The San Francisco call., 1898-02-04
SLAUGHTER OF STRIKERS
 AT LATTIMER Story of a Massacre Told at the Trial of
 Officers. Deputies Boasted in Ad- vance of MurderouS
 Intentions. Many of the Victims Shown to Have Been Shot in the
 Back.
BuTCHERED MERCILEssLY
So Far tho Testimony for the Com naonwealth Puts the Acts of the
 Sheriff in . Bad Light
Special Dispatch to The Call.

0PeSAoA
 WILKESBARRE, Pa., Feb. 3.-The | taking of testimony in the trial or Sher- | if Martin and his deputies began to- | day in the Luzerne County Court. At | torney McGahren presented the case | for the Commonwealth.
 | McGahren told how the strikers had started to march from Hazelton to Lat timer and about the deputies boarding
 the cars and attempting to intercept | the men.
 we will prove" he said, that at | this point some of the deputies made | threats; that one of them said: I'll 1 bet I'll drop six of the strikers An other said, I hope we get a chance to take a pop at some of them Nc | Gahren then described the shooting. Andrew Silver was the first witness called. He is a Hungarian, but speaks excellent English. He proved the death
 of Mike Cezlek, saying that he saw him lying dead on the road at Lattimer with bullet in his head. Witness saw the Sheriff draw his revolver and heard
 1t snap, and then the shooting com menced.
 
 the witness had been enC lged in ter | rorizing men who did not want to strike to such an extent that they were | forced to join the strikers through fear | of injury, but the court would not .al- | low 1t. Later the defense asked the witness if he had not been engaged in
 or known of sundry cases of violation
 with the strikers as aggressors on the day of the strike. This the witness de-
 nied.
 1 The second witness was John Manala, who was at the time Of the strike the l president of the Harwood local union of the United Mineworkers of America. He told of the meeting, where it was agreed to march to Lattimer, at the invitation of the miners there; his counsels of peace, and the start the
 next day, all the men being unarmed. At West Hazleton they were stopped by the Sheriff, who ordered them to disperse. Manala protested that they | were breaking no law, whereupon one of the deputies grabbed the American | flag he bore and tore it in halves. The Sheriff pointed his revolver and threat ened to shoot" said Manala. "The dep uties pushed us around with the mug zles of their guns and swore at us, and one struck John Eustis twice with his gun, cutting his head and breaking his arm in two places. Then Burgess Jones of West Hazleton remonstrat ted
 with the Sheriff, saying that he could
 keep the peace without using any weapons; that he had confidence in us
 and would let us march through the
 streets of his borough as much as we
 liked. The Sheriff and his deputies
 then boarded the cars and we marched on toward Lattimer."
 Witness was in the road when the shooting commenced. He saw ten men and a number of wounded lying in the
 road.
 Rev. Father Richard Aust, pastor of the St. Stanslaus Polish Catholic Church at Hazleton, chairman of the prosecuting committee, was called to prove that many of the strikers were shot in the back. He said he had ex- amiI1ed a number of the dead, but could not tell in detail what their wounds
 were. He had buried thirteen of the dead.
 Rev. Carl Hauser, pastor of the Lutheran church at Freeland, said he
 had examined several, and found all
 of them were shot In the side or back. 'I boarded a car," he said, which
 brought ten of the dead and lot of the wounded from the scene of the shooting. There was a pile of rifles in the corner. said to one of the dep-
 uties, Frank Clark, I am afraid of
 some of them falling and exploding You need not be afraid he replied, they are all empty now ''
 Charles Grscott, principal of the Lattimer School, building about 600 yards from the scene of the shooting, said he was teaching school when he heard an unusual noise, and going to the window he found that number of
 men, some eighty, were alighting from an electric car. They were deputies. He saw the deputies line up to the side of the road and form with rifles ready. The strikers were by this time some
 two or three hundred yards away
 They were marching five or six abreast and were quiet and orderly. Witness could not see that they carried any weapons. AS they drew near the Sheriff advanced to meet them. As he reached the first man a dozen or so formed sort of half circle around him. He did not hear the Sheriff say | anything, nor did he see him read any paper. A minute after the line first stopped those behind pushed ahead to
 see what was going on and got ahead of the Sheriff. At that moment one of the deputies stepped out of the line and advanced, and one shouted, If you do not come back we will shoot you, too" The fellow jumped back
 into line, and almost immediately after
 the witness heard a shot It came from the left line of deputies. A mo-
 ment later two shots were fired and then came the volley. As soon as the volley was fired the strikers ran in all directions. Between the road and the schoolhouse fifteen men fell, struck down by shots fired after the first vol ley. He saw a man shot and killed while running at full speed at a dis tance of 100 yards from the road. The shooting continued for some two or three minutes. The witness did not see any of the deputies leave the line and
 run after the strikers to shoot them. He knew a number of the deputies
 and saw them plainly just before the shooting occurred.