The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-10-19
OPPOSED BY SOLDIERS
A PARTY OF STRIKERS FRUSTRATED IN
THEIR PLANS
EFFORTS TO CLOSE A COLLIERY
Prevented by Troops Who Met Them
Near the Mine and Turned Them
Back, After Their March OF Eighteen
Miles I'm the Night The Strikers
Stubborn but do Not Resist-One
Mine Closed for q Short Time While
the Soldiers are Thus Engaged.

Lansford, Pa, October 1S.-About l.
500 men and sixty women and girls
marched eighteen miles from the south
side Hazleton region during the night
for the Panther Creek valley. where
they expected to close all the ten COL
lieries of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga-
ton Company. but just as the weary
marchers were nearing their destina-
ton this morning they were met on a
mountain side by three companies Of
infantry and al the point Of the bayo-
net were driven back four miles to Ia
maqua and dispersed.
Another crowd of 500 strikers from
the north side of Hazleton also march
ed here and succeeded in closing the
c~ompany's No. 1 colliery at Nesqueho-
ming. near Mauch Chunk. before it a
scattered. The presence of the soldiers
was entirely unexpected and the strik-
ers We're much crest-fallen that they
their long march.
1t was probably the most exciting
morning that the Panther Greek and
Nesquehoning valleys have ever expe-
fenced. Strikers were scattered over
the various roads and companies OF
soldiers were scurrying in all direc-
lions, heading off the marching men.
The troops were patient with the MODS
Of strikers while the b men were
very careful not to permit overt acts
in the presence of the troops. For a
m just after the two forces met
on the road in the darkness it looked
as If a clash would come, but the good
sense of the men in charge of the
strikers prevented a possible conflict.
The marchers came dow like two
armies. The SouthSide- army concen
trated at McAdoo and the order to
march was given at 1880 o'clock last
hight. There were several fife and
drum corps and a brass band in the
line. The women and girls were on
veyed in two large omnibuses.
Five carriages containing newspaper
correspondents who had been trailing
along at the cal of the procession were
requested to take the lead so that they
would not interfere with the plans Of
the strikers. Following the newspaper
men came the two conveyances con-
tanning h women and then followed a
long line of Hungarians, Italians,
Slavs and English speaking mine
workers.
At a point half a mile from Coaldale
there is a sharp turn in the road and
as the newspaper men rounded it there
came a command of halt" and about
fifty feet in front of them were soldiers
who were stretched across the road
with bayonetS fixed. Sheriff Toole, of
~Schuylkill county, was with them. The
commander of the troops, speaking to
the waiting crowd, said: I'm the name
of the people of the state of Pennsyl-
vania, 1 command you to dispense and
return to where you came from"
The strikers began to protest that
they could not be stopped on a public
highway and many of them showed q
disposition to resist the soldiers. The
officer in charge of the troops, how
ever, kept his men in position and the
strikers seeing that the soldiers evil
IDENTIFY meant business, slowly began
returning toward Tamaqua.
Mother" Jones, who was in thu
crowd, vehemently protested agains
the action of the troops in stopping tht
marchers, but she was shut off and or.
dered to move on. The women had t
be almost pushed along so slowly die
they walk. They continually jeered TIL,
soldiers, calling them all kinds o
names and threatening them with pun
iShment if they should ever visit Nc
Adoo. It took from 5 o'clock until af
ter 6 to drive the crowd back to Tama
qua.
While all this had been going on tn,
northside marcherS had everything
their own way in the Nesquehonini
valley. They reached there after
o'clock and succeeded in p~ursuadin
enough men to remain away from Oh
Lehigh Valley Coal and Navigatio
Company's No. 1 colliery to compel it
t shut down.
General Goblin sent two companies c
: soldiers over there and soon had or
der restored.