Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-08-15
TWO MOBS in A RIOT.
DESPERATE RACE RIOT At
SPRING VALLEY, ILL.
Italians Commit Brutal Crime Un-
der the Plea of Avenging a Com
rade's Murder-Men, Women and
Children Are Shot and CIubbed.
Fend of Long Standing.

A settlement of 200 negroes, WHO live
In what is called the Location" near No.
shaft, two miles west of Spring Valley,
ILL.,, was attacked by 500 white miners.
Many shots were fred and bricks and mis-
siles Of every description were used by the
combatants. Forty of the negroes were
wounded and several of them may die.
The uprising was caused by a white
man, an inoffensive and popular young
Italian, being held up, robbed. and al
most murdered by gang Of five negroes,
between the city and the Location"
Barney Role, the man who was assailed,
was coming from Spring Valley on his
way home when he was suddenly ordered
to halt by four or five negroes, who made
him throw up his hands while they robbed
him of $50 and his watch. After robbing
Role the negroes fired five shots into his
body, three taking effect. The wounded
man could give no description of the men
except that they were negroes whom he
had frequently seen around the "Loca-
ton"
This robbery and attempt at murder
happened at l o'clock Sunday morning.
The police were at once notified, and a
force of twelve extra men was put on to
hunt the murderers down. At Z o'clock
in the morning five colored men were ar
rested and brought to the Jail.
BY this time the affair was pretty well
known throughout the city and a big
crowd gathered around the city bastile.
There were cries of lynching. Some one
rang the fire bell, augmenting the crowd
still more, until the police were com
oil tn hn nriSa nd ~
them to a better place of safety. AS the
mob became greater it became bolder. A
brass band was got out and about 500
men marched to General Manager Dal-
yell's house. A committee went in to see
the manager and told him the whites
wanted him to discharge every colored
man or they would run them out of town
themselves. Manager Dalzell refused to
submit to their demands. He was jeered
and the mob struck out on its march to
the Location" When they were about
half way there Manager Dalzell. by TAX
Ing n circuitous route, headed off the en-
ragged whites.
Mayor Delmorga. who is an Italian, was
in the buggy with him. The Mayor
stepped out of the buggy and addressed
the crowd. He cOunseled peace, but they
brushed him aside. saying if Dalzell would
not run such murderous set of negroes
out of town they could. They continued
the march. A little way further they met
Chief of Police Hicks and few deputies.
The officers were unable to check the
progress of the march.
Mob Makes the Attack.
The mob, headed by the Italian band,
with music playing, then went direct to
the negro village. The column proceeded
slowly and the band rendered several ma
tional anthems. About fifty members of
the mob were armed with shotguns, rifles,
and revolvers. and the others carried
clubs and sharpened sticks. The men
wanted blood, and the constant warcry,
given in Italian. was: "Kill the nggers!
Drive them out! Blood for blood!'
The negroes had been warned of the in
tended onslaught of the Italians, but were
deceived by the appearance of the brass
band. AS houses were reached the rioters
struck out the windows and where doors
were locked broke them down. The in
terror was ransacked, the women insulted,
and the men dragged forth and clubbed
and shot.
That there was not large number Of
immediate fatalities was not the fault Of
the rioters, as they used every endeavor
in their power to kill the men outright.
One reason many negroes escaped was
that the weapons of the rioters were most
ly old. rusty guns that had not been used
for many years. and in addition the men
were not skilled in the use of them. Had
modern rifles been discharged in the same
manner as the old shotguns and muzzle-
loading rifles the list of dead would have
been enormous.
The raid of the Italian miners upon the
negroes had been contemplated for several
weeks. In fact, ever since the negroes
were imported into Spring Valley at the
close of the three months strike last
summer the miners speaking a foreign
tongue have been laying plans to drive
them out.