The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-10-12
EoPYRIGaC, 1921 ]
CHAPTER xIv.-CoNrrNUED.


The director appears to have been a
pragmatic Englishman, without the
tact of prudence. There was, at the
time, a million dollars in specie on
temporary deposit in the st. Mary's
bank, being the two payments made
bv the government for large contract
for copper gun-barrels. This money
should never have reached st. Mary's
in coin. But there had been loud
cutlery from different parts of the coun-
try that all the profits of the company
went to England, and the disaffected
men of 1.-THE Junta" had reechoed it
bitterly. This director, therefore,
whose name was Matlock, had advised
the company to use the money at st.
Mary's in paying off the Indebtedness
on the improvement scheme. He ap-
peared to think it would have good
effect. On the night after the strike
three of the new houses built by the
company were burned. The striking
workmen were charged with the in
cendiarism, but denied it. The next
day there were three or four thousand
men out of work in the town and a
very angry feeling.
Director Matlock injudiciously ex-
pressed an opinion about the origin of
the fire which made the better class of
striking workmen indignant, and they
sent delegation to the office of the
works to get a statement from him di-
rectly, and they encountered at the
door of the Office six men, armed with
clubs and pistols, who ordered them
away. An alteration ensued. Two
of the delegation were knocked down
and one had his skull fractured. The
remainder of the men went back for
achievements and in an hour there
was a mob of five hundred men before
the office. They demanded that the
perpetrators of the outrage should be
handed over or they would enter the
building by force and take them. Mat
lock refused to give them up. The
mob then broke into the Office, seized
the men and took them into the street,
where they were beaten to death. The
director then sent for the sheriff at
Paducah and telegraphed to the gov
ernor that the English company's
property was in danger and he de-
manded the protection of the state.
At this juncture a large number of
the remaining workmen who had
taken no part in the strike protested
against the action of the director and
went out with the others.
The whole town was now in fer
ment of excitement, and that night
Mr.. Matlock began to take measures
10 have his gold transferred.
The next day an event occurred
which is unprecedented in the history
of strikes. In order to understand it
in its extraordinary details, it is neces-
sary to explain the topography of st.
Mary's.
The town is built on the first and
second of the natural terraces and COW
ers in a scattered way an area of per-
haps three square miles. To the south
west and overlooking the town is
what looks like a portion of third
and larger terrace, but which is the
level of a long stretch of tableland
that extends south and west with a
steady fall for fifteen or twenty miles.
1t is a poor and sparsely inhabited
country covered with scrub oak and
gum trees and answers in many re-
spects to the southwestern land of
Kentucky which is still called the
"Barrens." There are few roads and
these are very bad. All local travel
skirting this region follows the
Clark river on the line of the Paducah