The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1901-05-16
sABER sLAsHES
Bloody Collisions Between the Mob
and Militia.

Bloody Collisions Between the Mob
and Militia.
Albany. NY. May 16.-So serious was the
situation here last night over the traction
company strike that Governor Odell post
poned a trip to the state institutions
which he had undertaken and returned to
the executive mansion.
Two thousand armed soldiers are now
within the city limits, more are coming
and $500 are in readiness to move to Troy
when Governor Odell so orders.
The streets are blocked with excited
men, women and children and the other
wise quiet day terminated in bloodshed.
As long as the traction company does
not attempt to move cars or bring in non
union men, the crowds on the street re-
main good natured, except for tauntlng
the soldiers and police. but the instant an
lattempt is. made TO work on the lines or
bring nonunion men in, the crowd be-
comes frenzied and blOOdshed results.
Citizens, sabre-slashed non-union men
with broken limbs and bloody faces, women
and children tranlpled- under feet, soldiers
manned with flying missiles and leaders IN
the crowd beaten with muskets were some
of the results Of the day.
Anticipating an effort to move the cars
in Troy, Major Robe has ordered the Thir-
teenth, Fourteenth and Forty seventh
regiments of Brooklyn, troop of Brook
lyn, the Second signal corps. the Seven
teenth- separate -cOmpsny and the Third
battery which carries gatling guns, to
hold themselves in readiness to move i'm
mediately.
Mob and militia closed in combat late
yesterday, but fortunately there were
no serious casualties. 1t was the inten-
tiOn Of more nonunion men to take the
places of striking traction employees that
produced the violence. Seventy-fve nom
union men reached the union depot short
ly before o'clock and their delivery at
Quail street barn, a mile and a half
away, was made with a dash under cav
airy escort, with mob resistance in al
most every block. Crowds surged around
the fast moving cavalrymen and fought
TO get at the cowed nonuniOn men inside
the circle of galloping horses.
The rays of the sun gave CLINT to busy
sabres, but the long blades welded by for
| bearing hands seldom descended in Sc
rious blows. Several Of the mob were
knocked down by cornered ca7alrymen,
but the record does not yet show the
score of a single fatality.
In the passage through the streets few
Of the nonunionists escaped the flying
bricks and stones that were hurled at
them, but less than a dozen were badly
hurt. The courage of nearly a dozen of
the nonunion men failed them in the
opening squirt through the crowds, and
they sprang from the wagons that car
ried them, TO mingle with and be lost
in the crowd.
The ride of the nonunion men through
the city was the dramatic spectacle of
the day. At 3 o'clock the Third signal
CORDS, mounted and armed as cavalry
men. formed a hollow square around the
nonunion men who had just arrived at
the depot.
Five thousand men tagged at their heels
and jammed in around them, and thou
sands more crowded into the intersecting
streets Fifty policemen formed in cor
don about the waiting dragons and tried
to force the crowd back. The street was
cleared. but the walls of humanity on the
sidewalks held firm and could not be
moved. A broken alleyway that runs
along the south side of the union depot
was the stage Of operations. Into 1t were
driven four fiat-topped open trucks. The
crowd recognized them as the same We
lbicles that had carried the first batch of
strike breakers, and greeted them with
groans.
Suddenly a side door of the depot was
thrown open and up the alleyway to-
ward the waiting teams marched the non
union men. Once they were all aboard
the drivers brought their teams out into
the street the cavalry closed in around
them and the race was on. High up IN
a window on the top floor of Broadway
building a wildly excited man barked
out an imprecatiOn on the heads Of the
luckless fellows below him and 10000 men
took uD the hue and cry.
The police threw themselves across the
street in solid phalanx but the crowd
swept over them and took up the chase.
Ahead were thousands more and, with no
fear for either. heels Of horses or blades
( cir in
, rymen Soon there came volley of bricks
and three of the strike breakers sprang
from the rear wagon, and we're lost in the
crowd. The flying column dashed into
State street for the run uD the hill past
the capitol. Here the crowd was as dense
and desperate as the other, and men
plunged in around the galloping horses.
One rider, cut off from the crowd,
brought his sabre down on the face OF
one of his antagonists, and a line of blood
! marked where 1t struck. Two blocks up
State street and a clever military ruse
blocked the down town mob. Two COM
panies of the Tenth battalion we're con-
cealed in Chapel street, and when the
cavalry dashed past they ran across State
street and faced the pursuing crowd with
fixed bayonets. The new line wavered and
broke on one flank, but in the main the
! movement was successful.
: Smaller crowds had gathered at various
! points along the route to the barn, and
they threw. stones when the n-union
men rushed past There was another wild
scene at the barn where thousands more
f had assembled. The Infantry repeatedly
, charged into the crowd, substituting butt
I, for bayonet, and after much effort pas
s sage was opened for the scurrying caval-
[ cade and it was safe inside
Sixteen strike breakers were injured
= during the ride, and many of them,
: stunned, weak and scared, had to be
t helped from the wagons.