The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-11-29
%LEADVILLE'S LONG STRIKE.
TRYING YORK FOR MILIIILMEN IN
4 INN CAMP.

A Standing Army thnt Costs Colorado 81 900
n Dny Needed to Mnintnin Inv and Order
-Outrnges by the Strikers-SunerInga
OF tho Militia from Cold and Exposure.
DENVER, Nov. 2s.-The State OF Colorado is
maintaining n standing army In the mining
camp Of Leadville. 1t consists OF Iorty-Hvo
officers and nearly 600 p~rivates, and its cost
tanned for the purpose Of protecting the camp
against outbreaks OF striking miners and their
friends. Tho miners are out OF work. but are
comfortably housed. while the Western Fed
Grafton of Miners supplies them with all the
necessaries OF life. The State troops are
forced to remain away from business; they
live In tents in II rough mountain camp where
snow abounds and they are expected TO sub
sist upon such ratlons as an impoverished
State Treasury may supply. Not since the
war have volunteer troops or State militia had
to undergo a more arduous campaign. For
sixty days the young men composing the rank
and file of tho Colorado State militia have
been doing sentinel duty during bitter cold
nights about lonely shaft houses perched upon
windy slopes from one 70 four miles outside
the limits of town. Young men who have
been accustomed to comfortable slcepinR
rooms with n daily morning bath and three
well-served meals, are compelled to sleep six.
eight, and q dozen In one tent on straw mat
tresses while the temperature without is be-
low zero, and upon waking In the early morn
ing they must shovel paths through snow to n
mess tent, where n breakfast is served under a
dripping roof with slop and dirt and whistlinR
winds to add to their discomfort.
When the soldiers first went to Leadville and
began their night vigils about certain shaft
houses. they were kept busy all night long
watching for ~prowling striking miners sup
pOsed TO be trying to dynamite the mines.
Every night for several weeks s~entinels would
give the alarm and call up the entire guard
lying asleep within the shaft houses, and often
these alarms would be repeated O dozen times
In a single night. No miners were ever ar
rested and no one was shot. hut the constant
sounding of aiarms was most irritating to the
soldiers. Especially arduous were the duties
of the Denver city Troop A. q new organiza-
ton composed OF the swell young men OF this
city. They had been compelled TO leave lucra-
tive places to work for the State ut Sl3 4
month. while performing military duty In the
once famous silver mining camp. To these
young cavalrvmen came the hard work of night
sallies OVER the hills. often covering ten or a
dozen miles in n night, With scarcely four
honrs' sleep In twenty-four. They had to DO
their own hostlers, too, a duty for, which they
were at the outset poorly prepared. All their
previous drilling had been done with horses
Rroomed at livery stables and brought TO the
armory on drill evenings saddled and bridled.
After the first month in camp the night
alarms practically ceased, and now tho night
sentinels are left to their own thoughts with
nothing to do but walk their posts and keep tho
camp nres burning. When a mountain storm
10 raging and the snow cuts the face as the
wind rOars with the mercury below the
zero mark, the discomforts OF the citizen SOL
diers may be imagined. At an altitude nearly
two miles above sea level. winter campaigning
Is not an agreeable pastime for State trooDs. It