The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-07-03
FEAR RACE RIOTS
WILL BE RESUMED
DURING THE NIGHT
CONTINUED From Page One.)

negroes were found.
Estimates of the bodies supposed to
lie under the acres of ashes and
smouldering debris, where fires last
night consumed scores of negro shacks
and houses, run into the hundreds.
The city was quiet this morning
Saloons were still closed. Sleepy-eyed
guardsmen with marks Of fire still on
their uniforms. patrolled the streets
and guarded bridges and saloon doors
Otherwise the city appeared normal
Negroes driven from their homes
huddled here and there, seemingly anx-
ious to keep out of sight. Five hun
dred Of them, men, women and chill
dren, spent the night at the city Jail.
Two men were still asleep in one bath
tub when the sun rose. and another
was slum boring noisily, his chin on
nis chest, but otherwise bolt upright
on a garbage can. The floors were
packed with dishevelled refugees.
While the death list is known to be
at least 20, unconfirmed reports place
the number of dead as high as $50.
Burning of negro homes began last
night shortly before dark and the
mobs went from section to section
setting fires. AS the negroes ran from
their cottages rioters fired at them.
and many fell back into the flames
and it is believed that several were
| burned to death. Not only white
men, but white women and girls COM
posed the mobs which set upon the
negroes and in several cases beat
them to death with clubs
White women and girls attacked
colored women on the streets and in
the street cars, pulled their hair out,
tore off their clothes and beat them
with all sorts of weapons.
The rioting last night was the Gull
mination of a series of disturbances
that began with the killing Of a police
officer and the wounding of three po-
licemen and two civilians early Mon
day morning.
The fires which were set by the
mobs during the night in Eve different
parts OF. the city where negroes lived,
besides burning nearly zoo negro cot
tages destroyed more than 100 loaded
freight cars belonging to the South
ern Railway, valued at 100000
The Broadway theatre, valued at
more than 100000, also was burned.
Although the fires burned for several
hours they were brought under con-
troll before daylight. f..
Only one white man was killed In
last nights rioting. He was shot by
a negro SHIPPER. Two negroes were
by snipers.
Hundreds Of negroes. many Of them
women carrying babies, crossed over
into st. Louis, Mo-. last night. At the
same time thousands Of curiosity
seekers from the Missouri side crossed
the bridges into East st. Louis, maxi
ing it more difficult for the police and
Eguardsmen to restore 6rder.
Hundreds of negroes employed in
mills in, Granite City, live in East st.
Louis. Some Of the mills, desiring to
save their men from attack, would
not allow the negroes to leave for
home at the usual hour.
Early today the guardsmen rounded
up more than 500 rioters and brought
them to the city Jail. The troops. be-
| ing under civil authority, were order
1 ed not to- shoot. This resulted in q
number of rides being taken forcibly
from the soldiers. Gen. Dickson said
| the purposes for which the troops
had been sent had been gained with
Tout firing and that wholesale blood
shed would have been the result OF
any firipg on the part of teh troops.
| Squads of soldiers sent out to bring
in firearms found in possession ,oi
any whites or negroes, seized dozens
| of revolvers, rifles and shotguns. One
youth found with a meat cleaver con-
cealed under his coat said he would
have used it to kill a negro had an
| opportunity been offered.
One of the results of the fires wa.
to plunge parts of the city into dark
ness and surgeons at ST. Mary's hos
| room opened in the city hall, wer,
| forced to do their work while police
| men held flashlights or candles ovel
| the tables.
| In the Baltimore & Ohio railroad
/ was attacked by white women wht
were following mob. The Negro
| woman seized the child in her arm
| and ran into cottage which th'
white women bombarded with stone
and chunks of coal. The woman
escaped without serious injury.
Col. s. o. Trip of the Illinois
4 guard was the chief figure in sen
sational rescue of an aged negro. Tn,
| black, with a rope around his neck
was being dragged through a stree
by more than 100 men. An auto
mobile bearing Col: Tripp and Git,
Attorney Fekete. appeared as the mol
| was about to hang the negro to {
pole. Col. Trip left his car, forcet
/ his way through the mob and tool
charge of the black without molesta
ton.
/ Later the city attorney rescued
negro at whom a mob was shooting
He placed the negro in his car an
after a 10 minute parley with the mo
he was allowed to depart.
With the exception of isolated en-
f counters between whites and black
at widely separated points the riotin
virtually ceased about midnight.
All saloons have been closed in
definitely by the mayor
/ DR.. Thomas D. Barnidge of Kansa
City, representative of the Red Cross
arrived today to direct relief wor
among negroes whose homes hav
been burned. He has arrange
quarters for several hundred negroe:
but has no provisions with which t
feed them. A large automobile true
toured the city, under his direction
removing wounded negroes to hos
pitfalls.