The Topeka state journal., 1906-04-24
SHOT ON A ROOF
Three Men Killed to Save Them
From More Terrible Death.
We're on Burning Building and
Could Not Escape.
CLASHES in STREET.
Policeman Killed bySoldierAfter
Quarrel Over Authority.
CLASHES IN STREET.
Grues0me and Horrible Stories
From San Francisco Ruins.

Salt Lake. Utah, April 24.-That three
men were shot to death on a blazing
roof in San Francisco. to keep them
from being burned alive is solemnly as
serted by Max Fast. a garment worker
who came here yesterday.
when the fire caughtSthe Windsor
hotel at Fifth and Market said Mr.
Fast, there were three men on the
roof and it was impossible to get them
down. Rather than see the crazed men
fall in with the roof and be roasted
alive the military officer directed his
men to shoot them. which they did in
the presence of 5000 people. I saw
great stones fall on three men near the
city hail. crushing the life out of them
In Union square stood beside a woman
who died actually from fright and
thirst Her last request was for wa
ter and we had none to give her. At
Jefferson square I saw a fatal clash
between the military and the police. A
policeman ordered a soldier to take UP
a dead body to put it in the wagon
and the soldier ordered the policeman
to do it. Words followed and the sol
dier shot the policeman dead
John Cashner, an old soldier from
Spearfish, S. D, saw the military shoot
had been robbing the corpse of wo-
man and to get a ring from her swol-
len finger, cut the finger off.
THE sentry on duty near Van Ness
avenue said Mr.. Cashner, ordered a
friend of mine who was entering his
home to come out of there as it was
about to be dynamited. My friend
waved his hand back toward the sol
der saying, This is my house and
have right to go in The soldier
IN the other hand
I want to say that the soldiers were
generally kind and helpful and deplored
these hasty actions of their comrades
just as much as we did"
Nothing could be more terrible than
the calamity at Agnews asylum near
San Jose. as described by r. L. Drink
water. of Denver. He fed to San Jose
from San Francisco. only to find that
he had gone from bad to worse. He
said last night:
"We went to Agnews, where we had
a friend, and found the asylum in
ruins and 200 demented creatures
buried there. Tt was a sight to trans
fix one with horror to see scores of
mad men and women strapped to
trees all over the grounds crying,
shrieking and cursing- Ordinarily
troublesome in their way, the excite
ment of the falling of the building
had made them mad indeed and their
uncanny looks and fiery eyes were ter
rible to behold Nothing could be
done for them as there was no place
to put them and every sane man, wo-
man and child available was digging
to release the other unfortunates
buried in the ruins. Oh, such cries
as came seemingly from the bowels o
the earth. The devils have got me.
Let me out I am the king, you can
not kill me- / want my supper. ]
want my dinner Just as the vagary
seized them they called out their dis
ordered thoughts nor even guessed
their true condition.
But most CHASTITY of all IS the state
ment by Willie Ames. a Salt Lake
man. who escaped to Los Angeles. He
says:
while I was walking about tn
streets saw man after man shot down
by the troops. Most of them were
ghouls. One man made the troopers
believe that one of the dead bodies
lying on a pile of rocks was his
mother, and he was permitted to go
up to the body. Apparently overcome
by grief, he threw himself across the