The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-20
WILD SCENES
Witnessed In the Streets of
Greater New York.
Mob of Strikers Fought Police
Throughout the Night.
STONED EVERY CAR
Denizens of the Tenements Join
In the Melee.
Old Times In Paris Are Du-
plicated.
STREETS BARRICADED
With Paving Stones Torn From
the Ground.
Broken Heads Among Strikers,
Passengers and Police.
Six Hundred Blue Coats Power
less to Stop the Row.
STREETS BARRICADED
With Paving Stones Torn From
the Ground
Broken Heads Among Strikers,
Passengers and Police.
Six Hundred Blue Coats Power
less to Stop the Row.

New York, July 2O-Although Cen
eral Master Workman Parsons SAID
yesterday that today was to be the big
day for the strikers in Manhattan bor-
ough, this morning opened in the quiet
est sort of way 50 far as the strikers
were concerned Almost without excep-
ton the cars on all lines started from
their barns on schedule time
Second avenue. the scene Of the great
gatherings and disturbances of last
night was deserted. A police inspector
and two hundred policemen slept in the
stables of the Second avenue line at
Ninety-ninth and Second avenue When
the first cars started this morning, two
policemen were on each, and the early
trips were without incident of serious
nature.
The extension of the street car mems
strike from Brooklyn to Manhattan Is
land was due entirely to sympathy for
the striking employees of the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit company It was op-
posed by General Master Workman
John NJ. Parsons, the head of the
Knights of Labor in the United States
who is engaged in organizing the men
and is bringing all his energies toward
Tedressing their grievances Mr.. Par
sons declared a strike at this time to
be premaC Cure. 1t was literally IOTceU
by the report made to the mOtOrmen by
Master Workman Pines and the com
Tnittee of the Brooklyn strikers.
At midnight last night, after the
strike had been on twenty hours, it ap-
peared to be the maddest and most i'll
considered battle, with enormous cap
ital that labor ever entered on Except
on the Second avenue line. the cars
were only interfered with to slight
degree, and unless the strikers induce
from 1000 to 1,500 men to join them this
morning the strike Will be an absolute
10 viii
do. None of the men out, he said,
was regularly ordered out and he prom
ises to tie up the Manhattan lines to-
day.
There are about 1900 men employed
on the platforms of the cars of the lines
against which the fight is to be direct
ed These constitute, barring Broadway.
the most Valua bic portion of the Metro
pOlitan cOmpany's franchise-the roads
in Second, Fourth, Sixth. Eighth
Amsterdam and LenOx avenues, run
ming north and south and the Twenty
third, Fifty ninth and one Hundred and
Sixteenth street crOss-tOwn lines.
Certainly not more than 400 of these
men left their places. The largest num-
Der had been in the employ of the Sec
Ond avenue railway company. That line
was almost completely tied up several
times during the day and the vicinity
or the company barn at Ninety-SiXth
street was a battlefield from early
morning till midnight. Policemen had
been concentrated a all stations of the
the cars to protect the mOtOrmen and
conductors. just as in Brooklyn. When
ever Il striker approached the property
of the company in an effort to induce
men to quit work, he was either club
bed or arrested. Such measures of ex-
traOrdinary severity were never before
Known during a strike in Manhattan in
which the strikers had not previously
used firearms or great violence.
In Brooklyn the situation of the
strikers on the Rapid Transit COM
pany's lines was not improved by the
premature strike of the New York men
The company ran more cars and car
Tied more passengers, but it became
more than ever apparent that President
prestige.
The rioting that took place in New
Y Ork yesterday afternoon and last
night was Of a serious nature. infinitely
fiercer than any that has taken place
In the borough across the river Scores
OF people were injured and severely in
1ured, in the Second avenue district
That great thOrOughfare was crowded
with jeering, bowling mob, almost its
entire length. The great tenements
gave forth their working men residents
who backed up the strikers in many a
uerCe struggle with the police and with
the men were many women and sin
greater numbers of children They
stoned every car that passed over the
tracks, they hurled rocks and chunks
OF iron and Vegeta bleS of variety of
nature from the roofs of houses and
from the windows; they barricaded the
streets with paving stones, tore up the
street irons. choked up the slot with
wire and spikes and blocked the thor
oughfares. They had many a hand to
hand conflict with the six hundred pa
trolmen that had been placed along the
line.
OF the injured the exact number can
not be known Several policemen were
removed to hospitals with broken bones
and torn scalps- At least one strikers
or strike SynDathizer had his sIz71II
fractured and a boy had had his skull
fractured. Innumerable passengers on
the cars received had wounds and it
was impossible for passengers on Sec
ond avenue to go much above Four
teenth street. The cars that ran the
gauntlet had many windows broken and
We're badly battered.
1t was the hopes of the strikers to
make a deep impression by their sue
cess on Second avenue, and so far as
rl0tlng was concerned they and their
sympathizers made it. On the line
throughout New York the strike was