Connecticut western news., 1897-09-16


 sume their march. Then called to the leader to stop. He ignored my order. I then attempted to arrest him. The strikers closed in on me. They acted very viciously. reviling and kicking me. knocking me down and trampling upon me. I called up my deputies to aid me, and they did so. but they were unable to accomplish much. I realized that something had to be done at once or I would be killed. called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers, as 1t might probably frighten them. It was done at once. but 1t had no effect what ever on the infuriated foreigners, who used me so much the rougher and be- came fiercer and fiercer, more like wild beasts than human beings.
 'The strikers then made a still bolder move and endeavored to surround my entire force of deputies. I fully realized that the foreigners were a desperate lot and valued life at a very small figure. I also saw that parleying with such a gang of infuriated men was entirely out of the question, as they were too ex- cited to listen to reason and that my self and deputies would be killed If we were not rescued or If we did not de-
 
 deputies to defend themselves and shoot If they must to protect their lives or to protect the property that they had been sent to guard from being demolished The next second there were a few scat tered shots fired into the infuriated for eigners, and a moment later the entire force of deputies discharged a solid volley into the crowd. I hated to give the command to shoot and was very sorry that I was compelled to do so, but I was there to do my duty, and did 1t as best I knew how and as my con- science dictated, as the strikers were violating the laws of the common wealth and fiatly refused to obey the proclamation that I read to them. They insisted instead on doing violence and disobeying the laws.
 The scene after the shooting was simply terrible, and I would have will. ingly not had 1t occur; but, as a public official. was there to see that the law was obeyed and lived up to, and l merely did my duty. Some of the for eigners fell over dead and others badly wounded. Some rushed about hither and thither. seeking a place where they would be shielded from any more shots. Others were aiding their wounded com- panions to places of safety, while here and there could be seen men taking away some one who was badly injured or dead. The entire crowd of foreign CTS. as soon as the volley had been fired by my deputies, turned and started to retreat. They rushed off in all direc- tions as fast as they could run, taking as many of their dead and wounded with them as they could carry during their hurried retreat. The excitement at the time was terrible"
 Testimony of an Eyewitness. Charles Guscott, the principal of the Lattimer grammar school, who was an eyewitness of the shooting on Friday afternoon, furnished the following graphic account of it:
 'It was just 25 minutes past 3 o'clock when the affair occurred. I had just disbanded school and, with my assist ant Miss Grace Coyle, was on the porch Marie Sharkey, a 12-year-old pupil. was first volley she dropped her schoolbooks | and ran. picked them up an hour or | so afterward.
 Miss Coyle and I were attracted first | by the deputies marching to a position | about 300 yards from the schoelhouse. | almost directly in front of 1t and a few yards on the far side of the highway. | along which the strikers marched. The | deputies came on an electric car, left 1t | near the road and marched to an open | place on the road 200 yards from the car | tracks. There they were drawn up in | the form of crescent with the horns toward the road.