Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1919-09-30
BLACK PRISONERS CAVE
UP VICTIM TO LYNCHERs
Law Forces Lacked
Leader or Outbreak
Could Have Been Foil
ed, Assertion Of Promi-
nent Citizens.

Omaha, Sept. 29.-Omaha was quiet.
tonight, with 500 troops from Forts
Omaha and Crook, Nebraska, and Camp
Dodge. Iowa, on riot duty. Augmented
by several hundred special officers or
ganized by the American Legion to help
preserve order, officials were confident
there would be no further outbreaks.
In addition to these forces, eleven of
ficers and $50 men from Camp Funston.
Kansas, and twenty officers and $50
troops from Camp Grant, Illinois are to
arrive tomorrow, when General Leonard
Wood. commander of the Central depart
the city to take charge of military opera
tions.
There are plenty of arms and am
munition to supply the troops, some Of
whom have machine guns for use In the
event necessity should arise.
heavy downpour of rain tonight had
the effect of keeping people off the
streets.
Authorities Proceed to Act.
Tomorrow judges Of the district court
Will decide whether grand jury in
yestigation Of the rioting shall be con-
Quoted
Governor Samuel r. McKelvie, will be
in the city to give any advice he may
deem necessary to the situation
The condition of Mayor Ed P. Smith.
whom members Of a mob injured when
they attempted to lynch him, was
gradually improving according to an an
nouncement by his physician. DIR. e. G.
Henry. DIR. Henry said there was no
doubt but what the mayor would recover.
The condition of the mayor was
very satisfactory at $50 o'clock
thus afternoon, his physician, DR.. e. G.
Henry announced. An X-ray showed the
wound under the mayors eye was not
caused by bullet and that he had not
suffered fractured skull.
Near the hospital where the mayor
is confined, federal troops are on duty
as a precautionary measure.
Mayor Smith, who suffered bad
wound over his right eye, a fractured
nose and wound about the neck. when
members of the mob placed rope about
him and hanged him to a traffic signal
tower, regained consciousness early to-
day at the hospital. He was saved by
policemen who cut him down.
IS to so Injured; TWO Dead.
Later reports of the rioting estimate
the number Of injured all the way from
40 to 60. Only two persons were killed,
however. These were William Brown,
negro, who WAS taken from the county
Jail and lynched, and a white man be-
aeved to be Clarence Ciancy. aged %,
of Omaha
There were conflicting reports last
night as to how the mob got Brown from
the county jail, where he was held for
an alleged assault upon a white girl.
but today it was said that the negro
prisoners in the Jail turned Brown over
to the members of the mob after in
mates of the prison had been taken to
the roof Of the building to prevent them
from being burned by the fire which was
started by the rioters The sheriff and
his deputies in charge of the prisoners
were choked with smoke from the burn
ing structure. and were unable to- pre-
vent delivery of the negro to mob lead
ers. some of whom had gone to the top
of the building to get him.
Tried to Push Him over.
Before Brown was taken BY the mob
and while the prisoners In the jail were
on the roof of the burning courthouse,
the negro prisoners attempted to push
him over the cornice of the building 10
the crowd below, according to Sheriff
Michael Clark. They were prevented
from doing SO. the sheriff said. by white
prisoners, who struggled with the ne
groes.
Soldiers from Forts Crook and Omaha
were patrolling the streets of the city
today, giving orders to persons TO keep
moving No groups were permitted to
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