The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-05-22

of fortune there were no serious cas-
ualties. It was the introduction Of
more non-union men to take the places
of striking traction employees that pro-
duced the violence. Seventy-ive non
union men reached the union depot
shortly before o'clock and their de-
livery at Quail street barn, mile and
half away, was made with a dash
under cavalry escort with mob resist
ance in almost every block. Frenzied
men swarmed through the police lines
surged around the fast moving caval-
ry1nen and fought to get at the cowed
non-union men inside the circle of
galloping horses.
The rays of the setting sun gave
CLINT to busy sabers but welded by
forbearing hands, seldom descend in
serious blows. Several OF the mob
were knocked down by cornered caval-
rymen but the record does not yet
show the score of single fatality. In
the passage through the streets few of
the non-unionists escaped the flying
bricks and stones that were hurled at
them but less than a dozen were
badly hurt. The courage of near
ly dozen of the non-union
men failed them in the opening
squirt through the crowds and they
sprang from the wagons that carried
them to mingle with and be lost in
the crowd.
The ride of the non-union men
through the city was the dramatic
spectacle of the day. At five O'Clock
the Third signal corps, mounted and
armed as cavalrymen, formed hollow
square around the non-union men who
had Just arrived at the depot.
Five thousand men tagged at their
heels and jammed in around them and
thousands more crowded into the in
tersecting streets.
Fifty policemen formed in Gordon
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 southside Of the
union depot was the stage of the open
ing scene. Into it were driven four
fat-topped open trucks. The crowd
recognized them as the same vehicles
that had carried the first batch of
strike breakrs and had greeted them
with groans. Suddenly side door of the
depot was thrown open and up the al
leyway toward the waiting teams
marched the non-union men. Once
they were all aboard the drivers
brought their teams out into the
streets, the cavalry closed in around
them and the race was on. The flying
column dashed into State street for
the run up the hill past the capitol.
Here the crowd was as dense and des-
perate as the other and men plunged
in and around the galloping horses.
One rider was cut off from the crowd,
brought his saber down on the face OF
one of his antagonists and a line OF
blood marked where it struck. Two
blocks up State street and clever
military ruse blocked the down town
mob. Two companies of the Tenth
battalion were concealed in Chape!
Street and when the cavalry escort
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 sue
cessful. But the strike breakers were
not yet free. Smaller crowds gathered
at various points along the route tc
the barn and they threw stones when
the non-union men rushed past.
There was another wild scene at the
barn where thousands more were as
sembled. The infantry repeatedly
charged into the crowd substituting
butt for bayonet and after much effort
passage was opened for the scurry-
ing cavlcade and it was safe inside the
inclosure.
Sixteen of the strike breakers were
injured during the ride and many of
them stunned, weak and SCARED, had
to be helped from the wagons. The
strikers say that IS strike breakers de-
serted during the ride and that less
than so were safely landed in the
barn.
In hollow square of infantry pro-
tected by lines of pickets that reach
into every bisecting street and outer
skirmish line in circular form that
encompassed all, the traction tower
wagon was moved out of the barn this