The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-05
FOR KILLING MINERS
TRIAL OF SHERIFF MARTIN AND DEPUTIES
CONTINUED.
More Witnesses Are introduced doctor Kellar
Is Put on the Stand -Four Weeks
More at Least.

Wilkesbarre, Pa, Feb. 4.-Ihe trial
of Sheriff Martin and his deputies, VIII
are Jointly charged with the murder CT
the striking miners at Lattimer on Sep
TENDER 10, was continued this morning.
Charles GVscott, the Lattimer school
teacher, was recalled. He was chiefly
occupied in pointing out those OF the
deputies he remembered having seen at
I4attimer just previous to the shooting,
and afterward when he was assisting
the wounded. Some of the deputies ell
deayored to avoid recognition by bowling
their heads and the court was compelled
TO order them to arise and come forward.
They We're then required to remain in
the front room where they could east
~ be seen.
Counsel for the deputies endeavOred to
prove by the witness that the children of
ms school We're not frightened by the
approach of the deputies, but upon til
first intimatiOn of the approach of the
strikers they became alarmed. 1t was
shown by the witness that the strikers
We're in Lattimer on the Tuesday pre-
vious to the shooting and that there was
some riOting. Guscott admitted that
some of the children Were fearful of q
repetition of the scenes of Tuesday and
that he had allowed them to go home.
knowing that their attention was dis
tracted from their studies.
DR.. H. NJ. Kellar, who viewed the
remains of the strikers, and attended
many of the wounded, was then called.
He testified TO that n number of the
strikers were shot in the back
DR.. Kellar, mentioned in orde
each of the thirty-nine patients taken to
the Hazleton Hospital. and described
their wounds infinitely.
The defense in its cross examination,
conducted by ex-State Attorney General
Palmer. asked the doctor to classify the
wounds rs to the positions of the men
when shot. The classification was as
follows:
Shot directly in front, FIVE; indirectly
in front, nine: directly in the side fifteen
indirectly in the side. six: Directly in the
rear three: indirectly in the rear eight.
the thirty nine patients. seven died
in the hospital, two a1@ still there, and
recovering slowly and thirty have been
discharged, all of them cured except one
who is now in Philadelphia hospital
Rev. Is. T.. Staffett, pastor of the
Emanual Reformed church of Hazleton.
was going from MilneSvile to Lattimer
and passed the marching strikers en-
route. They were quiet and orderly.
The witness said he saw no weapon. Re-
turning he again passed the strikers as
they were approaching the Sheriff. As
the car neared the end of the column, he
saw the strikers there running. heard
cheer and Immediately afterward tn
shooting
Miss Grace Coyle, principal Guscotts
assistant at the Lattimer school proved
to be the most important witness of the
day. She said she was standing on the
porch of the school house and saw the
deputies line mp along the roadside.
Then the strikers approached quietly
and orderly. She did not hear any
shouting The sheriff stopped them and
some of them gathered around him but
she did not see any of them attack him.
Some of them cried ego ahead,' and Il
few strikers pushed past the sheriff At
that moment a shot was fired; then came
another, and in an instant a crashing
volley.
Continuing the witness said:
Il helped about twelve or fifteen OF
Tie NOuLleu, anu ulu not see any Weap-
ons on any Of them. While / was help
ing them, a deputy named Hess laughed
at me as he walked about smoking
cigar l said. You ought to go to Cuba.
Another deputy, Clark. laughed and
said to him, Do You think you've done
a glorious deed to-day? / called two
more of them buns"
Guscott, the principal of the school had
denied that his scholars were frightened,
but he could not explain very clearly
why they had bolted out of the school
without being dismissed. Miss Coyle said
on this point just what the defense desir-
ed to get at. She said: Shortly before
four O'Clock Miss Cora Heinbach came
to the school and said, The strikers are
coming, and / want my little sister to go
home with me- / excused the little
girl, and then thought it best to dismiss
the class so they could get home before
the strikers came"
The trial is expected to take four
weeks at least. as there are about one
hundred and fifty witnesses to be heard
by the commonwealth and nearly two
hundred for the defense.