The San Francisco call., 1903-01-25
NcTerza

thought, Ne shh"r was ready Even old
john Boxer. his head blacksmith. who
operated an amateur battery for sautes
and cele bratons had his gun overhauled;
III, roundhouse was looking for trouble
1t was barely o'clock that night when
group of us on Main street saw the de-
pot lights go out and pretty soon tele-
phone messages began coming in from the
company plant up the river for the Sher-
iff; the Poacks were wreckng the dyns-
MOS. The arc lights covering the yard
were on q different circuit, but it didn't
take the WHISPERED fellows long to find
that out. Half an hour later the city
plant was attacked: no one was looking
for trouble there, and the great system of
arcs lighting the yard for miles died like
hre1es. We knew then, everybody knew.
that the Polacks meant business.
4>ot man was in sight when the blaze
sputtered. blue. red and black out: but in
five minutes a dozen torches were moving
up on the in-freight house like coyotes
We could hear the crash of the big oak
doors clear down on Main street. There
again, the company was weak: they
hadn't a picket out either of the freight
houses. There wasn't so much a sneeze
till they beat the doors in: then there was
a cry-the women were taking a hand, and
it was loot with big /. The plumber
maddened them like brandy. Neighbor
who feared not the Polacks nor the devil
made sortie with a dozen men from his
stockade-for that is what the roundhouse
defenses looked like-to try to save the
building. 1t wasn't IN men to do IT, The
cutting was done and the kerosene burn
ing yellow before he was halfway across
and the mob, running then in a wavering
black line from the flames that licked the
high windows, were making for the store
house. Neighbor saw I'm a minute that
nothing was left for him to protect at the
east end. and before he could cut off the
constantly lengthening line of rioters they
were between him and the long store
house. II was there that the first shoot
ing occurred
A squad of the detectives reinforcing
Neighbor's little following ran in on the
flank of the rioters as the master mechanic
caught UP with their rear. They wheeed
on his command to disperse and met it
with a cloud of stones and couphng-pns
The detectives opened with their Winches-
ters, and a yell went up that took me
back to the Haymarket. Their answer
charge on the imported guards that shook
their front like whirwind. The detec-
tives ran for Neighbor's breast works,
with the miners hot behind and hail of
deadly missiles on their backs Half a
dozen of US stood In the cupola OF the fire
engine-house. with the thing laid below
like a panorama.
Far as the blazing freight house lit the
yards we could see the rioters swarming
4
cials gathered upstairs in the passenger
depot waited helpless for the moment
when the fury OF the mob should turn on
the unprotected building. The entire rec
ords of the division. the dispatchers' Of
hces, the headquarters of the whole
West End were under that roof, with
nothing to stand between it and the
torches.
Two intensely active leaders rose out of
the crowds. Following the shouts of the
pair, which we could just hear, a great
body of the strikers dashed up the yard.
by the gods!" cried Andy Cameron at
my elbow, they're going for the oil
house,
Before the words were out we could
hear the dull stroke of the picks sink
ing into the cleated doors. Buckets were
passed in and out from the house tanks
Jacketed cans OF turpentine and varnish
were hustled down the line to men drunk
Win TlOls IN a moment twenty
ablaze- TO top the frenzy they fired the
oil house itself. Destruction crazsd The
entire population of the bottoms The
burning cars threw the front of the big
brick depot up into the sky AS the re-
hecuon struck back from the plate glass
windows the mob split into two great
waves, and one headed for the passen-
ger depot. They crossed the coal spurs
brandishing torches and sledges and bars
We could see them plain as block sig
mails. Every implement that ever figured
in a yard showed in their line but thoir.
leader a youngish fellow, swung a long,
tapering stake. AS the foremost Polack
climbed up on the last string Of fats that
separated them from the depot the stor-
age tanks in the oil house took fire Th.
roof jumped from the wall plates like on.
vast trapdoor, and the liquid yellow
spurted flaming a hundred feet up into
the black. A splitting yell greeted the
burst, and the Polacks, with added fury
raced toward the long depot l made ont
then the man with the club. 1t was
Rucker.
The staff Of the superintendent and the
force of dispatchers, a HANDFUL of man aIl
told gathered at the upper windows and
opened fire with revolvers! 1t was inst
enough to infuriate the rioters Ana ~
appeared certain that the house would be
burned under the defenders feet, for the
broad platform was bare from end to end
Not a ghost of barricade. not truck
not a shutter, stood between the depot
and the torch, and nobody thought OF a
man until Cameron, with the quicker
eyes, cried:
For Gods sake, There's McTerzal"
Sure pay day there he was walking
down the platform toward the depot. and
humping alongside-Sinkers.
l guess everybody both camps swore
Like man in his sleep he was walking
right in the teeth of the Polacks But
that was just McTerza-to be where he
shouldn't when he shouldn't Even had
there not been more pressing matters. no.
body could have figured cut where the
fellow had come from with his convoy or
where he was going. He was there; that
was all-he was there
The dispatchers yelled at him from
above. The cry echoed back short from
a hundred Polack throats. 1t was plain
they were made for blood. Even that cry
didn't greatly feaze the fellow, but in the