Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-07-17
THE RICHMOND STRIKE.

i hlOI1nOltO ~
The sensation of the street car strike
in Richmond was the capture Wednes-
day night by the military of prominent
strikers and an officer Of the local union
in an attack upon the companys men
in charge of the last car through Fulton,
Just before midnight.
Among those arrested was +. w.
Redford, formerly conductor, and a
member of the executive board of the
union. The others are R. III. Carroll,
motorman; A. B. Jordan, conductor
T. ]. Kane, a laborer; John Lammey,
laborer, and E. Kane, youth, aged
16 years. Ike Walpert, an alleged spy
for the conspirators, was also arrested.
One of the men arrested said there were
~ in the party, and it is believed that
the others will be arrested.
The accused were arraigned in the
Police Court yesterday, and the case
was continued one day. The men were
locked up.
The plans of the military, and the way
they were executed, were mastery. The
plot, which was first fixed for last Satur-
day and failed, was known to be on
again for Wednesday night. The Rich
mond Light Infantry Blues disembarked
from cars at Chimborazo Park, and after
silent march of two miles picketed the
entire section of the town, and with
the military already there, they had the
place surrounded before the expected
car came.
Scouts on the watch saw four men put
the distractions on the track and retire
with others to a blind alley. The car,
with two picked men, armed with two
revolvers each, and also shotguns on the
seat, arrived. They knew the danger,
and went into it without fear. They
expected to be fired on when they left
the car to move the distractions. Their
plan was to return the fire with pistols
and then, if not shot down, to retreat to
the car and fire on the approaching mob
with the guns.
At the first fire soldiers rose up in
numbers out of the darkness, and the
cul de sac in which the conspirators,
with bad judgment, concealed them
selves, was sealed. The dozen or % men
composing the attacking party were
caught like rats in trap. They scream
ed with terror, threw up their hands and
begged, for mercy. The surrounded
men, however, knew every avenue of
escape, and we're in a desperate situation.
Some scaled fences and crawled through
sewers, and others went into doorways
where the soldiers could not follow.
The ofense is a grave one, and the
penalty ranges from fine of $50 to 10
years imprisonment in the penitentiary.
II. l.. White, a conductor, who was
arrested on charge Of drawing pistol
and pointing it in menacing way at
number of Chesapeake and Ohio shop
employees on Seventeenth street, was
fined $50 and sentenced to 80 days in
Jail by Justice Crutchfeld.
The three Passenger and Power
guards charged with firing into crowds
at Main and Lombardy streets June "a,
when dozen persons were injured,
we're justified in the shooting. The
guards are L. R. Mitchell, NJ. Cronk
and n. Gates.
DISTINCTIONS were placed on the track
of the Lakeside line at the end of the
high bridge on which the cars cross to
Barton Heights, just outside the city,
last night. One of the big double-truck
cars Of the Lakeside line was derailed
and narrowly escaped going over the
high embankment with load of pas
sengers.
The military force is still being gradu-
ally reduced. The Stanton Rifles and
Company A, Of the Seyenty-first Regi-
ment, Norfolk, left for home yesterday
evening. There are still about 800
soldiers in Richmond.