The Livingston enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1914, 1892-07-23
FRANK ESLER, Hades.


Since last Monday morning Frank
Eisler has been fugitive, fasting, fleeing,
watching and waiting in the Occur d
Alane hills. He is the brother of A. NJ.
Eser 'af the Frisco mine and has general
change of. the property. His courage
and fearlessness led many to believe
that he visited the strikers and was shot
full of holes after the mill was blown up,
but his brother, who was in Spokane,
learned soon after the disaster that such
was not the case.
The reason why the strikers have been
so bitter against Frank Esler is the fact
that he has been very energetic in
bringing non-union men into the Frisco
mine. He ran the Frisco boys in from
Tekoa through the threatening gangs of
strikers and in every ease was success
full He was seen last night and told
fight at the mill that has already been
told. He knew that the mill and men
were in danger. and particularly him
self, and bat for timely caution he prob
ably would have Jared much worse than
even the men who were hunted in the
swamps at the Mission.
II knew the strikers might do some
thing desperate" he said last night,
land l prepared for any emergency. l
was careful to select two safe retreats
in case we were in any way driven from
the works. One was in one of the tun-
nels on the hill above the mill, and the
other was in a fiume near the mill. This
tlume carried water to the Gem, and
was by far the better retreat by reason
of its natural position. The strikers
fired dozen shots before our men
cooked rifle. ordered them to wait
when the first shot was fired. but when
We saw they meant business we tried the
sides it was pretty tough, but when they
blew up the mill | saw the jig was up
and made for the tiume. | carried in a
bucket of water, an ak. a pick and
crowbar. / expected that they would
hunt for me in every crevice and that
they might set fire to the f1ume, but they
did not. They thought | was in the
ruins of the mill. At the same time they
looked around for me. was in a posi-
! tion to see everything around me and
! counted over 100 strikers. | lay there
all that day and about IL o'clock at night
crawled out. A fiume is damp place, |
tell you and every bone in my body
creaked.
81 secured gun and took to the hills,
but did not go far. / thought at first
that l would go around by Granite, but
had no food nor water, and knew that
it would take me three days to get to
Wallace. / returned to the railroad
track and determined to risk going
through Gem. | made up my mind that
if did not meet more than three men
at one time l would have show. l was
satisfied that could drop two of them
and the third might suddenly change
his mind. Unexpectedly l saw three
men very near me, coming down on one
side of the railroad track. intended to
try the "dago racket" if they stopped
me, and use the sign language. They
did not stop me, for | was not recog-
nized. l passed through Gem without
much difficulty, though l had to pass
several men.
"When l reached Wallace l stole in
the back door of the Carter house, got
something to eat and warned the propri-
etor to not give me away. and to deny
all rumors that | was alive. | got a
field glass there, and taking some pro-
visions and water, took to the hills above
the town. l made trips to the hotel
nightly and lived that way for five days
and nights. With the field glass | could
see everything that was gong on below,
but did not venture out until saw
the troops come in
The Cmur d'AIene Trouble.