The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-09-17
SHOT DOWN
LIKE DOGS.
Bullets Poured Into a Body of
Miners
BY a Band Of Deputies, Killing a
Score or More and WOunding
Forty.
The Officers Were Armed to the Teeth
with Winchesters and Magazine
Rifles, While the Miners Were
Utterly Defenseless.

HAzELToN, PA, Sept. l1.-Twen-
ty-one corpses lie tonight in frame
shanties scattered about this hilltop
town. Forty manned and wounded
and broken figures toss on the mar
row cots of the Hazelton hospital.
OF these, it is almost a certainty
that five will be added to the death
list before another day dawns.
Such was the execution done yes
terday afternoon by lO2 deputy
sheriffs, armed to the teeth with
Winchester and Magazine rifles,
upon about 100 ignorant foreigners,
whose total armament consisted Of
two little pom knives. These facts
are undispated.
One version of the affair is as fol-
lows:
The strikers left Hazelton at $3.50
o'clock yesterday afternoon, an
nouncing their intention to go to
Latimer. AS soon as this became
known a band of deputies was
loaded on a trolly car and went
whirling across the noun tain to the
scene where the bloody conflict fol-
lowed. On reaching Latimer they
drew up in line at the edge of the
village Just as the strikers approach
ed. Sheriff Martin went out to
meet them.
The men drew up sullenly and
listened in silence until he had once
more read the riot act. This
finished, a low muttering arose
among the strikers and there was a
slight movement forward. Perceiv-
ing this, the Sheriff stepped toward
them and in a determined tone for
babe advance. Some one struck the
Sheriff, and the next moment there
was command to the deputies to
fire. The guns of the deputies in
stantly belched forth terrible vol
ley. The report seemed to shake
the very mountains, and a cry of
dismay went up from the people.
The strikers were taken entirely
by surprise, and as the men toppled
and fell over each other, those who
remained unhurt stampeded. The
men went down before the storm of
bullets like tenpins and the grOans
Of the dying and wounded filled the
air.
The excitement that followed was
simply indescribable. The deputies
seemed to be terror-stricken at the
deadly execution of their guns, and,
seeing the living strikers fleeing
like wild and others dropping to the
earth, they went to the aid of the
unfortunates whom they had
brought down.
The sheriff claims that he was
brutally assaulted by the miners
and ordered his deputies to fire in
order to protect themselves, but he
cannot show a mark of violence on
| his person.
The Nashville Sun correspondent
interviewed four reputable men OF
Hazleton who saw the assault of the
deputies on the marching Hun.
garians yesterday, and they al
agree in their statements and then
/ declaration that Sheriff Martin wa;
alone to blame for the terrible scene
of bloOdshed.
Jonathan Lieberger, a contractor
said:
II saw the whole occurrence. The
men were marching toward the
Lattimer mine, when they were met
by Sheriff Martin, who was a little
ia advance of his men. The Sheriff
ordered the miners to dispense ano
at the same time drew his revolver
A Hungarian grabbed the officers
arm and the revolver was discharg-
ed. Then Martin gave orders tC
fire. The first volley was over the
miners heads. The next was fired
at short range and with deadly aim
as the men turned to flee. The facts
that the surgeons found that most
of the dead and wounded were shot
in the back corrobOrated this story
The deputies displayed degree Of
inhuman feeling that was surprising
"They paid no attention to the
dead or wounded. One man was
living in the brush seriously hurt. A
man named Costello, who was pass
ing by, said: why don't you take
care of that MANI A deputy re
piled: If you don't shut up l will
give you the same and he pointed
his gun at the man."
The miners tell interesting stories
of their side in the shooting. An
drew Noovootny, the man who wa:
seized by Sheriff Martin just before
the shooting began, does not fix the
word of command to shoot as co m
ing from the Sheriff. In broker
English Noovootny gave his version
of his encounter to-day.
A crowd of his countrymen who
had been among the marchers stood
about gesticulating and giving
noisy confirmation to what he said
He declared that Sheriff MartiT
caught hold of his coat and pointed
a pistol at his head, commanding
him to stop. Then he said: "YoI
shoot if you want"
At that, the Sheriff turned up tn,
muzzle of his pistol and fred int
the air. Almost Immediately til,
I = n 4 g.