The Portland daily press., 1894-08-17
THE STORY OF THE RIOT.
Full Particulars of the Trouble at Unity
By Our Special Correspondent.

by Our Sp6clal correspondent.
Especial to the P2ESso
Waterville, August, 1e.-The little
town of Unity, situated about IL miles
from Waterville, is in tumult Of ex-
citemnent. A sensation occurred. there
yesterday, the climax ofT,which was not
reached until Today, which will he the
gossip of the country people for some
time to come. The cause of this was
riot that occurred at that place yester-
day, the end Of Which, as has been mem
toned before, did not take place until
today. About two months ago, 20 Irali-
ans were brought from Boston by con-
tractor Stephen Miles to work on the
Wiscasset & Quebec railroad, which runs
through Unity. They quit work yes
terday because they would not be given
more pay, and demanded the wages that
were then due them. The contractor
claimed that he had no money at the
time they demanded it, but that when.
their time was figured he would get
their pay from the directors and give it
to them. The Italians were very indig-
nant, as they thought that Miles had the
money but would not pay them. The
Italians held a council of war and then
returned to the house. The men then
chased Mr.. Miles and three Italian bosses
into barn and threatened to kill them.
Having got the men into the barn they
refused to let them out until they met
the demands of the strikers. AS they
nm Ia 10 To hn Anr,ao dc fhar-
were kept in the barn until IL this noon,
when High Sheriff Norton and eish
of his deputies arrived. While Miles
and the three Italian bosses were locked
in the barn, part of the strikers went
to Benton, q few miles distant, and sur
rounded the house of Luke Libby, Sit
uated at place called Four Corners.
Three directors of. the railroad were in
Libby's house, and were so suddenly
taken back that they did not have time
to get out. The strikers surrounded the
house, armed with hard wood sticks four
feet long, with the bark peeled off. They
also threatened to kill the directors if
they would not accede to their wishes.
AS luck happened, Mr.. Libby was not in
the house whens the strikers arrived, and
as the Italians had nothing against him
he was allowed TO 60 unmolested. He
took team and went to Waterville and
swore out warrants last night against 15
of the Italians. The warrants were Civ
en- to John Withee of Benton Falls,
deputy to servo. He tried to arrest them
but the strikers held him back with
clubs and stoned him. AS he could do
nothing with the strikers today, he tele-
graphed to High Sheriff E. E. Norton of
kennebec county to come at once. Sher-
itf Norton sent wordsto all his deputies
to go to Waterville at once, and at noon
today. tt ere were six deputies in Water
Vile. The deputy sheritfs were Henry
7. Morse of Augusta, Ira M. True of Hal
lowell, &c. Maddox of Hallowell, Ed
ward B. Connor of Randolph Horace M.
Hildreth of Gardiner, and John Withee
of Benton Falls. They, together with
Sheriff Norton, and City Marshal Mac
Fadden of Waterville, arrested eight of
the Is against whom the warrants had
been sworn r out They could not speak
word OF English, and were mum bered
II, 60, s5, As, Il, 80, SO, and rs. They
offered no resistance, and when their
numb were called responded. They
were taken in teams. to Waterville and
placed in the lookup. The men who
were locked up in the barn at Unity
and also those in Luke Libby's house
were arrested. They had been locked up
since yesterday afternoon, and were not
liberated till this afteroon. A large
crowd was in the Waterville lockupsto-
night, trying to get peep at the strik-
ers. They were shouting and howling
and otherwise making the night hideous.
They will appear before Judge Philbrook
of the Waterville municipal court tomor-
row. A charge of riot will he brought
against them, and they will probably be
brought to Augusta Jail in the morning.
This riot has created great excitement
in all the towns in this section, as hum
dreds of Italians are seen daily going
through here on their way to the rail-