Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-07-12
THE GREAT STRIKE.

The situation Growing More Serious Hour
ly-The Torch In the Hands of the Mob
A Trail of Fire q Mile Long Caused by
Burning Stations and Loaded and Empty
Freight Cars Fired by Mob Led by
Foreigners.
CHICAGO, July 1.-Two hundred and
twenty-freight cars on the Panhan-
die tracks between Forty-ffth and
Fifty-ninth streets-a distance of about
| one mile-were totally destroyed by
| fire between the hours of 6 and o'clock
last night.
| Shortly after o'clock immense
crowds of men, women and boys were
seen coming from the stock yards to-
| ward the network of tracks at the cross
| ing of Forty-seventh street. The mob
| was augmented every minute by a
seemingly never-ending string OF
the strikers and their sympathiz-
ers, and about o'clock fully 1000
people were massed along the tracks
from Forty-ffth street. They were the
stock yards crowd, and intent on a
repetition of Thursday nights destruc-
| ton. and the few police who remained
on duty were utterly powerless. They
were not even noticed by the strikers,
| who went to work at once. "Down the
tracks" was the cry, and with rush
the mob started southwark.
At Forty-seventh street, five cars.
standing on the Grand Trunk tracks
were the first to meet destruction.
Some of them were loaded. This did
not deter the frenzied crowd from their
work, and the seals were broken and
the doors slid back. A bunch of oil
soaked waste thrown inside quickly
ignited the contents, and in less than
three minutes the five cars We're blaz-
ing fiercely. Without waiting to see
that their work was complete the crowd
surged on.
They kept to the Panhandle tracks,
and at Forty-ninth street came upon
six more. cars. In the Garfield Boule-
ward yards of the Panhandle four
tracks were full of freight cars, more
than half of which were loaded.
At this crossing is located switch
mans tower, and this was first fired.
Then the mob turned its attention to
the cars on the siding, but for some
reason fired but one of them-the car
of dressed beef which had been started
eastward several days ago.
At Fifty-eighth street is situated the
STATION mouse OF the cOmDln ROADS,
This was fired and quickly destroyed.
A strong wind was blowing, and the
flames We're quickly spread across three
or four tracks which were filed with
cars. The railroad people say that
there We're fifty cars there, forty of
which were loaded. All were soon in
mass of flames.
By this time the fire department had
been advised of the fires further north
on the tracks and had sent their forces
there. But on learning of the serious
ness of the situation at Fifty-eighth
street, they abandoned their fight fur
Their northward, and came to the scene
of the conflagration, which promised
to be serious.
Upon the appearance of the fire and
police departments, the mob turned
about and started for the city. On
their way to Forty-seventh street they
set fire to all cars that they had missed
in their hurried march southwark. No
water could be obtained near the Gar
field boulevard yards and the cars were
slowly burned up. It was noticed that
the leaders of the mob were mostly
foreigners, and as they retraced their
steps few of the leaders started off in
the direction of the stock wards