The record-union., 1899-04-17
Guarded by Cavalry and CoIorsp
Troops.
Burned the Saloon Just Outside
Their Lines Where One of Their
Comrades Was So Brutally
Beaten That He Was Reported
Dead-Stabbing and Shooting
ARRAY in Los Angeles.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 16-To-
night 300 United States soldiers are un-
der arrest on the Presidio Reservation.
They are encamped on the open and
are guarded by cavalry and the Tween
ty-fourth Infantry Regiment, colored,
the force being in charge of Adjutant
Lieutenant Harris. The offense of the
men was the burning down of a saloon
just outside of the reservation lines in
which Private Charles L. King, Com
pany G, Twenty-third Infantry, was
brutally beaten last night.
Private Clark, also a member of the
Twenty third Regiment, is in the
ssslardhouse charged with the assault,
but the soldiers assert that the saloon
people are responsible and claim that
the. proprietor, A L. Rehfeld, was the
chief assailant of the injured man. y
report being circulated to-day that
King was dead, the place was set on
fire tonight and destroyed as an act
of retribution. The trouble began last
night when five or six recruits vert to
the saloon, which is known as the Pre-
sidio Club Cafe. There were several
women in the place and a row soon
started over one of them, in which
nearly all the men present participated
When comparative order had been re
stored it was found that Private King
had been seriously injured about the
head, his skull being supposed to have
been fractured and his features badly
battered He was taken to the Preside
Reservation and his supposed assailant,
Private Clark, placed in the guard
house
Early this morning some one started
the story among the troops that King
was dead. Despite the denials of the
officers the report spread and by night
fall the men had become wildly ex-
cited. Soon after dark nearly 900 CT
them proceeded to the Saloon where the
row had occurred and after cutting it's
interior set fire to it in several places,
no one daring to interfere. The inc en-
diaries in uniform established an I'M
promptU~ bucket brigade and prevented
the adjoining buildings from catching
fire
During the progress of the flames the
soldiers are said 10 have discharged
many shots in the air and INDUCED in
much hilarity. When the saloon had
been reduced to ashes they returned to
the reservation and were promptly put
under arrest by Colonel Freeman Of the
Twenty-fourth United States Infantry,
commandant of the post.
All of the men implicated in the af-
fair are white The colored troops, none
of whom took part, We're placed over
them as a guard, the cavalry lending
its assistance
There being no guardhouse of suffi-
sufficient capacity the prisoners We're
rounded up on the open. The men
were nearly all to sail for Merila in a
few days on the outgoing fleet of trans
ports.
Later on. after a roll call had been
taken of the men in quarters the names
of those under arrest were registered
and they We're permitted TO go TO their
barracks Until a late hour Il colored
provost guard secured the city in
search of missing men. Nearly all of
those involved are raw recruits assign
ed 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 81 800.
Charles King, the injured soldier. was
q 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 a
woman in the case