Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-01-30
(uurtinued from third pagc,


:
Cause of the Attack.
The president then reviews the iIifi-
dents of the affair, asserting that the
sailors who were attacked were sober
and well behaved, which was verified by
the Sisters of Charity at the hospital
whence they were taken. He proceeds:
The testimony of Talbot, an appren-
tice who was with Riggin, is that the
outbreak in which they were involved
began by Chilean sailor splitting in the
face of Talbot, which was resented by q
Touchdown. These two men were i'm
medlately beset by a crowd of Chilean
citizens and sailors, through which they
broke their way to a street car and en-
tered 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 Chilean investigation
made to us that seriously impeaches this
testimony.
At the Mercy of the Mob.
It appears from Chilean sources that
almost instantly, with suddenness that
strongly implies meditation and prepar-
alton, mob, stated by the police au-
thorities at one time to number 1900
and at another 200, was engaged in the
assault upon our sailors, who are rep
resented as resisting with stones, clubs
and bright arms"
The report of the intendente of Oct.
80 states that the fight began at p. IN.
and that the police arrived ON the scene
at $3.50, full half hour after the assault
began.
At that time he says that mob Of
1900 men had collected and that for
several squares there was the appear
ance of "a real battlefield"
The scene at this point is very graphi-
cally set before us by the Chilean testi-
mony. 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 de-
fenseless, are fleeing for their lives, pur
sued by overwhelming numbers and
fighting only to aid their own escape
from death or to succor some mate
whose life is in greater peril. Eighteen
of them are brutally stabbed and beaten,
while one Chilean seems, from the re-
port, to have suffered some injury.
The president then refers to the evil
dence to prove that our sailors were I'M
armed, and quotes from Chilean news
paper to prove that they were at the
mercy of a mob. and says of the alleged
charges against them:
Our Sailors Not Guilty.
No amount of evasion or subterfuge
is able to cloud our clear vision of this
brutal work.
1t should be noticed in this connection
that the American sailors arrested after
an examination were, during the four
days following the arrest, every one dis
charged, no charge of any breach of the
peace or other criminal conduct having
been sustained against single one of
them.
The judge of crimes, Foster, in a note
to the intendente. under date of Oct. %
before the dispatch from this govern
ment of the following day, which
aroused the authorities of Chile to bet
ter sense of the gravity of the affair
says;
this court in regard to the seamen of the
United States cruiser Baltimore, who
have been tried on account of deplorable
conduct which took place." etc.
The noticeable point here is that our
sailors had been tried before the 22d of
October, and that the trial resulted in
their acquittal and return to their vessel.
1t is quite remarkable and quite char
acteristic of the management of this af-
fair by the Chilean police authorities
that we should now be advised that Sea-
man Davidson, of the Baltimore, has
heen included in the Indictment, his Of
tense being, so far as l have been able to
ascertain, that he attempted to defend a
shipmate against an assailant who was
striking at him with knife. The per-
feet vindication of our men is furnished
by this report. One only is found to
have been guilty of original fault, and
that for an act clearly justifable.
AS to the part taken by the police in
the affair the case made by Chile is also
far from satisfactory. The point where
Riggin was killed is only three minutes
walk from the police station, and not
more than twice that distance from the
intendencia, and yet, according to their
official report, full half hour elapsed
after the assault began before the police
were upon the ground.
Chilean Hatred of Americans.
The evidence of existence of luminosity
towards our sailors in the minds of the
sailors of the Chilean Eavy, and of the
populace of Valparaiso, are so abundant
mind of any one who will examine the
papers submitted.
1t manifested itself in threatening and
insulting gestures towards our men as
they passed the Chilean men-of-war in
their boats, and in the derisive and
abusive epithets with which they greeted
every appearance of an American sailor
on the evening of the riot.
Captain Schley reports that boats from
the Chilean war ships several times went
out of their course to cross the bows of
his boats, compelling them to back
water. He complained of the discour-
tesy and it was corrected.
That this feeling was shared by men
of higher rank is shown by an incident
by Surgeon Stitt, of the Baltimore.
After the battle of Placilla he, with other
medical officers of the war vessels in the
harbor, was giving voluntary assistance
to the wounded in the hospitals. The
son of Chilean army officer of high
rank was under his care, and, when the
father discovered it he flew into pas
sion, and said he would rather have his
son die than have Americans touch him,
and at once had him removed from the
ward.
This feeling is not well concealed in
the dispatches of the foreign Office, and
had quite open expression in the disre-
spectful treatment of the American le-
cation.
The Chilean boatmen in the bay re-
fused, even for large offers of money, to
return our sailors, who crowded the
Mole, to their ship when they We're en-
deavoring to escape from the city on the
night of the assault.
The market boats of the Baltimore
were threatened, and even quite re-
Gently the gig of Commander Evans, of
the Yorktown, was stoned while wait
ing for him at the Mele.
Chile's Discourteous Delays.
The evidence of our sailors clearly
shows that the attack was expected by
the Chilean people, that threats had
been made against our men, and that in
one case somewhat early in the after
noon the keeper of one house, into which
some Of our men had gone, closed his
establishment in anticipation of attack,
which he advised them would be made
upon them as darkness came on.
The communications of the Chilean
government in relation to this cruel and
disastrous attack upon our men, as viii
appear from the correspondence, have
not in any degree taken the form OF a
manly and satisfactory expression of re-
greet, much less of apology.
The event was of SO seriOus a cbarae-