The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-17
A REGIMENT ARRESTED.
Soldiers Gutted and Set Fire to
a Saloon.
THE RESULT OF A FIGHT
A Private OF the 23rd Infantry Had Been
Nearly Killed There in a Drunken
Row-Other Property Was
Protected.

San Francisco, April 16.-To-night 800
United States soldiers are under arrest
on the Presidio reservation. They are
encamped on the open and are guarded
by cavalry and the Gath infantry regi-
ment, colored, the force being in charge
of Adjutant General Harris. The Of
fense of the men was the burning down
of a saloon just outside of the reserva-
ton lines, in which Private Charles L.
King, Company G, 23d infantry, was
SO brutally beaten last night that he
is not expected to live.
Private Stark of Company F, also of
the 23d regiment. is in the gard house
charged with assault, but the soldiers
assert that the saloon people are re-
sponsible and claim that the proprie-
tor, A. L. Rehfeld, was the chief as
sailant of the injured man. A report
being circulated to-day that King is
dead, the place was set on fire tonight
and destroyed as an act Of retribu-
ton.
The trouble began last night when
five or six recruits went to the sa-
| loon, which is known as the Preside
| Club cafe. There were several women
| in the place and a row soon started
| about one of them, in which nearly
| all the men present participated. When
| comparative order had been restored it
| was found that Private King had been
seriously injured about the head, his
| skull being fractured and his features
| badly battered. He was taken to the
! Presidio reservation and his suppos
ed assailant, Private Stark, placed in
| the guard house.
( Early this morning some one started
| hn pfn t1,n = hat L
was dead. Despite the denials of the
| officers the report spread and by night
| fall the men had become wildly excited
| Soon after dark nearly 1000 of them
| proceeded to the saloon where the row
! had occurred and, after cutting it's in
terror, set fire to it in several places,
no one daring to interfere. The incen-
| diaries in uniform estab blished an i'm
promptu bucket brigade and protected
the adjoining buildings from catching
| fire. During the progress of the flames
the soldiers are said to have discharged
many shots in the air and indulged in
| much hilarity. When the saloon had
been reduced to ashes they returned to
| the reservation and We're promptly put
| under arrest by Coolnel Freeman of the
| oath U. S. infantry, commandant of the
post.
All of the men implicated in the af-
| fair are white. The colored troops,
none of whom took part, were placed
over them as guard, the cavalry lend
ing its assistance. There being no guard
house Of sufficient capacity, the pris-
oners were rounded up on the open.
The men were nearly all to sail for Ma
| Mia in a few days on the outgoing fleet
of transports.
Later on, after a roll call had been
| taken of the men in quarters, the
names of those under arrest were reg
istered and they were permitted to go
to their barracks. Until a late hour a
colored provost guard secured the city
in search of missing men. Nearly all
of those involved are raw recruits as
signed to various regiments now in the
Philippines.
The saloon destroyed was at the
Greenwich street entrance to the Pre-
sidio and the loss will be about
$1,50O.
Charles King, the injured soldier was
New Yorker, recently from Washing
ton, D. c., but enlisted in this state.
He says he became involved in the
trouble because he interfered to save a
fellow soldier, who was being thrown
out of the saloon and denies that there
was woman in the case.