New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-07-11
THE ESTATUS OF THE STRIKE
A Review of the Weeks Contest Between
Capital and Labor.
Chicago ths Scene of the Most Bitter
Struggles.
Millions Of Property Destroyed and Men
Killed and Wounded.

Friday, July 9th was an eventfui day
all over the country and particularly in
Chicago. With flaming torch, thousand
of strikers were at work at score of
points in the southern part of the city
and doing terrible work. Fires were
raging in every direction among the nu-
merous railroad yards, thousands of cars
and tens of thousand of dollars worth of
merchandise went up in smoke or were
carried off by the frenzied mob of rioters
Incendiarism was rampant, alarm after
alarm followed in quick succession all
day, ,and at nj ght the glare reflected from
the heavens showed that the dastardly
pastime continued unabated.
From early morning until midnight
reports of fresh fires followed each other
with startling rapidity, being confined
however. principally to railroad rolling
stock and buildings, against which the
greater part of the mob's fury had been
directed. Early in the morning blaze
started among some overturned cars at
Kensington, quickly communicating to
other tracks filled with long lines of cars
and many containing valuable merchan-
disc, were soon blazing furiously Famed
by strong winds, there were at this point
total of eighty cars wiped out. At the
stock-yards one blaze after another was
reported, and from the outlying districts
came urgent calls for engines and police
protection, increasing in frequency. But
with the falling shades of night came the
climax of the Fiery Festival. The Pan
handle yards from, Fifty-ffth to Sixty
third Streets, eight blocks, were mass
of fire. Ten tracks. containing from one
to two thousand cars were total loss.
The station at sixty third Street was al
SO tired and destroyed, while in the
Grand Trunk yards five hundred box
cars are supposed to have been burned.
At Hyde Park, near the worlds fair
grounds, the ashes of forty cars are now
smouldering and after numerous efforts
the mob succeeded in firing the Illinois
Central shops at Burnside.
At the stock yards about fifty toughs
few of whom were railroad men skulked
from point to point and set a large num-
Der of fires. Their method was thor
oughly unique. Loading several hand
cars with buckets of "wastc' and oil,
they would slide around among the cars
IN the darkness, lighting waGs of the in
iammable stuff. which would be thrown
into the open doors of the cars as they
passed by them, Fires sprung up on
every hand, and no organized effort On
the part of tie police seemed to be un~
der way te interrupt them.
The aggregate of the losses to the rail
roads will be enormous. Miles of their
tracks have been ruined by the fierce
heat, hundreds of switch and signal tow
ers with their expensive mechanism Ut
terly ruined. Thousands of cars and un-
told quantities of merchandise of every
imaginable description have fed the
the flames and gorged the larders of
4 thieves I Inrop,0firoc lo-
ed and disabled; miles of tangled wires
and PROSTATE poles litter the ground.
The loss in the Panhandle yards alone is
estimated at 81 100000.
The day opened threateningly and
omlnous signs were visible everywhere
IN Chicago. At an early hour the mob
began to assemble about the junction
points to the railways, and before O.
clock 1t was evident that great battle
tor supremacy was on. Mayor Hopkins
telegraphed hastily to the governor, ask
ing for five regiments of militia to aid
him III preserving the peace. Thousands
OF people gathered at Kensington sub
urb adjoining the town of Pullman and
the junction point of the Michigan Cen
iral and Illinois Central. The strikers
began collecting on the tracks early and
at 10 O'Clock 1900 men were rushing mn
and down the yards, overturning freight
cars and blocking the tracks in every
manner possible. A force of about 15O
deputy United States marshals and Cook
co anty deputies were in the vicinity and
charged the mob at various places. driy-
ing small squads Of men from the yards.
The stiike forces were rapidly reuuited
and BY 1890 thousand frantic men
were howling and throwing stones over
a stretch Of track half mile in length.
At that time the Illinois Central milk