The Topeka state journal., 1902-07-30
OSWECO IS LOOTED.
Town Devastated by Wallace
Circus Employees.

Oswego, July 30.-The Wallace show
created a panic here when it stopped to
water the stock, en- route to Carthage,
Mo.
AS the men Of the show who number
ed about 90 had had nothing to eat
since they left Wichita the night before,
they were simply ravenOus and ate ev-
erything in sight All of the gardens
and orchards within reach from the
trains were absolutely stripped of ev-
erything that could be eaten. 1t did
not seem to matter whether the fruit or
vegeta bleS were ripe or green as some
members of the crowd gathered every
thing in and large amount of damage
was done.
One of the heaviest sufferers was DR..
]. B. Draper, who has a fine pear ORCH
ard of several acres and every pear was
stripped from the orchard and there
We're several trees that were damaged
by having limbs broken. There were
several fights in Oswego and some of
the county officers got mixed up in the
trouble.
One of the employees of the show was
discharged while the show was at
Wichita and out of revenge for his dis
charge he removed the taps from num-
Der of the big wagons, and as conse-
quence7 when the show attempted to
leave the grounds for the train at Wfch-
ita the wheels came off from a number
of the wagons and the management had
all sorts of trouble to again put the
wagons in working order.
This malicious mischief naturally in
censed the men whom it caused trouble
and extra work, and when the trains
reached OswegO the discharged en-
ploye was found concealed in one of
the cars and rush was made for him
He escaped from the train and fled
towards the business portion of OswegO.
Then a few of the most f1eet-footed
of his purSuerS caught him and gave
him quite beating. They did not dare
fr, lea WI ha n f,1-
so they left him and went back to the
Frisco tracks. During the time that
they were robbing the gardens and
orchards word was sent to the officers
of the depredations that were being
committed and ]. H. Steinway, a deputy
sheriff, proceeded to the scene and had
some trouble with several of the circus
men in one of the orchards
After this trouble he was told that
couple of convicts. for whom a reward
was offered, were among the show peo-
pie and he went to the train to cap
ture them. When he put in an appear
ance at the train he was recognized by
the men with whom he had the trouble
in the orchard, and they gathered a
crowd of their companions in order to
punish him.
In the fight that ensued Steinway hit
a man over the head with his pistol.
when it flew from his hand, leaving him
unarmed. He did not dare to stoop to
pick it up as that would have given his
assailants the best of him, so he fought
his way through the crowd with his
bare fists. During the fight he was hit
with rocks once or twice and sustained
quite a severe cut on his lip that re-
quired two stitches.
He succeeded in breaking through the
crowd and made his escape and when
the matter was reported to Under Sher-
iff Disch, he went to the management
of the show and explained the circum-
stances, and asked that the pistol be
returned. AS the circus management
as rule does not countenance law
breaking they Immediately sent several
foremen with Disch and the weapon
was recovered without any difficulty.