Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-02-24
BOY SAYS THAT
DRUNKEN SOLD
Ter BEAT HIN
Slavic Youth Describes Alleged At.
tack on Children by
Trooper.
GIVES A GRAPHIC STORY.
Time of Hearing of Committee
Will Be Extended.-Left
Children Alone.
GIVES A GRAPHIC STORY

Trinidad, C0lO., FEB. 2O.-An eleV-
en- year old Slavic boy held the cen
ter of the state late yesterday in
the federal investigation of the Colo
RADIO coal miners strike Congress.
men, attorneys, mine officials and
labor leaders crowded about Gustav
Yeskenski as he told in broken Eng
fish of being kicked by a militiaman
and his little brothers and sisters.
He declared that two soldiers came
to the family ranch at Suffield on
Feb. 10, ransacked the rooms and
took 5000 from his mothers purse.
Following the lads own testi-
mony Capt. w. c. banks made a
statement to the committee that the
alleged incident had been reported
to Adj. Gen. John Chase, and that
an active investigation by the mill
tary authorities was in progress.
Captain banks said it had not been
determined whether or not the al
legged outrage was the act of militia
men.
Gustav was brought into the in
vestigation chamber by his mother,
Mrs. Victoria Yeskenski. The moth
er in the garb of a typical Slavic
ranch woman with a handkerchief
tied over her head, was questioned
through an interpreter. She told of
leaving the children alone in the
house and finding them bruised and
crying when she returned. She said
a purse that had contained 5000
had been opened and that the money
was gone.
Then the boy was brought before
the committee.
Chairman Foster spent few min
utes trying to explain to him the
nature of an oath. The child, half
frightened by the strange faces that
crowded about, did not appear to un-
derstand what was expected of him.
Then Fred Harrington, attorney for
the Colorado Fuel G. Iron company,
said
"Mr. Chairman, l don't like to see
a child of that age sworn. Let
him tell his story; We'll accept it
without an OATH
The boy was led up to the table
where the committeeman sat.
NOW. Gustie,' Mr.. Costigan for
the strikers admonished, "tell these
gentlemen all about what happen
ed
The boy told of being left in the
house with his four or five younger
brothers and sisters.
1.-TWO soldiers drove up in al
buggy" he said, in English that was
easily understood.
"One of them, he too drunk to get
out of buggy. He just sat there like
this (here the witness gave al
SIdpuiC IcVl tStHldllOu vi q Nl uuhCN
man asleep. The other he came in
the house. He said we had some
guns there. | said No, no, we
haven't no guns except my % rifle. !
He take my rife, then he break upen
the trunk with an AK. | say No,
no, you can't do that He say shut
up. We're soldiers and we can do
anything we want to. I'll shoot
your head off Then he take moth
er's clothes and shake them. Her
pocketbook fell out and he grab it
up. He can't get it open, so he just
tear it open. He take out the $500,
and pull his whisky bottle out of
his back pocket and put the money
in and then put the bottle in on top
of it,
The boy said the man he called a.
soldier then began abusing the chill
dren. "He kick my sister in the
nose and it bleed" he declared. "He
kick my baby brother, a year and a
half old. in the back. Kick me? Oh.
YES. he kick me in the ribs"
Mr.. and Mrs. David c. Johnson,
ranchers, owners Of the land on
which the Forbes strikers colony is
located, testified that the battle of
Forbes. Oct. II, started when a.
mine guard threw down a white flag
he had carried to the colony en-
trance.
The committee then adjourned
until today.