Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-03
Many Negroes Are Killed
 in Riots in East St. Louis
Police and National Guards Apparently Unable to Cope With Mobs Which ct Fire to Houses and
 Shoot Negroes as They Seek to Escape Flames

1 Louis, Mo. This added such a menace to the situation that at 8:3O o'clock the bridges were closed to all vehicles
 and pedestrains. Street car traffic
 here and across the Eads bridge stop. ped at 7 o'clock. This automatically closed trolley traffic between St
 Louis and many suburban towns and forced hundreds of residents of those towns to stay in St. Louis for the night.
 As soon as street car traffic ended crowds crossed the Eads bridge into East St. Louis. Automobiles were halted by Missouri National guards men, on duty at the Eads bridge, and those who could not show good req son, were held on the St. Louis side Negro Women Flee. Hundreds of negro women, most of them carrying bundles and leading ismall children, fled across the bridge to shelter and safety with friends on the Missouri side.
 After military rule had been pro- claimed, the soldiers put more vigor into their attempts to quell the mob IS. o. Tripp, assistant adjutant gen. eral of Illinois, announced that any persons arrested by the troops would not be turned over to the police. Seventy-five white men attacked a negro in front of a drug store on Broadway and attempted to drag him to pole, beating him as they pulled him along. Troops charged the mob with fixed bayonets, and the rioters scattered. Before the troops arrived, the negro was shot twice. With this show of force, the rioters in part quieted down. Troops stood guard at all corners and kept the crowd moving. Many were advised to go home.
 At 8:30 o'clock. fire broke out in the "Valley" district, at Third street and St. Louis avenue. It was per ilously near to the vast railroad yards of East St. Louis.
 At 9 o'clock four negroes were shot by snipers at Ninth and Missouri ave- nue.
 At il p. m., another fire broke out in the exereme northern portion of the city, where there is a negro sec tion, and mob was searching for negroes. This brought the burning sections to four, which lighted the city with lurid glare.
 Colonel Tripp said just before mid might that the rioters had, for the most part, dispersed.
 Nearly 500 negro men, women and children are quartered in the city hall and police station. Colonel Tripp stated that 23 com panies of militia will be here before
 midnight, all but three of which were then on the ground. For the most part, they were coming from down state, he said. The combined strength of the troops will be several thou. sand. Stringent regulations will be effective tomorrow to curb the crowds
 and it may be necessary to arrest ev- cry person found on the streets with.
 out good reason for being there. White Women Take Part. l White women and girls participated
 in today's rioting, which reached its climax between 1 and o'clock this af-
 ternoon. White women and girls join.
 ed with the white men in stopping
 street cars in downtown streets
 boarding the cars and dragging out
 negroes.
 The negroes seemed helpless in tho
 face of today's outbreak. The two white men killed were vic.
 tims of stray bullets.
 ] Sixteen guradsmen were disarmed | -I---