The morning call., 1894-07-17
Ito THE END"
How Oakland Strikers
Hold Out.
CHARGED BY CAVALRY
Bayonet Thrusts in a
Mixed Crowd.
TWENTY-ONE ARRESTS MADE
New Tactics to Weary Out the
Soldiers and Sailors.
BUT TRAINS ROLL IN AND OUT.
Mail Arrives by the IONA Spy,
Identified as Switchman
Josie, Held.
ARRESTS MADE
New Tactics to Weary Out the
Soldiers and Sailors.
BUT TRAINS ROLL IN AND OUT.

Twenty-oue strikers arrested, man and
3 woman bay0neted, the militia charging
repeatedly on the crowds with orders TO
shoot down the first man who resisted are
lust few of the prominent happenings in
West Oakland Yesterday. The vicinity OF
the Point along the picket line on the
First-street tracks, the SiXteenth-street
crossings and Peralta Point all furnished
their quota of incidents, but the really sem
sational performance occurred shortly
after u o'clock, when the company tried
TO get out its first freight of the day TO
Mendoza.
The announcement had been made the
day before and printed in the Monday
morning papers that the company had con-
cuded 20 break the freight blockade. and
during the morning Division Superin-
tendent Wilder and other officials of the
company had been in consultation with
the militia concerning the guards for the
trains.
1.-The strikers were fully aware of this.
and began gathering early around Seventh
street waiting for the appearance of the
first engine crossing Cedar. It had been
the intention Of the company to get the
trains out early, but it was not until noon
that the word passed around that the
freight was made up and would rull ont
on its way to Mendoza in a few moments.
i was then that the large crowds re-
ceived larger accessions until. in half an
hour. it looked as If every nan, woman
and child In Oakland who hadn't anything
else to Go had made for the Point to see
how things would adjust themselves. All
along Cedar street, from the picket line to
.Goss, a distance of three blocks, the side
walks, TIE doorways, the windows we're
lined with people. Down on the big piles
Of poles, near tower-house ., hundreds had
taken up positions where they could get a
full view Of all that might come off. From
there on up Seventh street. on both sides,
the same dense crowds were packed like
sardines, and all along the First-stTee;
track, cheek by jOwl with the military on
picket duty, curious thousands wandered
to and fro in the dust and clnders.
Ii was evident along about this time that
no concerted action against the moving of
the trains was contemplated. In fact, it
soon became the settled conviction that
with the militia in such numbers, it would
be worse than foolishness for any I'M
armed body to make the slightest demon
stration with any chance of success. Yet
the crowds waited and walked and talked
the situation over. the strikers being
readily noticeable from the fact that they
didn't have much to say about anything.
The women were the most outspoken in
their denunciation of the company and
the readiness of the military to help it,
At 80 o'clock the footing of the whistle
on the engine drawing the freight for
MENDOZA was heard around the curve be-
yond Atlantic street All were on the qui
vive in an instant, aud a sort of a howl
was raised all along the Cedar-street line
and up Seventh street as the cowcatcher
showed. The engine was putting labor
iously as car after car was pulled slowly
after it, and another shout, this time of
Joy. went up as the railroaders in the
crowd recognized the fact that the fireman
was not up in his business sufficiently to
keep steam up. The train came on slowly
and the heads of dozen of Lieutenant
G5ary's militia were seen on the tops Of
the cars.
On and on at a snail's pace came the
engine. 1t passed Sixth street, and the
crowd set up a yell and cries of 'scab!"
Scalp greeted the appearance of EDgi-
neer McGraw in the cab. Still the engine
proceeded, the train following laboriously.
The engine passed Seventh street and
three or four more cars followed. The
engine gave a deSpsiring gasp, the smoke
came out in few spasmodic short puffs,
the drivers turned around without moving
ahead an inch. The fireman had failed to
perform bis part of the contract. The
train was at a standstill
The moment for action for the strikers
had arrived. The memory Of the disabling
of the Mendoza train on the very same
spot on Saturday was fresh in their minds.
They waited not a moment and for no
signals. From hundred places along the
Cedar street line, the forms of men were
seen leaping in between the cars, and in a
second, the hiss of escaping air sounded
all along the line. In another moment
strikers could be seen emerging from be-
tween the cars with the coupling pins and
links which connected the cars.
The soldiery OF Lieutenant Colonel
Dennis Geary, which was supposed to be
guarding the train, was paralyzed, or Ii
seemed to be, at any rate. Not an at
tempt, net even show of resistance to the
work of the strikers was made. They sal
on the cars apparently lost, not knowing
what to do, the crowd haunting them for
their show of cowardice. Meanwhile. the
men who had taken the links and pins
made away with them in the crowd, and
there was the train. with the airbrakes
useless, split into as many sections az
there were cars, and the engnee: utterly
unable to pull ahead or move back for lack
of sufficient steam.
The crowd. it had become a solid one
by this time. with accessions from all the
other points, was uproarlous but mirthful.
They had had everything their own way
up to this point, and were not at all pre-
pared for what followed in the next few
minutes.
Down in the camp of the militia the
sound of the long roll could be- hard dis
tiuctly now. Blue-clad forms could he
seen rushing hither aud thiiher across the
tracks, sabers flashed in the air and
bayonets formed bright lines In the snn-
shine. There was jangling of accouter-
ments. the shoutings OF orders, and then
one grand rush of blue and dirt, of brass
and steel, and soldiers and horses, and the