Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-05-01
MINING CAMPS ARE
SWEPT BY BULLETS
TWO WOMEN AND BABY REPORT.
ED IN BURNING MINE-MlLI.
TIA oUTNUMBERED.
FIGHT AT VERY CLOSE RANGE
Guards Retreat After Clash in Hills
Near Camp-Charoed Dynamite
Mas Used-Trinidad Scene Of
Intense Excitement.

Trinidad, Colo.-About thirty men,
women and children besieged in the
Empire Mine near Aguilar, with the
mouth Of the stope caved in by dyna.
mite explosions, faced death by SUI.
location. according to II. ID. King, one
of the of the mine. King him.
self, virtually a prisoner in his house
not far from the mine, gave his story
by long distance telephone.
Not a house or stick Of overhead
workings was left standing in the
camps, according to King. The mine
tipple had been burned, but the inte-
rior of the mine had not been fired. II
the fan had been put out of commits
sion, as reported, King believes danger
OF suffocation imminent. All firing had
ceased before IL o'clock.
In command of the besieged party
was ]. W. Siple of Denver, manager Of
the mines Of the Southwestern Fuel
Company. Mrs. William Waddell and
her baby were In the mine, one report
asserting that Mrs. Waddell had been
wounded. Mr.. Waddell. s%uperintend.
ent Of the Empire Mine. was general.
ly believed to have been killed. Mr..
King, however, said he still had hopes
that Waddell was with the party in
the mine. He thought also that there
was a chance that John Church, re-
ported killed, was safe.
"This evening | asked the strikers to
permit me to go to the stope and res
cue the besieged persons" King said.
"They replied that any one who went
near the mine would be shot. The Roy.
al Mine tipple and shaft have been de-
stroyed and some of the strikers told
me they had cleaned up the whole
canyon"
The list OF dead on the side OF the
fighting, as near as could be estimat-
ed, was:
WILLIAM WADDELL, superintend-
ent of the Empire Mine of the South
WcSttIu Futl Company.
JOHN CHURCH, engineer Of the
Emmpire Mine.
Unidentified miner killed at Empire.
DAVID DONOVAN, carpenter at the
Delagua Mine of the Victor American
Fuel Company.
FRED DOUGHERTY, guard at Della
qua, found dead in the hills late today.
CARL JOHNSON, emmployed at
Delagua.
FELIX GONZALES and JOE CHA
VEZ, guards at Delagua, still are miss
ing, and were supposed to be dead
somewhere in the hills above Hastings
canyon.
A persistent but unconfirmed re-
port had 1t that J. w. Siple, manager
Of the Emmpire and Southwestern
mines of the Southwestern Fuel Com
pany, with two women, a baby and two
men, had been sealed In the Empire
Mine, which then had been set on fire
by strikers.
According to reports received by the
military authorities, the fighting at
Aguilar, which followed that at Della
qua, was participated in by the same
body of strikers.
The firing at Delagua began with a
clash between fifteen guards and a
large body Of miners. This fight &C.
Cured In the hills, a mile or more from
the camp, where the guards are de.
clared to have gone to meet the ap-
preaching strikers. There was hoe
fighting at close range for a few min
utes, and then the guards retreated to-
ward the camp, the pursuing strikers
at their heels. The strikers reached
the crest of the canyon directly above
the camp, then rushed for the mine
buildings. Mine company reports de-
clared that in this rush dynamite was
exploded by the attacking party.
A party Of m%ilitiamen, hastily sent
from Ludlow In steel cars, reinforced
the guards, and after heavy fighting
the strikers were driven back.
Shortly afterwards a party of strik.
ers appeared in the Aguilar district,
separated from the Hastings-Delagua
canyon by a high range of hills. The
assailants Of Delagua in the meantime
had vanished in the direction of Agui-
lar. The attacks on the Aguilar mines
followed.
Trinidad was a scene Of tense ex-
element. The saloons had been closed
by order Of the city council.
Many women and children from the
Ludlow tent colony were In Trinidad,
cared for by union sympathizers, and
steady streams of strikers passed In
and out of the morgue where lay the
bodies of several victims of the Lud.
low battle.