The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-07
Three Hundred Pounds Of DV-
Mantle Exploded Under Sta
ton at independence
PARTS OF BODIES BLOWN
HUNDREDS OF FEET AWAY
All of the Sufferers Were Non-union
Miners Except TWo-Surroundlng
Territory Is Now Under
Military Rule.

Denver Colo, June GA reign of ter
ror brought on by diabolical dynamiting
plot followed by rioting and an assault
upon the military, exists in the Cripple
Creek mining district tonight.
Armed men throng the streets and con-
ficts are hourly occurrences Militamen
are marching hither and thither. maxi
ing arrests by wholesale A number OF
union miners have been placed in the mill
itary bull PEN and others are being gath
cred in at frequent intervals. City and
county officials have been compelled to
resign their offices because of their re-
puted sympathy.
AS near as can be estimated tonight
twenty-five are dead and a score or more
injured as result of the events leading
ND to the conditions above described.
beginning with this morning, when an
internal machine set under the station
platform at Findley, on the line of the
Florence and Cripple Creek railroad, was
touched off and number of non-union
men who were waiting ror train were
killed and others horribly mangled,
events followed thick and fast. They cul-
minated at a riot in mass meeting
where bullets few, and at least one was
killed and a number injured.
MiIitiamen Fired Upon.
Later a company of militiamen was
marched past union headquarters, pursu-
Ing their search for union miners, and
thev. too, were fired upon, according to
reports from men concealed n union hall.
The soldiers stormed the building and
from last accounts at least seven union
Ists were Shot dead in their tracks. The
remainder fed precipitately, blood stream
tho from the wounds of the injured The
soldiers were unhurt, pursued and ar
rested a number of the fleeing men and
continued far into the night to scour the
oo,ntrv in search of men supposed to
have been in union hall at the time of
the assault.
Ar the headquarters of Adjutant Cen
erall Bell in this city everything is III
readiness to promptly meet call for ad-
ditional troops in the gold camp. IL Is
Understood that the railroads have been
instructed to have engines and cars ready
end quick run to Cripple Creek would
follow an appeal for more soldiers. How
ever from the tone of a communication
recaived from Sheriff Bell the newly ap-
nointed officer of Teller county he will
onlv ask for further aid from the military
as a last resort. He intimates that he
ran control the situation, unless gem
eral clash of opposing interests occurs.
Beuan over a Year Ago.
Today's outburst had its inception in the
strike of the members of the Western
Federation Of Miners, something over
year ago, when 1000 men quit work Tor
the purpose. primarialy of enforcing an g.
hour day This action so incensed the
mine owners that they declared war or
unionism, and the breach has grown in
the strike-ridden districts, and unionists
have been brought to trial on numerous
charges. They we're invariably acquitted.
however.
Cripple Creek, Colo, June 6-Fifteen
men were killed by the explosion OF an
internal machine at the railroad station
in independence today, and several others
were seriously injured. Eleven men were
killed outright and one died later from
his wounds. All the killed and injured
with the exception of two men, were nom
union miners employed on the night shift
of the Findley mine The men had quit
work at a. m. and were waiting to
board a suburban train on the Florence
and Cripple Creek railroad and return to
their homes In Cripple Creek and Vic
tor.
Just after the engineer of the approach
ing train blew his whistle as a signal to
the miners, according to CUSTOM ter
rife explosion occurred underneath the
station platform, on and near which
twenty-six men were gathered The plat
form was blown into splinters the station
was wrecked and hole twenty feet in
circumference and about as many feet
deep. was torn in the ground. Fragments
of bodies were hurled through space for
several hundred feet and later were pick
I'M I'D still quivering.
Bodies Dropped Into Pit.
Some Of the bodies dropped into the pit
made by the explosion, but heads, hands,
ears. legs. arms and trunks were strewn
about on all slues. YVES VI HesH were
found on buildings 500 feet away and
blood stains covered every foot within
radius of fifty feet. The force of the
explosion was felt throughout the camp,
and the crash awakened everybody. The
approaching train was stopped and the
train crew were the first men to reach
the scene of the diaster They were join
ed in few minutes by hundreds Of per-
sons and relief work was begun at once.
Special trains were sent from Cripple
Creek Carrying physicians, nurses, officers
and many Others but when they reached
Independence the injured already had
been placed on board the suburban train
and removed to the hospital at Victor.
srie,d h1adies of the daad saia<.ad