The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-01-16
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WHEN 1T IS NEEDED


The following from the Columbia,
s.. c., State, tho written for a some
what different reason, will be inter
esting to all and good argument why
every country town should have at
least one well organized company of
militia:
The City and the Militia
At 1890 p. m, on day early in
May, 1901, fire broke out in the city
of Jacksonville, Florida, and by $50
IN the evening AS acres of resi-
dences and ten acres in stores and
factories had been burned over. Ten
thousand people were homeless and
the community was threatened with
panic Telegraphic and telephone
communication with other parts of
Florida and the United States was
for many hours impossible; the city
lighting service was paralyzed; the
streets were dark during the night
and scattered throughout the fire
district was thousands and tens of
thousands of dollars of valuable
property, in vaults and otherwise
protected, that was afterwards saw
ed
Jacksonville at that time had
population of $4,000, of whom con-
siderable majority were negroes.
Some of them were bad negroes-and
there were bad white people, too. The
writer of this article personally heard
negro women in the streets, as they
passed home after home burning or
about to burn, laughing and jeering
that ''white folks" were getting their
dues. This spirit was not common to
the negroes, but there were some I'M
commonly bad negroes in Jackson
vile and the three dozen policemen
/ had a thousand times more than they
could do. Whether or not what was
/ left of the city would be looted that
night, whether or not there would be
rioting and bloodshed, were subjects
gravely discussed, and men prepared
for it.
Communication with the governor
at Tallahassee $50 miles distant was,
of course, out of the question. There
were three militia companies in Jack
sonville, containing fifty or sixty men
each. They had handsome brick
and stone armory in central part of
the city that the city had built for
them. About A o'clock, three and a
half hours after the fire began and
when it was seen that it would con-
tinue to sweep the city SO long as the
flames found fuel, the officers and
men of the companies reported, in
uniform, at the armory. They got
their rifles and plenty of cartridges
At 5 or 6 o'clock the armory burned
but the men had the guns.
When nightfall came there were
soldiers with bayoneted guns in the
streets hating every man who of
fered to enter the burned district. A
Florida militiaman stood at the clos
ed door of every saloon and saw tina
the door was not opened. There wa
no looting, there was no crime don'
in Jacksonville that memorable night
Next morning, companies of troops
arrived early from st. Augustine
Fernandina and many other Florid;
towns. By nightfall of the secon,
] day there were about eight hundre'
militiamen in the city and Governo
Jennings had placed the streets o
Jacksonville under military control
Two revenue cutters out in the 81
Johns piver sent squads of sailor
. ashore with a machine gun and tn
searchlights of the cutters played O.
: the ruins of the burned business dis
> trict throughout the night. There wa
|. no footing; no rioting. The policinI
!. of the city was done by the militia TO
0 weeks.
> We have never liked to think o
: what might have happened in Jack
. sonville on the night after the grea
q fire, of 1901 had not the Jacksonvill
. military companies promptly take
. charge of the city.