The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-13
EYE WITNESSES
DESCRIBE SHOOTING
Testimony Is All TO the Effect That No
One Gave the Order TO Fire.
SHERIFF MARTIN WAS DlSARMED
Then He Was Jostied About by the
Strikers and One of His Deputies
Ran to His Assistance and Fired a
Shot --Imm ediateiy Afterwards
ySiley Was Fired and the Shooting
Was Kept Up While the strikers
Were on the Run.
Special to the Scranton Tribune.


Special to the Scranton Tribune.
Hazleton, Pa, Sept. 12.-Friday's
trouble between the deputies of Sher-
iff Martin and the strikers, which
promises to result in between twenty
five or thirty deaths, has made Latti-
mer famous in a day. 1t is a small,
little hamlet, where three or four hun
dred mine workers reside, and consists
of Trolley street, about four blocks
long and lined with small company
houses on either side. There are other
houses scattered around to the East
and west of Trolley straet-named af-
ter the trolley road, which connects
the hamlet with this city-but to all
intents and purposes Trolley street is
Lattimer. Just over the hill is the
mining village of Harleigh.
At the point where the public high
way curves a little and loses it's iden-
tity in Trolley street, Fridays slaugh-
ter took place. The turf thereabouts
is still stained with dark red patches
that tell where the dead and dying lay
after the shooting was over. Few bat
tie fields have presented the scene that
the half-acre of land about the curve
in the turnpike did after Friday af-
ternoon's trouble The ground was lit
orally covered with the dead and
wounded. Yesterday the ground was
Uttered with pieces of blood-soaked
cloth, torn from the garments of the
injured or given by people of the neigh
borhood, which were used in stopping
the flow of blood before the wounds
Urn, a,,I he al
to the hospitals. Today nearly all of
these gruesome reminders of the fight
ing have disappeared; relic hunters APP
propriated them. The people of Latti-
mer talk of nothing but the shooting
One old lady, who was an eye witness
to the trouble, said: 'T will never be
the same again; this shooting has had
q terrible effect upon me-" and she
seemed to grow weak as memory re-
called the terrible scenes to her.
STORIES OF EYE WITNESSES.
Yesterday 1 heard the story of the
shooting from nearly a dozen eye wit
nesses, among them DR.. Harvey, who
attended many of the men after the
shooting. The deputies stood in front
of his place when Iney fired, Few of
the witnesses agree in the matter of
detail as to what took place between
the strikers and Sheriff Martin just
before the shooting, but all agree that
the killing was unwarranted. One
English-speaking mine worker who
saw the trouble from beginning to
end, told what he observed to me. l
give it because it is the most COM
prehensive story of the occurrence The
other eye witnesses l interviewed COR
roborated his version of the parts of
the trouble they saw, with the excep-
ton of the manner in which the sher-
iff was treated by the strikers. He
was quite sure they took his revolver
away from him, showed him about and
finally got him on the ground. All the
other witnesses / saw aver that Sher-
iff Martin was not knocked down, and
some went so far as to say that he
was not even struck, the strikers mere
ly taking his revolver away from him
when he threatened to shoot them, and
then showed him about as he de-
nounced them for their conduct. The
eye witness referred to above said:
"I was coming up the street (Trolley
street, when an electric car came DASH
ing down the road and stopped
rather SUDDENLY near that box cul-
vert you see there at the bend of the
road. A lot of men with guns got off
and, after standing in a group for
y moment or two, formed a sort of a
rounded line from the end of the fence
of that last house on the right hand
side of the street to about the center
| Of the road. Most of the men had their
backs toward the fence, and many of
them stood quite close to it. To me
ii appeared as if there were seventy or
eighty of the men with guns. They
were two and three deep in some
places. About the time the line was
being formed the strikers came into
view on the turnpike, about 600 or 700
yards from where the deputies We're.
They were making little noise, but
seemed to be in a merry, rather than
| dangerous, mood. They had some
kind of an old flag that was carried in
| front of them, and close to that and a
| few yards ahead of the column were
two youngsters who We're probably
breaker boys. They We're staggering
| along and evidently deriving much fun
out Of the whole affair Only q few of
! the men had sticks in their hands and
| llltlC was llol q dSlulJ "Sdpbi NlSlDlS'
SHERIFF STOPPED THEM.
"As the men came down the road the
| sheriff stopped them at that wooden
| culvert (ahout $50 feet from where the
deputies We're in lne) and spoke to
them. / could not hear what was said
but n good deal of feeling was display
| ed on both sides. The sheriff had his
| revolver in his hand and raised it as if
| to fire. The men around him grabbed
| his arm, tore the weapon from his hand
and threw 1t to the ground. They did
| not attempt to use it. Then there was
a scuffle and the sheriff was thrown
| to the ground. / don't know that he
was hit while he was down for at that
| moment my attention was attracted by
movement among the deputies. One
| man ran out from the line and then a
shot was fired, / believe by the man
who went towards the sheriff. / OBJ
| served the sheriff get to his feet and in
a somewhat COUGHING attitude run to-
ward the end of the fence which marked
the end Of his line of deputies. / did
not hear him give a command to fire
but saw the guns discharged before he
reached his men and saw a number of
the strikers fall.
eff the firing had endad with tho