Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-26
- THE CASE OF HAMS.
1t Is the Great Topic of DIscussiOm--Feel-
 ing In the National Guard.

HOMESTEAD. Pa, July 26.-An indirect result of the shooting of Mir. Prick gives Homestead it's one existing topic of dis cussion. It is the case of-W. l.. Iams, the private of Go. K, Tenth Regiment, who shouted "Hurrah for the man who did it," when told of the act of Berkman, and as punishment was strung up by his thumbs, had one side of his head and half his moustache shaved and was drummed out of camp. In addition to this disgrace the sentence carries with it dishonorable discharge from the National Guard and denial of the right to enlist in the Federal army and the rights of citizenship.
 The Iams case threatens to become national. Homestead people talk of nothing else Even the return of Hugh
 O'Donnell after his release from prison
 was subordinated by it. Letters and
 telegrams denouncing the treatment of the young man have been received in
 Homestead, in Pittsburg, and by the Gov
 ernor of Pennsylvania. One of the pro
 tests to Gov. Pattison was from the Washington correspondents of PennsyI- vania asking for the removal of Lieut.
 Col Streator, who ordered the punish ment to Iams
 When Col, Streator was told of this last night he said if those correspondents came over to his camp and made any such reasonable remarks as those made by Iams, he would treat them in the same way he had treated Iams.
 Young Iams threatens to bring suit against Col Streator and Major Gen. Snowden, but this is by no means the most serious aspect of the case if reports be true. It has caused much feeling in the National Guard, particularly among the rank and file, and members of the Tenth Regiment are authority for the
 statement that Co. K, to which 1ams be- longed, will have to be disbanded, because | its men do not intend to re-enlist after | their present terms of enlistment have | expired.
 Several Tenth Regiment men made this | statement. They say that Iams was not | popular, but they wish to show their dis | approval of his punishment by leaving | the militia.
 Officers of the troops almost generally ! approve Col. Streator's action. Col. Case, of the Fourth Regiment, told his men that | if any of them indulged in any jubilation over Berkman's crime he would treat l them the same way. But if Col. Case had heard the expressions of some of his | soldiers to a reporter he would have dis l covered that they do not share his views in | approving the humiliating punishment ac- corded to Private Iams.
 They condemned Iams' remark, but
 thought his punishment brutal and out
 rageous. Officers of Iams' regiment, the | Tenth, were seemingly a unit in uphold ing Col. Streator. They grew heated 1T
 their condemnation of the disgraced pri
 vate and lauded their commander for his
 action. If many of the officers think Iams
 was treated harshlY, they failed to say SO
 A few of them, however, made comments
 not hattering to Streator's action. Iams, the disRraced man, came to Home
 stead yesterday from Pittsburg, where h,
 spent the night. He was looking for Col 1 Streator. He crossed the river to tht
 camp of the Tenth and was told that Col
 Streator had crossed to the other side
 Iams came back, but did not find tn
 colonel. He then went back to Pitts l burg.