Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-06
ElUDEO THE SOLDIERY
Indiana Striking Miners Play Tricks on
Them.
UnfOunded Report of a BattIe-Nok.
Ing Miserable the Life of
Mflitiaman.

| Militiaman.
| The striking miners in Sullivan county
Indiana, are playing horse" with the mi
litia and the Evansville and Terre Haute
railroad Company says Terre Haute
special to the New York Sun. The miners
know that they would be disastrously de-
feated in a combat with the militia. and
| that they can accomplish their object best
In preventing the transportation of Ken
lucky coal by resorting to subterfuge and
strategy. with here and there the destruc-
ton of the railroad companies property.
even though a train be wrecked They be-
heve all the law and its administration is
| against them; that while they are classed
as outlaws they are not outlaws in the
common acceptation of the term.
Search of the Militia.
| Yesterday they burned five cars, with
! their coal, and one empty cattle car. but
p; they escaped arrest, and though they were
hungry and drenched with a cold rain they
! INDUCED in the POPULARITY only miners can
/ enjoy. Nearly 800 militiamen were scour-
| Ing the ravines about the Alum Cave
branch road of the Evansville and Terre
Haute to arrest them, but only a few st-ap-
| glers were found, and these were not the
| ones whose arrest was really desired. The
militia skirmished. deployed and made a
| drag-net search, but the effort was as fu-
| tile as would be the attempt to 90 cunning
for squirrels with a cannon. Unless the
strike is brought to an end by agreement
elsewhere on the wage schedule the Sulli-
van county miners will be playing their
hide-and-seek game a month from now,
though five times as many militiamen are
sent to the scene of the trouble.
The GOO strikers In Sullivan county are
likely 30 be reinforced by miners from Lin
ton, in Greene county, who have been sum-
monCi. 1t is about twenty miles across
country, but the men don't mind jaunt of
that distance.
Use of Dynamite.
A frog in the track at Shelburn was blown
out early yesterday morning. The north
bound passenger train passed over all right,
but a long freight train was signaled in
time. Shelburn people said they heard the
conclusion, and, being aroused from sleep.
thought il was earthquake. a railroad
employe, who knew the facts. said the work
was that Of an expert The fifteen inches Of
iron was hurled 1JU yards away. The dyna-
mite was placed SO that the resistance was
all upward, and the roadbed was not dis
turbed.
One OF the company's locomotive engi-
neers. talking about the trouble made the
remark that it was a powerful stroke
Yes" said a miner; the train must have
struck il a hard blow"
The train?' said the engineer. 1T was
dynamite"
a few minutes later the miner said to a
friend:
Ibid he think didn't know it was dyna-
mite?"
The miners are at outs with the railroad
men. They believe that the brotherhoods
ought TO do something to help out the fight
boycott coal, perhaps. Their reasoning is
that the brotherhoods have engaged in SYM
pathy boycotts before. and that they should
do SO now. Worse than all for the Evans
vile and Terre HaCte crews, the miners
are convinced that the railroad men have
lied 10 them, capital crime among miners.
They believe that certain engineers and
trainmen have deceived them in regard 10
shipments of coal, and consequently they
do not hesitate as much as they did about
the risk of life a railroad man takes in run
ming his train over dangerous places
Peril of Railway Employees.
This is feature of the strike that will be
important hereafter. The Evansville and
Terre Haute crews apprehend the danger
Some Of them have been spotted and their
risk is not only in the time of their service
for the railroad company. All know that
unseen dangers are on the trips The men
are performing duty, but to many IL is like
facing death in battle.
Monday night an attempt was made to
blow up train load of troops of the In
diana militia on the Evansville and Terre
Haute road near Farmersburg, sixteen miles
south OF here. The troops were in COM
mani OF Gen. w. J. Mckee, and were aid
ing the railroad companies in transporting
coal. There were 300 of them Four bombs
explode
The miners are laughing over what they
consider 10 have been the successful out
come OF their strategic warfare with the
militia Monday night. They posted n
squad of fifty men at one place on the track
rorth or Shelburn, where they raised a
great hubbub and whence they sent word
to Shelburn that there was great need of
In
decoyed them back into the field IL was
this maneuver with the foolish firing on the
part OF a few over-Zealous militiamen which
started the story that there had been a run
ming fight.
Destruction of Coal.
While the militia were cunning for the
decoys the strikers were capturing a train
which had five cars of coal and which had
been sent ahead. The cars and the engine
were run down the branch road toward
Alum cave while the militiamen were firing
their reVolvers at the decoys. In short the
militia guard was outwitted and the miners
captured the coal, which early yesterday
morning was set on fire several miles away
from the main track.
Before daylight the 40 militiamen had ac-
cesSions TO their number, and at 10 o'clock
800 OF them started by special train 10 re-
capture the coal. 1t and the cars In which
IT was loaded had been burning for eight
or ten hours before they started When
the militia arrived at the bonfire no strikers
were to be seen. The gatling guns which
had been fastened on an open fiat car ahead
of the engine on the trip down the branch
were not OF service.
Gen. Mckee then began deploying his
troops. Trestles and culverts were placed
under guard and the soldier boys were sent
out to circle the ravines and woods all of
which the miners expected would be done
and they disappeared accordingly Houses
were searched and here and there a sus-
pected person was arrested. At one place
a woman with revolver offered resistance
and the militia hesitated. but no man was
found.
Later in the day II seemed to dawn on the
commanders of the militia that they had
been the victims of strategists, and the SOL
diers were ordered to the cars, and the
train started to the main track only to stop
mile or SO away. The strategy was not
effective. The strikers saw il all from am
bush, and were ready to retreat to the I'M
dtrbrush as soon as the soldiers made their
first appearance at the doors.
Scared Them With Poetry
From the s.. Louis Globe Democrat
The expedents that travellers in a bar
l,r