Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1892-08-20
NUMBER 30.
SWlTCHME EN-
Employed by the Erie and Lehigh Valley
Road strike--Property Belonging to the
Company Destroyed by Incendiary Fires.

Company Destroyed by Incendiary Fires.
BUFFALO, n. Y, Aug. l5.-There is
no further Disgusting the fact that the
strike of the Erie and Lehigh Valley
switchmen is a serious matter.
Property belonging to the railroad
company has been destroyed by incen-
diary fires; men engaged in the peace
ful performance of their duties in the
company's service have been assaulted
and sent to the hospitals; the movement
of trains has been seriously inter-
fered with and the lives of innocent
persons whowere in no way connected
with the strike and had not even heard
of it, have been endangered by the de-
railment of passenger train on one Of
the roads, Such is the indictment up
to the hour of writing. There had been
more or less i'll feeling Saturday be-
tween the strikers and their sympath.
izers and the men who were doing the
strikers work, and few desultory as
saults had occurred.
Things began to put on more serious
aspect at 2 o'clock Sunday morning,
when series of incendiary fires broke
out simultaneously in the Lehigh VAL
ley yards. Eighteen or twenty freight
&c . nlled with wool, cotton, hay and
various other merchandise, two kssssen-
ger cars two watchmen houses were
burnt The fires occurred at places
where the fremen could not successful
ly stay the flames on account Of an alb
sence of water, besides the difficulty OF
accession to the fires.
The water tank adjacent to the coal
trestles was smashed and an engine that
was taking water there wrecked by a
string Of ten runaway coal cars that
had been turned loose from the trestle.
Fire was first discovered In the east.
bound yards, east of Dingens street.
Here little office building and two or
three freight cars were destroyed. AT
this time Yardmaster Mead discovered
flames in two passenger coaches, used
for the conveyance of workmen and
turned in an alarm from William and
Dingens streets.
In the yards east of Dingens street
fire ragged among the cars OF merchan-
disc 1t took hose from three carts to
reach the flames from the nearest
hydrant. The firemen however, pre-
vented the destruction of great num-
Der of cars, and the loss of perhaps
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of property. The cars destroyed were
in the midst of a great number Of other
| cars.
The. fremcn uncoupled number Of
cars and removed them from danger.
| A dozen or so of cars were thrown from
| the Lehigh tracks and similar number
from the Erie by misplaced switches.
The first intimation of any thing
wrong was when the coal cars were set
loose and demolished the water tank.
| Capt. Wurtz of the eleventh precinct
put a force of a dozen officers in the
the yard as soon as the alarm was given.
| The officers We're unable to find any
suspicious characters That, briefly,
is what had happened up to day
light Sunday morning. But that
was only the beginning The strik.
crs, or their sympathizers, have pulled
pins, turned switches and driven off
crews Three men are at the hospital
| badly hurt. One was assaulted at 8
o'clock Sunday morning, two Others at
| II and another at in the afternoon.
| The man who was assaulted at the
| Western New York and Pennsylvania
crossing was on his way for the wreck
er at the time and was turning a switch.
| The strikers had turned switches and
| thrown six cars from his train before
| that.
They say the Erie is thoroughly de-
moralizcd on account of the strike, and
that every side track on the Buffalo
division is completely blocked. Two
trains of freight cars standing on sid
ings at Cheelitowaga, the railroad SUBJ
urb of Buffalo, We're burned Sunday
night
The Lehigh has called on the sheriff
for protection. He sent six deputies to
| the scene and will swear in fifty more
Monday morning. The police have
yards in seven out of eleven precincts
in the city to guard and all the reserves
are called out. The man arrested Sun
day for assault has been charged with
| rioting,