life is in greater peril. Eighteen of
| them are brutally stabbed and beaten,
! while one Gillian seems, from the report,
| to have suffered some injury. But how
! serious or with what character of weapon
or whether by missile thrown by our men
or by some of his w-riOters, is unas-
certained. The pretence that our men were
! lighting with stones, clubs and bright
arms is, in view of these facts, incredible.
1t is further refuted by the fact that our
| prisoners when searched were absolutely
without arms, only seven pen-knives being
found in the possession of the men arrest
ed, while there were received by our men
! more than 80 stab wounds, every one OF
which was inflicted in the back, and al
most every confused wound was i'm the
| back or back Of the head. The evidence
of the ships officer of the day is that even
| the jack-knives of the men were taken from
them before leaving the ship
AS to the brutal nature of the treatment
received by our men, the following extract
from the account given of the affair by the
La Patria newspaper of Valparaiso of Octo-
Der II, cannot be regarded as too friendly
The Yankees. as soon as their pursuers gave
chase, went by way of the Gale Del arsenal toward
! the city car station. In the presence of an ord
| nary number Of citizens among whom were some
| sailors, the North Americans took seats in the
| street ear to escape from the stones which the
| ChanS threw at them. II was believed for an
| instant that the North Americans had saved them
| selves from popular fury, but such was not the
| case. Scarcely had the car begun to move. when
crowd gathered around and stopped its pro
| gress. Under these circumstances and without
| any cessation of the bowling and throwing of
stones at the North Americans, the conductor en-
| tered the car and seeing the risk of the situation
| to the vehicle ordered them to get out. The in
| slant the sailors left the car, in the midst of a
hail of stones, the said conductor received stone
| blow ON the head one of the American sailors
| managed to escape in the direction of the Plaza
Wheelwrght but the other was felled to the
| ground by a stone. Managing to raise himself
| FROM the ground where he lay, he staggered in al
opposite direction from the station in front of thu
| house of Senior MaZZini where he was again wound
| ed, falling SenSelesS and GREATNESS.
No amount of evasion or subterfuge is able
to cloud our clear vision of this brutal work
1t should be noticed, in this connection
|
examination, We're, during the four day,
following the arrest, every one discharged
no charge of any breach of the peace OF
other criminal conduct having been sus
tanned against single one of them.
Mr.. Harrison then goes on to give fact,
proving the general spirit of hostility towarc
the United States which prevailed on tn,
part of the Chilians. The evidence i'm tn,
possession of our government shows tina
the attack was premeditated, and that i
was known by the Gillian people that i
was to be made. The reports printed il
the Valparaiso newspapers show that tn,
attack began in several places at the sam,
time, and the evidence of Americans VIII,
were then in Valparaiso is to the same eff
feet. As to the participation of the police
the evidence of our sailors shows that on
men were struck and beaten by police of
ficers before and after arrest, and that on,
at least was dragged with lasso about hi
neck by a mounted policeman. Even grant
ing that the attack was not intended tn
injury to our men was so grievous as to a
least call for an expression of sympath,
and regret from the CHILEAN government
but nothing of the sort was ever rendered.
Dignihed and Patriotic Language.
In closing his message President Har
risOn gives expression to his own persona
feeling in this matter in the following par