The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-08-01
OFFICERS WERE EscoRTlNG
STRIKE BREAKERS TO WORK.
The POLICE WERE ROUTED
Guns Were Freely Used and Soldiers
Have Been Ordered to the
Scene Of Disturbance.

Shenandoah, Pa, July 3O.-1n the
street fighting tonight between a mob
of striking miners on one side and
deputy sheriffs and police on the 9TH
er Joseph Beddell, leading merchant,
was beaten to- death, two borough po-
, licemen were shot, one fatally, and
more than a score of strikers shot
by policemen and deputy sheriffs.
I Sheriff Beddell arrived at 7:15 p.
! M. from Pottsville, with a posse of
quarters at the Ferguson hotel. To
reporter he said he had asked Govern
or Stone to send the militia The gov
ernor wired that if the citizens of the
town petitioned for troops he would
send them.
The trouble started. about o'clock
tonight, when Deputy Sheriff Thomas
Beddell attempted to escort two non
union men through the strikers lines
of pickets. The workmen were dress
ed in their street clothes, but one of
them carried bundle under his arm,
and this aroused the suspicious of the
strikers. The bundle was torn from
him, and when it was found to contain
a blouse and overalls, the man was
taken from the deputy and beaten al
most to death.
In the meantime Beddell opened fire
on the mob which had gathered, and
emptied his revolver. Two Of the
shots took effect, one man being shot
in the leg and the other in the foot.
The deputy and the other strike
breaker were now compelled to fly for
their lives, and took refuge in the Phil
adelphia & Reading railroad station.
The station was soon surrounded by
an angry mob of 5000, which was
becoming more threatening and
demonstrative every moment. Mr.
Beddell, hardware merchant and
brother of the deputy sheriff, was seen
making his way through the crowd in
an effort to reach his brother and the
crowd OWNED that he was carrying
ammun ition to those inside the sta
tion, and struck and beat him with
clubs and billies into insensibility. He
died en- route to the miners hospital.
After this the entire borough po-
lice force, under Chief Frye, arrived
on the scene and escorted the deputy
sheriff and his man to an engine which
had been backed into the station for
that purpose. When the mob realized
that their prey was about to escape,
they surrounded the engine and the
engineer was afraid to move: In a
few minutes, however, the police fired
a volley, dispensing the crowd for a
brief period, and the engineer turned
full steam on and got away. Stones
were thrown thick and fast about the
heads of the police, whereupon Frye
gave the order to fire. At the first
volley the mob fell back and several
were seen to fall.
luc ICLledI, uOWCVcl, Wdo OLIy lAc-
mentary. They turned, and with re-
volvers. stones and even a few shot
guns, charged on the little band of
policemen, and made them fly for their |
lives. The policemen turned in their
flight at short intervals and fired vol
ley after volley at their merciless pur-
suers, but the mob seemed thorough
ly infuriated and revolvers seemed to
have no terrors for them. When the
Lehigh railroad crossing was reach
ed passing freight train blocked the
progress of the mob, and two women
were caught and brutally beaten, one
of them Stiney Yacopsky.
1t it is estimated that more than
900 shots were fired and the wonder
is that more fatalities did not result.
More than 20 strikers, all of whom
were foreigners, were shot and at
least two of them will die. At II
o'clock tonight the streets are still |
crowded, but everything is quiet.