The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-12-13
Joe Letters Fortress Full of Men and Guns and Search
Lights and Things, and Nary an Enemy to Make
It Interesting.

electric llght plant, bakery, h0Sp1tal
and telephone system. All the build
ings, including those needed for the
work of getting out the COAL have
been erected in a little more than a
year.
Letter declared that it would be a
model town. Last summer he dis
agreed with the miners on the ques-
ton of wages. He offered them a
rate PER ton about one-third less than
is paid at other Illinois mines and
claimed that with new, but untried,
machinery they would be able to earn
higher rate per ton. He refused
to arbitrate when his terms were
refused, and ordered the men and
their families out of town. Many
of them have secured work else
where.
The others, numbering 81, and with
their wives and children making a
population of about $50, are living in
tents in a camp at Christopher, five
miles from Zeigler. Since last sum-
mer the place has grown into tent
ed village. The tents have floors and
are filed with household furniture.
They are well heated. TO this time
the health of the campers has been
good, and they have suffered little
discomfort from the weather.
Flocks of chickens wander among
the trees, and the presence of a goat
and a few rabbits indicates that the
joys of the children receive attention.
The men are typical American work
men, serene in manner, not boastful
and of a high order of intelligence.
The women and children are cheerful.
II is a scene of domestic contentment.
over at Zeigler all is warlike. Sol
diers in khaki and blue are every
where Guards armed with rifles es-
cort company officials, who make trips
to nearby towns in a double-seated
blackboard. The Stars and Stripes
displayed in front of a cottage mark
the headquarters of the United States
deputy marshals. Military headquar-
tiers are in the two-story office build
ing. Cavalry scouts, employed by
Letter, canter in occasionally to re-
port conditions in the outskirts and
to inquire for orders. There is a
small force of deputy sheriffs. Extra
rifles are at hand for employees.
A stockade, probably Is feet high,
surrounds the main buildings of the
plant. 1t is studded with block
houses of the kind that were made
familiar by pictures during the Span
ish war These blockhouses have also
been erected at other strategic points
on Letters Egyptian domain, which
comprises about IL square miles. On
the main building have been mounted
machine guns that fire something like
500 shots a minute. The men that
operate them are under the command
of an Englishman who served in the
Boer war. The water tower, the
highest thing in town, is surmounted
by a powerful searchlight.
At night sentries, scouts and out
posts are on the alert. The search
light is constantly employed and it's
days disclose objects for mile around
a thousand men, armed and trained,
could not storm the stronghold.
Stray shots at night have been the
only sign of an attack.
AS to who fired these shots and
the number of them no two authori-
ties agree. 1t is charged by the
miners and some others that all, or
nearly all, the shooting is done by
the soldiers. They say that a sentry,
away out in the darkness, sees a sha-
dow or hears a strange sound, or
thinks he does, and lets fly. Several
other guards are liable to shoot on
general principles. That makes an
attack on the fort. The searchlight
gets exceedingly busy and one of the
machine guns releases a few hundred
hurting bullets. The result is, so
far as reports go, that determined
attack has been made on the town
and repulsed
With all the shooting nobody has
been wounded. None of the alleged
providers has been captured. One
night a soldier reported that after
firing he heard groans, but even that
strong clew did not yield prisoner
The miners stoutly affirm that they
have done no shooting. Company Of
ficials say they will produce evidence
to the contrary.
The. first call for troops was made
by Sheriff Stein November %, when
Attorney Platt and another man re-
ported that they had been shot at
while driving toward town in buggy