The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-08-12

| tiles Is remarkable.
One week ago today the company
opened up its washery under guard of
coal and iron police furnished by the
Barring agency. There was daily DEM
onstrations by the strikers and several
times shots were fired at the washery.
| Up till yesterday the washery was
run with water pumped from the mine.
| Yesterday the company had recourse
to an auxiliary supply, furnished by a
pumping station, located on the bank
of the river about one hundred yards
from the washery.
The strikers had evidently expected
the company would soon make use of
| the pumping station for when wOrkmen
went there yesterday morning to put
| the machinery in working order they
found a large heap of oil soaked cotton
waste underneath the wooden floor of
the pump house.
This and the fact that the sheriff s
proclamation posted on the outskirts of
the company's property had been torn
| down during the night gave warming
| that the strikers were becoming ugly,
| and additional guards We're engaged.
Yesterday at noon, as Superintendent
Allen was standing in the doorway Of
the pump house a bullet whizzed by
his head and lodged in the doorpost.
| He stepped inside the building and got
under cover. Fourteen more shots were
fired from the same direction in which
the first one came. Thirteen of them
lodged in the partly open door within a
space eight inches square. The shots
We're fired from a knoll northwest Of
ha inc OF faf ivtJ do
tant. The bullets were Of 3S-calibre.
The shooting brought four guards
from the washery each bearing Win
chester repeating rifle. AS they were
approaching the shooting from the
knoll ceased, and Superintendent Allen
emerged from the building.
A crowd, in which there were wo-
men and children, appeared on the
knoll A man, thinking himself unno-
ticed, drew partially out of sight be-
what apart from the crowd. He hurled
stone at Superintendent Allen, and
in doing so exposed himself quite fully
to view Allen popped at him with his
revolver, but missed his mark. At
this the crowd scattered.
1t was freely reported that there
house when night came, and the COM
pany prepared to meet it. The guard
was trebled and each man was sup
piled with a Winchester and plenty Of
ammunition. Sheriff Schadt and War;
den Simpson, of the county Jail. went
to Throop when the noon-day shooting
was reported, and Warden Simpson
was left there to watch for another
II
a false report of another outbreak
brought the sheriff back to the scene.
A couple of local newspapermen also
went thither and arrived on the ground
in time to get some real war cores
pondent experience.
Darkness had just set in when shots
began to ring out from the brush on
the river bank, opposite the pump
house. Immediately the guards opened
fire with their Winchesters from the
pump house and natural projections
in the immediate vicinity. Shots also
came from the knoll to the northwest
and the Winchesters made response.
For period of fifteen minutes the
battle waged fast and furious. Bullets
flew to and fro across the river and
up and down the enfilading knoll. Both
sides kept we'll under cover, and the
only target the one had was the flashes
from the guns of the other. The
pump house could evidently be fairly
well discerned in the darkness by the
strikers, for the sides it presented to
the attackers were fairly riddled with
bullets.
There was a cry from the strikers
side OF the river as if some one had
been hit, and soon after this the firing
from that position began to subside,
Desultory shooting continued for
probably half an hour when it ceased
altogether and the guards finding that
their shots were not answered gave
over the random firing into the brush.
1t is supposed the battle was ended
by the strikers eXhausting their am
munition.
While the battle was on, the little
settlement near the boulevard, where
most of the foreign element reside, was
in state of terror. Some OF the bull
let's from the guards Winchesters
sped through the brush and whistled
over and past the houses. One bullet
lodged in the house of Joseph Brown,
not far from lower window. 1t will
be discovered, probably, with the COM
ing of daylight, that other houses We're
struck.
Careful inquiry among the people of
this settlement at the close of the bat
tie, failed to disclose any explanation
OF the supposed cry of a wounded COM
batant, heard towards the ending of the
first fierce period of fighting.
Up to the time of going to press,
there had ben no renewal OF hostilities.
Warden Simpson and squad of guards
remained at the pump-house all night.
Unless some vigorous steps are taken
to prevent it, another outbreak Is like
ly to occur today.
Trouble is also looked for at Duryea
this morning, when another attempt is
to be made to start the Warnke wash
cry. A barbed wire fence was strung
around the washery property yesterday
under the protection of eight coal and
iron police, armed with Winchesters.
The work was not interfered with, but
1t Is expected that an attack will be
provoked by the washery getting in
operation. Mr.. Warnke is determined
to start the washery and has made ex-
tensiye plans to carry out his deter
mination.