The Alaska daily empire., 1918-01-01
NEAR-RIOT IN PETERSBURG
 IS REPORTED Claimed That a Number of Men Jumped on the
 Officers to Get DETAILS OF THE FIGHT Assistant District Attorney Leaves Juneau to
 Look i ntO the
 Cases.
DETAILS OF THE FIGHT

| According to word received ir Juneau a near-riot occurred in Pet l ersburg on the night of December 22nd following the arrest of two men there charged with sedition | Following the riot, or fight, foul | other men were arrested for fight | ing and sentenced by the Fedora authorities. District Attorney J. J Reagan went south on the Jefferson to conduct the trials of the mer charged with sedition.
 A letter received by The Empire from resident of Petersburg gives some of the details of the arrests and fights. The letter states that the trouble started through some person tampering with Red Cross box kept in one of the saloons there This person was arrested and fol lowing that his friends started out to clean up the town.
 City Marshal Sundgren entered the Dory Saloon and the gang, number ing twenty or more, it is claimed jumped him. He was able to fight the gang off until endorsements in the shape of Night Officer Wicks and Deputy Marshal Kildall arrived
 q was standing in the Dory Sa loon at the time, ,"-meaning when Officer Sundgren entered-"when il seemed to me that the whole house jumped on him. The fight must have lasted fully 15 minutes, but the cop stayed until the very last anc was seen later on helping to arrest the bad ones. l have seen many clean fights and many dirty ones. have ever seen on the cops side and the dirtiest on the other side Tt would have been suicide tc attempt to interfere. One could heal the bunch howl, kick him. get him down. and kill him., but any time the head of the cop showed up his fists came down. Although badly kicked, he was certainly a bulldog and butted like ram.
 Now this trouble is supposed tc
 
 ing with the Red Cross box located in the Dory Saloon. Kildall ana Sundgren are supposed to have taken this man to jail in plain view oi this mans friends. Instead of these people condemning this man for what he did, they are upholding him and as we are at war with Germany, it seems to indicate pro-German feel ings At the same time it must be understood that the greater part of the Norwegians and other citizens of Petersburg are good loyal citi- zens and are not at all in sympathy with the agitators. The three DO licemen are all Norwegians and they are all loyal and determined in their intention to clean up the town of the pro-German element
 "The police of Petersburg should have the support of every loyal American and they are rapidly pick ing up the agitators until soon there will be none left here. The owner of the Dory Saloon tried his best to stop the trouble not only trying to protect the officers but tried to req son with the fighters in an effort to prevent them getting into trouble, the letter said.
 District Attorney Smiser said to- day that information had been re ceived by him to the effect that two men had been arrested at Pet ersburg for sedition and that follow ing their arrest a riot occurred. As sistant Reagan went south on the Jefferson to investigate and since that time no word from there has been received.