Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-15
ILLINOIS CITY
IS IN FLAMES
ASSAULT BY NEG0 LEADS TO
RIOT
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.,, is SCENE OF
TRAGEDIES
Restaurant Is Wrecked, Automobile
Burned, coIored Residents clubbed
and Officers and Militia Defied.
More Troops on Way

Gcontlnued from f.age One)
ing the soldiers of troop B of the First
cavalry, ordered out by Governor De-
neen to preserve order.
The governor tonight telegraphed or
ders for two companies of militia and
another troop of cavalry each from
Bloomington and Pekin, to Springfield.
These soldiers are rushing to SPRING
field on special trains to assist the To-
cal troops in maintaining order.
The negroes in various parts of town
have been attacked by the mob, and IN
two instances the negroes have turned
with considerable effect upon their as
sailants. In one mixup a trooper at
tempted to separate the combatants
and was nearly overwhelmed by those
in pursuit of several negroes.
Cavalrymen Disarmed
A call for help brought several other
cavalrymen to the scene, but they were
all disarmed and their guns We're car
fied away by the rioters.
Most of the members of troop B OF
Taylorville are on guard around the
jail, where George Richardson, the ne
gro who assaulted Mrs. Earl Hallam
at her home today, was removed early
In the evening to Bloomington. The RI
oters who had gathered in front of the
Jail following the Incarceration of Rich
ardson were enraged by the ruse prac-
ticed by the sheriff in removing him.
Finding that the negroes were gone,
the mob amused itself for a time by
looting negro resorts in East Washing
ton street. The amusement of the riot
ers was tragedy for the negroes, many
of whom were roughly handled and
beaten with pieces of their own ,fur-
niture.
A white man and his son, whose
names were not ascertained, were shot
and injured supposedly by negroes.
This encounter further enraged the
mob and they began general search
for negroes wherever they could be
found.
Mllltia Seems PowerIess
The Springfield militia, after the
shooting of the two white men tonight,
seemed powerless to control the rioters,
and when the automobile which had
taken the two prisoners, one of Whom
was Richardson, from the Jail to the
train across the river, returned 10
Springfield driven by its owner, Maj.
Harry It. Lopez, commissary of the
Second brigade, 1. N. G., large num-
Der of the rioters assembled around
the machine in front of Lopers res
taurant.
Despite :. guard of police and MEM
bers of the Fifth infantry with gait
ling gun, the crowd wrecked the res
taurant, tearing everything to pieces
inside, demolishing the automobile and
setting 1t on fire. The fire department
was summoned to extinguish the burn
ing automobile, and another struggle
ensued when the militiamen tried to
drive back the rabble to allow the fire.
men to play hose on the burning ma
chine. Three members of the gatllng
gun SQUAD were injured during the me-
lee and the rioters took several guns
from the soldiers. The captured guns
were used to finish wrecking the res
taurant.
Find Body of Boy
When the mob reached the bottom OF
the stairway leading to the buffet OF
the restaurant they found the dead
body of Louis Johnson, IA years ola.
A doctor who examined the body said
the boy had been shot in the neck
where there was wound, but another
doctor who came up later said the
boys death was due to a broken neck.
Richardson was arrested today Tor
assaulting Mrs. Earl Hallam, wife OF q
street car conductor. Last night Mrs
Hallam was dragged from her bed in
her home, forced into the garden and
assaulted. She was badly bruised and
was unconscious for some time When
Richardson was arrested she tdentified
him as being the negro who attacked
her. Feeling grew so intense against
the negro that Sheriff Werner late to-
day secretly took Richardson and Jo-
seph James (the latter in jail charged
with the murder of G. A. Ballard. who
had chased James from his house
where James had gone evidently with
the intention of assaulting Billiards.
daughter) to Bloomington for safe
keeping.