Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-01-08
MOB KILLS In RIOT
AT YOUNGSTOWN
[Continucd from First Page. !

then turned their attention to private
property.
A saloon stood on corner and a
rush was made for the door. In
minute the shouting crowd filed the
little room and helped themselves to
what they saw. When the looting was
complete the match was applied and
the mob went wild. Kauffman's cloth
ing store. near by. was next entered
and the stock passed out to the con-
stantly growing crowd in the street by
those inside. Clerks fled for their
lives and when the looting was finished
the place was set on fire.
Loot Saloons
BY this time the mob was in
frenzy. Men danced and sang and
women Joined them. Liquor was
passed around freely and those who
lows of their hands. for within half an
hour other saloons had been looted
and the fire was spreading rapidly
Wilson avenue, the main street,
parallels the railroad tracks at the
foot of the hill and streets led out of
II up the hill to the residence district.
For fully an hour or more the mob
was content with the small shops and
saloons on the side streets, but then 1t
turned its attention to the more pre-
tentious stores on Wilson avenue.
BY this time it had lost all sem
blance of leadership and. splitting up
into bands of q dozen or more, went
madly about the work of destruction.
Saloon after saloon was broken into,
looted and fired. the flames spreading
TO the other business blocks on the
street Famed by q strong wind. the
fire tore its way up the hill and many
residences. some occupied by the riot
ers, were burned.
Throw Red Pepper
Mayor w. ii. Cunningham and ten
policemen who make up the protective
force of the village. early realized the
situation was beyond them and gath
cred at the police station at the west
end of the business district or wan
dered along the streets unable to do
anrthing. Sheriff ]. C. Umstead earlier
in the evenig had been blinded tenn
porarily by red pepper thrown in his
eyes by a rioter and later conferred
with Mayor Cunningham, who ad-
mitted he was unable to stop the riot
ing. This condition the sheriff reported
to General Speaks. who had been sent
to look over the situation. and to Lieu
tenant-Colonel Charles Teybrecht, of
Alliance, who accompanied him. 1t
was then the call was sent for State
troops.
Meantime the rioting had been in
progress for several hours and it was
seen that the business section could
not be saved. Every minute the crowd
seemed to grow until there were hun
dreds of drink-crazed men and women
roaming the streets. The fire depart
ment had been called out at the first
alarm of fire, but the hose was quickly
cut to pieces and the firemen helplessly
called on the Youngstown fire depart
ment. Chief Joseph Wallace had men
and equipment ready to send from the
city, but found it was useless to risk
lives and property as long as the mob
held the town.
Whole Village in Flames
Scenes of the widest disorder were
everywhere enacted and the fires
mounted higher and higher until
toward 10 o'clock Wilson avenue, the
entire length of the village, was in
flames. Absolutely no attempt was
made to extinguish the flames or save
property being carried away or de-
stroyed.
Early in the evening the mob had
attacked the post office. 1t was a small
building and the dozen or more men
who entered it made short work of it,
Additional excitement if such were
possible, was created by the report
that the mob had dragged the safe
into the street and blown it to pieces.
Later IL was stated that the men had
counted on robbing the strong box be-
fore applying the torch to the building.
One of the handsomest buildings in
the village was the banking house Of
G. Y. hamcry. Ehe mob paid no at
tention to it until after 10 o'clock.
Then ii was recalled that a saloon had
stood in that section ard there was
rush to the place. The saloon was
quickly looted and fired, and the
flames, spreading to the bank, soon
doomed the structure.
dry goods store near Seventh
street and Wilson avenue shared a
building with a saloon. The particular
party of rioters who selected it for
their prey made the mistake of attack
ing the dry goods store first. AS they
approached the door a man appeared
at window in the living quarters
above the store and fired one shot
from his revolver. A rioter who had
not been identified this morning fell
dead in the street and the rest fled.
They withdrew to the other side of
Wilson avenue and after a conference
tossed brick through one of the plate
glass windows. No shot came from
above and, encouraged, they stormed
the place.
Tap Whisky Barrels
At dozen or more places in Wilson
avenue barrels OF whisky with the
heads gone stood in the roadway and
surrounding them were many men and
women gulping down the raw liquor
or passing it to friends in the crowd
who could not get close enough to help
themselves. A number of clothing
stores fell a prey to the rioters and
almost Immediately men began eX-
changing their old clothes for the loot
they had seized, the change of apparel
being made in the street, lighted al |
most to MONDAY brightness by the
flames from half a hundred burning
Once the rioters were frightened. |
\ passenger train, steaming along the !
tracks at the foot of the hill, !
slowed down as it approached the !
burning buildings. A shout THE /,
militia is coming!' rang out, and for !
q minute or two there was a pause |
But when ii was seen the train did not |
stop the orgie went on.
BY this time so much property had |
been destroyed and the mob had be- |
come so inflamcd that the better citi- |
zens of the town had fed. Many fami- |
lies came TO youngstown and others {
farther away, and the conviction was |
growing that if the disorder spread to !
Youngstown nothing could save the |
city. Finally a dozen or more citizens |
led by Oscar Diser, city solicitor of |
East Youngstown and former member |
of the Ohio legislature, gathered at the !
police station (the fire had not been |
carried closer than a block to that |
and pleaded with police and |
other city officials to attack the rioters.
1t was almost midnight before a force !
of some forty, armed men had been