The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-05-23

ions OF u~norganized and undisciplined
the 1900 policemen Of the city. armed
with no visible weapons except clubs.
maintained the peace. They scarcely
needed the assistance Of the 10000 men
who had beer Unlisted hastily as vol
unteer militia and deputy sherifs, and
who patrolled the streets with rifles
and riot guns.1s
Their work was facilitated by the
fact that for many days past there
had been a great disarmament in the
city. Under the autocratic latitude Of
martial law all suspected individuals
had been searched wherever they
ere met. Houses had been visited.
Warned by the riots in Connecticut
the authorities had stripped every
siorting goods shop n every pawn
brokers' establishment OF weapons
and stored them under heavy guard
in the armories.
1t had been a necessary precaution.
During the days that came after the
enemy forces had begun to land fac
tory after factory and industry after
industry had stopped. Now the
greater part Of the city was dead.
Seventeen thousand longshOremen and
stevedores loitered in the waterfront
StiCttss VII lO,VUU SdlIOTS VI Ill Ia
tionalitfes. whose ships were tied up.
Fifty thousand unskflled laborers
wandered around town with nothing
to do. Altogether 1t was estimated
that on this day there were 200, 900
people in New York whose occupa-
lions had been lost, and fully as many
again who were working on half
time.h
The leaders OF and
finance, the most resourceful Of the
ctty's business men were utterly un-
able to suggest anything. The Cham
Der Of Commerce, that had met many
crises and volve practical plans of
action. could suggest nothing now.
During the days Of frantic perplex-
ity there had been talk Of dismantling
the factories and shipping their ma
chineries to the interior. But when
the owners Of the city's 26, 1000 manu-
featuring establishments faced the
problem they realized that 1t could not
be done. They were not like the Gov-
eminent, that could afford to pun
plants apart and move them at more
expense h would be involved in
building new ones.i5
No freight was coming In. For three
days everything had been sidetracked
far away from the city, in order to
clear the tracks for provisions.
Already the city had taken over the
entire business Of distributing food
stuffs. Nothing could be sold except
IN quantities and at prices fixed by
ordinance.
Hostile cruisers and d~estroyers pa
trolled all the Atlantic coast. taking
the ~precaution merely to stay out of
range of the harbor offences. They
captured every vessel. large or small.
that ventured to leave a port. and sent
4 into N~arragansett Bay or Buzzards
Bay az a prize.
So thoroughly had New York's sea-
gate been locked hat it had trouble
even to dispose of its garbage. because
VIgboat captains feared to venture far
cDough to sea to dump II.
Wherever men turned. whatever
they tried to d.. it was as if there lay
a great, dead hand on the city.
The only activity that remained in
fun progress, apparently. was the ac-
tivity Of the news bulletin boards. The
newspapers had erected them every
where, in all the squares. Far into
the night they We're served.
Almost continually since the battle
VI III 'bIiIltClltul lltN ntu Deem an
nouncing the names of New England
places successfully taken by the APP
preaching army. Now, suddenly,
their news shifted. A bulletin went
up dated from Eaton's Neck. Long ISL
and. Large fleet of steamers" it
said. crossing Long Island Sound
from direction of New Haven, appar-
entity bound for this shore"
uTu-o ~
Haven Line" said the next bulletin,
five large f%reighters. eight lighters.
Making for coast east of Oyster Bay"
From Oyster Bay came a despatch:
Fifteen vessels putting into Cold
Spring Harbor with large number OF
troops. 1t is believed that these are
forces conveyed over the Sound in
vessels captured at New Haven, to
move against New York through Long
Island"
Village of Cold Spring occupied.
Troops approaching Oyster Bay was
the news that grew In great letters on
the boards an hour later. Nothing
more came from either of these two
points. Evidently the enemy had cut
communications at once.
News began to arrive now from the
Connecticut shore. The advancing
forces, having Joined west II Bridge
port, were moving in mass along the
contracted coastal plain of southwest
ern Connecticut. Troop trains preceded
by armored engines, rolled in long
procession along the whole system
of the New York. New Haven & Hart
ford Railroad, all the tracks of which
had been repaired by civilians i'm
pressed to do the work. On all the
many racks there was traffic in only
one observation-disclosures, toward New
York. The trains, moving in echelon,
went forward steadily as clock work.
Along the magnificent motor road
that was the old Boston Post road,
cavalry and motor patrols and de-
tachments advancing in the same
erection, seized town after town,
They occupied Fairfield. where Paul
Revere stopped over night on his way
to report to Washington. They
entered with swords clanking and
imperious motor horns croaking fn,o
old Saugatuck, where the Colonials
had fought Gen. Tryon when he landed
to burn Danbury, They took Norwalk
and South Norwalk. They CHARTERED
men in the estates of Darien.
z 1nn ~ =,