The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-06-16
AWFUL STORY OF
COLORADO SIEGE
As Related by Woman Witness
From Mining Camp.
DUG CAVES TO ESCAPE DEATH

Frantic Mothers Scooped Out Holes In
the Earth In Which to Conceal Them
selves and Their ChiIdren-HaVoc
WROUGHT by Machine Guns of the
Militia Graphically Described.
Mrs. Pearl Jolly of the Women's |
Trades Union league, testifying before |
the United States industrial commits
sion, gave graphic picture of the hor-
rors of Ludlow camp colony in Colo
RADIO on April 20, when men, women
and children were besieged by the
state militia and it became necessary
to dig caves beneath the camp TO es-
cape the fire of the well trained ma
chine guns. She testified in New York.
Mrs. Jolly told of the siege of the
camp. She said the trouble opened
with the firing of two bombs into the
heart of the camp and the ignoring of
a white flag carried by the leader OF
the striking miners.
Then the bullets from the machine
guns began to find their way every
where said Mrs. Jolly The women
set to work digging holes in the ground
In which to hide their children. There
were 500 of the women, many Of them
about to become mothers; others with
nursing babies and still others old
and infrm There were also the 500
men.
Crawled Away on Their Stomachs.
ITO distract the fire from the camp,
which it was presumed was aimed at
the men, the miners departed for the
hills. They crawled away on their
stomachs, while the women were using
crude implements to dig into the
ground. Four men remained to look
after the women and children.
There We're only forty rifles in all
1 of Ludlow camp. This shows that it
/ was not an armed body, as has been
reported.
1T was becoming so desperate that
| decided to pin a red cross on white
4 dress and 60 forth into the open so
that the men with the machine guns
could see me- l was in the camp in
the capacity of nurse in the event my
services were needed.
GAS soon as / showed myself the mi
htiamen began to pepper at me- One
of the bullets struck the heel of one Of
my shoes, and others struck all about
me. | thought it was about time that
l got under cover.
las l walked into my tent l noticed
three men lying alongside OF 1t. They
had dragged the telephone through a
!, slit and were frantically calling help
from Trinidad
Opposite the entrance TO the tent
was a mirror. My reflection after !
had entered was in the mirror You
can get a good idea of what fine shots
those men with the rifles and the ma
chine guns We're when they shattered
the mirror to smithereens in less than
five minutes They thought they were
, actually shooting at me.
Il thought my end had come. Coins
to the door, l dropped to the floor anC
lay still. Apparently the men witt
the machine guns thought / was dead
Later | managed to work my way
around TO the men who We're lynn:
against the side of the tent telephon
! ing. For Gods sake, go away, wo
! man. they whispered You're a hoo
: door
e Il think after that the mllitamel
must have relocated us, for the fir
5 became dangerous again.
Only the Caves Saved Women.
''To stay where we were mean
4 death. All the pits were filled wit
r. the weeping women and the cryin
Il children. There was no room for u
there. L saw three men who had bee
hiding near me run for coal pile an
| followed. A rain of shots followed.
For an hour, with no letup, machin
guns sputtered steel jacketed bullet
5 about the coal Enough shots wer
turned in our direction to carry off
regiment
e I'VE saw an innocent, blue EYED
r twelve-year-old boy throw up hi
y hands with a bullet in his heart. III
- :, father, his eyes wild with grief, craw
= ed to our side. He wanted to go OF
into the open end get to the men wit
the murder machines, but we held hi
back.
AT o'clock that day the machiI
te guns got even a better range. Ever
m sign of life was annihilated. Dog
MT thickens, cats and other domestic ar
us mails We're picked off with ease, so e
nj pert were these marksmen. If Il
IS caves had not been dug every one
?. the 500 women and children wou
In. have been shot.
-, Zone little italian woman, who
ho three children had been murdered |
y; the machine guns, became insane.
= Perhaps the worst feature of Il
it siese was 'ne my screams
he the women anu cnliureh as pull
tx, tound one OF lhelr huihoer.
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