Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1896-07-08
A RIOT AT CLEVELAND
One Striker Killed and Many
Others Hurt.
STUDENT HELD FOR MURDER
Militia Was Called Out and Charged
the Mob Attempt to Lynch
"A PrisOner.


Prisoner.
Cleveland. July 6--The strike at
the Brown Hosting Company's works
has reached a point where the authori-
ties, as well as the strikers. are in no
mood for trifiing. When the non-
union men left the works at o'clock
this afternoon, there was rioting.
Two hundred and fifty police emerged
from the gates guarding 500 workmen.
An immense crowd had gathered
block away, but the police took new
| route and eluded them for the moment.
The strikers set up yell and ran,
soon overtaking the marching column,
hooting and yelling. A huge moving
van was in the rear filled with strikers,
empty beer bottles. The police sus-
pected that the bottles were intended
as missiles, and compelled the driver Of
the wagon to turn back.
At Wilson and Euclid avenues, a
railroad train blocked the way, and
an effort was made to drive the van
of the strikers through the guard of
| police. The officers dragged the
driver. Fred w, Hearn, moving con-
tractor, to the ground, and also the
man on the seat beside him, w. j.
O'Neill; paving contractor. These
men resisted, and the police used their
clubs on them with such effect that
their heads were soon swollen masses
of cuts. One mans ankle was broken.
The strikers in the van jumped out,
and the police charged the crowd.
Frank Coopenhecker, maehinist re-
turning from work, and not striker,
was caught in the crowd and severely
clubbed on the head. Hearn was ar
rested and locked up. The strikers
were dispersed by the onslaught of the
police, and the nonunion men were
sent home.
Meanwhile, tragedy had taken
place at the Brown works. Albert
Saunders, a young student at the case
school of applied science, whose father
lives at 331 Prospect street, has been
working for the Brown company dur
ing vacation for the practical knowl-
edge it would give him. He did not
leave with the nonunion men, under
police guard, but mounted his bicycle
and sought to reach home alone. AS
he turned up Hamilton street, knot
of strikers saw him and shouted to him
to stop. He did not obey, and they
began to throw stones and bricks at
him. A brick struck him on the head,
and knocked him off his wheel, and
he claims that after he was down, they
continued to stone him. Rising to his
knees, he drew his revolver and fred.
The ball missed his assailants, sped
across vacant lot and buried itself in
the breast of William Rettger, one of
the strikers who was walking through
an alley with several companions.
Rettger was sent to the hospital, where
he died in few minutes. He was
single man. 25 years old, boarding on
Hoadley street, and was a brother of
Pitcher Rettger, of the Milwaukee
baseball club.
Patrolman Gibbons heard the shot
fired, and, rushing up, seized young
Saunders, and hurried him into the
office of the Bishop Babcock Company.
In wonderfully short space of time, a
furious mob packed the streets as far
as the eye could reach and surged
against the front of the office demand
ing that Saunders be given up to it.
Some one brought rope, and the cry
to lynch him was raised.
A few began to pry at the windows
of the Office when Patrolman Gibbons,
who was once a union workman, ad-
dressed the mob, and partly quieted it.
Two patrol wagon loads of police ar
rived and guard was posted in front
of the building. Long before this.
Mayor McKissen, Police Director Alb
bott, Liutenant-C Colonel Whitney, of
the Fifth regiment, and others were
gathered for consultation in this city.
WORD of the critical condition Of
affairs was telephoned from the Bishop
Babcock office, and request made for
the militia. The mayor responded by
ordering the Cleveland city guards and
company f to the scene of the riot.
The guards arrived just as the moi
was preparing for another effort to cap
ture Saunders. AS the soldiers came
down the street, the mob howled, and
the guards were compelled to open 8
WdJ III bucHbOifCb WAtn iOfOlCd DhJO
8 nets. Several men and boys were
wounded slightly by the soldiers.
The guards formed in front of the
: Office, and just then company f wal
seen alighting from street cars blocl
: away. Amid the frenzy Of excitemen
: on the part Of the dense crowd, pa
: troll wagon was backed to the door o
the office, and Saunders was jerket
into 1t and made to lie ON the bottom
The guards formed around it, with bay
a onets at charge" and forced thei
/ way down Hamilton street, part Of tn
d bowling mob surging along with them
it Saunders, whose head Is badly cut
: and his body mass of bruises, is
j prisoner charged with the killing c
Rettger.