The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-09-17
Marching Miners Brutally
Slain by Deputies.
OVER A SCORE KILLED
Dead and Dying Coal Delivers
Fall Like Ten Pins.
Outskirts of the Little Town of Lati.
mer, In the Great Pennsylvania Coal
District, the Scene of a Bloody
Notwithstanding Held to Have
Been without Provocation aud Re-
venGefu1 Cries Arise-Troops Are
Called Out to Preserve Order.

vengefu1 Cries Arise-Troops Are
Called Out to Preserve Order.
Twenty-Five strikers were killed, thir-
| teen fatally injured and between sixty
and seventy more or less injured near Ha
| zleton, Pa, Friday, by deputy sheriffs I'M
der command of Sheriff Martin, and, the
dispatches say, without sufficient
provocation to warrant even a
clubbing. The entire region is
wildly excited over the affair, and
citizens of all classes are talking of what
| they consider u terrible outrage. An in
dignation meeting was held at night, and
Governor Hastings has been asked TO or
der an investigation, and in the meantime
to place the command Of the deputies in
other hands than those of Sheriff Martin.
The citizens also ask that the deputy sher
IFS concerned in the affair be discharged
from ali authority and disarmed. They
say the local police force is quite COM
petent to take care of the strikers if any
disturbance occurs. Governor Hastings
| called out the Third Brigade Of the State
militia in order to prevent further blood
shed.
Following their general custom, the
! strikers assembled Friday morning and
marched to the Halle mines. The men
| were at work there, but were forced to
quit. From there the march was taken
up to Latimer. The men walked without
any special organization, much as any
body Of men would traverse road. They
were elated by their success in driving
out the men at the Halle mines and their
feeling Of jubilation, combined with their
| antipathy for the operators, had some
what aroused them. The road the men
trayersed was the public highway.
AS they reached the outskirts Of the
mining village of Latimer the marchers
were met by a crowd Of deputies, under
Sheriff Martin. They were the usual
kind of deputies, men and boys out OF
| work. The strikers were ordered to halt.
Being on a public highway the strikers re-
fused. With little ceremony they kept
walking, muttering imprecations on the
men with rifles.
Firing Is Begun.
SUDDENLY one of the special officers
| raised his rifle and fired point blank at the
miners. 1t was the signal for a fusillade.
The men and boys who were wearing the
steel badges of deputies fired volley afterl
volley into the marchers. Several felh
dead at the first volley. The horrifedi
cries of the miners could not drown the:
| steady "crack," Crack Of the rifles. The
miners stood terrified for moment, the
| leaden balls moving down their COM
| rades. A few shots were fired back.
Then, yelling and crying, they broke and
| ran for the woods.
The scatter of the marchers did not stop
the firing. AS they fled in terror the dep
| uties spread out, each one seemingly pick
| ing his man, and shot the fleeing men.
| The strikers staggered and fell in every
| direction. Bodies Of the killed lay here
| and there on the road and in the bitches.
Piteous cries in foreign tongues came
from the injured, some of whom were
yainly trying to crawl to shelter. Plead,
| ings to the deputies to cease firing min
gled with the cursings Of the less injured.
The injured in the woods crawled away
to safety. When the deputies has eX-
! hausted the magazines of their rifles they
| ceased firing and some turned their atten-
| tion to the wounded and carried many Of
| them to places where they could be more
comfortably treated. The deputies seem7
| ed to be terror-stricken at the deadly ex-
| ecution of their guns.
| The people of Latimer rushed pell-mell
to the scene, but the shrieks Of The
| wounded drowned the cries Of the SYM
pathizing and half -crazed inha bitants. AS
soon as the news Of the shooting reached
Hazleton there was CONSERVATION. With
in ten minutes the streets were blocked
with excited people. Trolley cars on the
Latimer line were sent to the scene of
| the killing, and doctors and clergymen re-
sponded promptly.
| Along the bank of the trolley road men
| lay in every position; some dead, others
dying. Three bodies, face downward, lay
along the incline, and three others were
but n short distance away. On the other
side of the road as many more bodies lay.
The schoolhouse was transformed into a
temporary hospital, and some of the
wounded were taken there. The colliary
ambulance was summoned to the place as
soon as possible, and upon it's arrival
wounded men were loaded into the wagon.
| All along the hillside wounded were found
on the roadside and in the fields Many
others who had been carried to distance
| could not be found.
One of the strikers, in his dying state.
ment said that there We're 10 weapons of
any kind among the marchers, for before
leaving Harwood on the tramp across the
mountain meeting was held and resolu.
tions passed forbidding any person to car.
ry weapons. This fact was verified by
not finding any weapons on Those who
were billed or wounded. The dead were
searched and no weapons were found or
them. Sheriff Martin in detailed state
ment Of the affair admits that lie gave the
command to fire.
Told in Few Lines.
Prince Bismarck is suffering from neu