Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-07-03
KILLING NEGROES
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the situation that at $50 o'clock the
bridges were closed
The mobs got into lynching mood to-
night. One aged Negro was strung up
on pole but was rescued just in time
TO save his life. Soldiers rescued still
another Negro who was being dragged
through the streets.
Negro Version of Trouble
c. W, Wallace, editor of Negro re-
lieious publication, gave a new version of
the trouble here. Wallace said that he, a
Negro minister and a Negro physician
were returning from St. Louis last night
when they saw white 10y riders ride
down a block in Market street Inhabited
by Negroes and fire into the houses. The
neighborhood was aroused and the Ne
grCes armed themselves.
At II P. NJ. another fire had broken
out in the extreme northern portion of
the city, where there is a Negro Sec
ton and smaller mob was searching
for Negroes. This brought the burning
sections up to four, lighting the entire
city with their glare.
Col. Trip, assistant adjutant gen.
eral stated shortly before midnight
that the rioting crowds had for the
most part dispersed.
Nearly 500 Negro men, women and
children are quartered in the city hall
and the police station. Terror spread
among the black men and women at
1870 p. NJ. when all the light in these
buildings suddenly went out. due to the
destruction of wires in the down town
district
When a report came to military au-
thorities that Negro inhabitants of
Brookline, IL, almost entirely populat-
ed by Negroes, We're moving on East
ST. Louis, a truck full of guardsmet
was sent to the BLACK" bridge to meet
any attack that might be attempted.
AT the same time another truckload
Of soldiers was rushed to a corner near
ed in upstairs quarters had been firing
at soldiers standing guard in the
streets below.
Tho worst property damage vas
done along the tracks OF the Southern
Railway Co, where the Southern ware
house and between 100 and $50 cars,
many of them loaded with merchandise
were consumed by flames. The damage
here was estimated at between $500,
600 and $500, 900. At the Broadway
theatre valued at 100000, was entire
" destroyed and at IL O'Clock the
flames We're moving steadily along the
tracks. almost unhindered by the fee
ple efforts of the firemen which were
directed toward preventing the blaze
from spreading to more important
buildings.
Col. Trip stated at 11.30 that %
companies of state troops will be in the
city before midnight all but three COM
panies of which were then on guard.
The combined strength Of the troops
to combat trouble tomorrow, he said.
would he several thousand.
Travel across bridges leading from
St. Louis to this city was stopped late
tonight.
Military rule was proclaimed at s
o'clock tonight and at the same time
eco white men We're arrested and locked
Up at police headquarters. Negro
quarters in various parts of the city
are on fire and the flames reached the
very edge of the business district.
Estimates of the number of negroes
who persisted in the fire ran as nigh
as 100. but there was nothing anthem
except that hundreds of whites stood
around the edges of the burning dis
tricts and fired at the negroes as they
fed from their homes.
The rioting is a recrudescence of
race troubles that occurred here
month ago. following the importation
of large numbers of Negro laborers
from the South. At shutdown the
rioting still progressed in some quar-
tiers Of the town. Women and girls
joining with the men. dragged Negro
women from street cars in the down.
town district
At 6 o'clock white mobs began to
set fire to homes in the Negro quar-
tiers.
Troopers Disarmed
Troopers themselves We're disarmed
by the mobs in many instances and. to-
gether with the police seemed power
less before the rioters.
The disorder, which began when
mob Of 200 Negroes fired on an auto
mobile load of policemen last night
killing one, reached a climax this fore
noon. In this outbreak three Negro
men and one white man were killed.
two white men and two Negroes were
shot and wounded and % others so
badly beaten and stoned that they
were taken to hospitals.
Saloons Closed
Tonight. with the saloons closed and
street car service stopped by order Of
the authorities, national guardsmen
began escorting truck loads of Ne
groes across the river to Missouri.
Until the white women began to partic-
ipate. Negro women and girls had seemed
immune from attack, but when this oc-
Cured Negresses, too, were terrorized
and attacked.
AS the rioting down town progressed,
undertakers lined their wagons by the
curb ready for the expected call to haul
away the dead.
The Negroes seemed helpless IN the
face of todays outbreak. The two white
men who were shot and the one who was
killed were victims of stray bullets.
Sixteen guardsmen were disarmed by