Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-01-11

few PAGES. l was forced against g
boarding. In front of me We're two
little girls. They couldn't have been
more than Is years of age l put nv
hands against the boarding and put
forth all my strength. l wanted to save
the two girls from being crushed 10
death. Do you think l could help
pressing against them? ! tell YOU |
thought the bones in my arms would
break. The Precipitation fell off me in
a shower. l couldn't open my mouth.
| was afraid 10 speak for fear my arms
would give away. The crowd swayed
again, and once more | found myself
in the middle of it. The pressure was
something awful, Now. | am not easily
scared. | have been in some pretty
tight places in my time. I've been shot
four tines, and I've seen other men
shot. | was at the battle of Wounded
Knee, where the most murderouS band
of Indians that ever took to the war
path suddenly and without any warn
ing opened fire on our soldiers. | saw
first fire. That was enough to dis
compose 4 nCncOmbatant, but l never
was so thoroughly frightened rs l was
on Thursday in that crowd. Yes, /
was scared; so scared that I'm not
ashamed to own up. But, scared as
| was, l couldn't help observing the de-
meanor of the crowd and police, and
saying to myself how much more aw-
full the position would have been had
we been in New York instead of Lon
don. The police couldn't do much.
They tried to keep the crowd back, but
they did so in such gentle manner
that | was amazed. The New York
police would have kept clubbing the
front rank until there weren't any
more people to club. If q woman faint
ed the police carried her away. If a
man tainted they did the same for
him, and they did the work as if they
were men of feeling. Great! The
London police are the greatest in the
world, and l can't say too much about
the good nature of a London crowd.
They want to see, like all crowds, but
a New York crowd has little feeling
to waste on itself, and partakedS some
thing of the nature of the New York
police, whereas London crowd, like
the London police, never seems to lose
its temper.
Did l get out of it? 1 did. Some
mounted soldiers had to get through
the crowd. They passed me and l fol
lowed in their wake. I never got to
my seat, but l was able to buy a
place where | could stand and per-
spire without the fear of death from
external pressure being eternally be-
for my eyes. l walked about at night
and looked at the Examinations and the
crowds. 1t was the crowd, however,
that took my eye. 1t may have been
noisy and it may have INDUCED in
some horse play, but it was heavily
charged with good nature. What sur
prised me was that | saw hardly any
police. No number of police it seemed
to me, could have controlled such a
crowd, but the crowd appeared to con-
troll itself. / learned more about crowds
ON Thursday than / ever knew before.
I'll tell you how it impressed me in the
way of magnitude. If you were to
take the ground between Fourteenth
street and One Hundred and Twenty
fifth Street-about five and half
miles-and between First and Eighth
avenues, New York City, and fill it
with people, you might get a crowd
that would equal in size the crowd that
[ saw in London on Thursday"