The advocate., 1897-09-15
THE SLAUGHTER AT HAzLETON.


walking peaceably on the public high
way among the hills near HazletOn, Pa,
last Friday. The deails as far as we
could get them are printed on our first
page.
Detailing the situation Saturday, the
Associated Press says "the deputies car
ried Winchester rifles, each man having
twelve rounds of ammunition, each re-
vOlver and box of cartridges, while the
striking marching miners were defense
less, having unanimously surrendered
whatever weapons they may have had
before the march was begun Moreover
the fact remains that many of the vic
tirls were shot through the back The
first volley from the deputies, unexpected
as it was, created such indescribable
CONSERVATION that the members STAN
peded and fed and it is not in question
that while they were thus in headlong
flight the deputies poured volley after
vOlley into the terror stricken crowd"
Scenes among the dead and wounded
were indescribably sad. The published
report says that "all day long groups Of
sUnker-eyed, sallOW-cheeked women,
many bearing children in their arms,
hung about the hospital steps and eagerly
watched the doors. Some sat in stony
silence, as if unaware as yet Of what
had happened, while others were bowed
and bent beneath uncomfortable storms
OF grief About the dead house in the
rear of the hospital building where lay
two or three bodies the scene was in
finiteiy pitiful During part of the day
lamentations no less mOurnful could be
heard at the building called the mOrgUe,
one-story wooden structure, which Or
dinarily does duty as stable. Here lay
four bodies, two in plain pine boxes,
their bloody and waxen features exposed
to the gaze of whOsoever cared to look,
while rod beyond an uncanny bulge
under a heap of tarpaulins told Of two
more victims. The long line Of cots on
either side Of wounded ward in the hos
pital presented CHASTITY spectacle. On
one Of them lay a swarthy fellow Of some
20 odd years, whose shoulders, where
the bandages permitted them to be seen,
were mass Of coagulated blood and pow
der black 1t was marvel to the ply
siCians that he lived throughout the day.
Three bullets had found their billet in
his body. One entered over the heart,
another penetrated the right lung and
third lodged in his arm. Almost oppO-
site him lay flaxen-haired boy Of 18,
who had been shot through the head.
All day he lay there conscious, gazing
wistfully at the bowed form of his elder
brother, who, shaken by sobs, sat at the
foot Of the bed. Doctors were looking
for his death at any moment"
Warrants of arrest were Immediately
issued against the Sheriff and his 1O2
deputies, but General Goblin, in command
of the State troops, refuses to let the
warrants be served.
This is a bad state of affairs. With
out stopping now to inquire what or
who was Immediately responsible for
this horrible slaughter, it is safe to as
sert that it is the legitimate outgrowth
of our present system of private mo-
nOpOly of the essentials Of subsistence.
A few men, perhaps less than one hun
dred, own all the lands on which the
great coal mines in Pennsylvania are
situated. These men are rich and pow
erful, while the men who actually mine
the coal number many thousand, not one
in hundred of them owning the cabin
he lives in, and none Of them getting