East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1921-09-20

= (NoTE-This is the third and las
of a series of articles on the mining
: warfare in West Virginia. In two pre-.
ceding stories the writer who made
several months study of conditions or
5 the spot, outlined the economic causes
land effects of the bitter warfare be-
tween the miners and operators. The
emotional background of that "Arma-
.geddon" between capital and labor is
described below.)
BY SHEFFRIED d. WEYER,
International News Service Staff
Correspondent.
Copyright. 1921, by International
News Service.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 2O.-"One thing
that may upset the temporary quiet
here is a womans revenge" tele-
Israphs Mildred Morris, the intrepid
International News Service staff CORE
Ispondent, who, after narrowing ex-
periences on the logan battlefront is
now reporting the second Trigger
ltrial' in the Mingo county court house
Iat Williamson, West Virginia.
Two women of Mingo brood re-
venge. One is Mrs. Sid Hatfield, twice
made widow by gun play. The 9TH
er is Mrs. Ed Shambers, widow of the
Youngest of the fifteen men who, with
Sid Hatfield, were ecquitted last March
latter an eight-weeks' trial of the
charge of having murdered Detective
/ Albert Felts. Both were present when
early last month. C. E. Lively, tho
crack" sleuth of the Baldwin -Felts
Detective Agency, shot and killed Hat
field and Chambers on the steps of
the court house at Welch, W. Va.
Lively had been star witness against
the defendants in the first trigger
trial"
From the moment that the shrewd-
| eyed, aquilline-nosed self confessed
union spy had revealed on the witness
stand the remarkable dual life he had
led for nine years-as detective for
the coal operators and member in
good standing of the United Mine
| Workers of America-it was. to those
who know the Mingo temper, merely
la question of who would beat the 9TH
er to the draw-Lively or any of the
other indicted miners, once they met
again.
Hatred and Love PrimevaI.
| Hand in hand with hatred in that
passion wrought country goes love-
And the mountaineers' love is as deep
as their hatred. Utterly unaffected.
almost primitive in it's manifestations
it is the proud, hell-defying- world
contemptuous sort of love that stops
lat nothing, that knows neither limit
nor law nor logic.
| Those hill-folk are, for the most
part, direct descendants of pioneers
that crossed the mountains with their
pack horses and dogs and rifles a hun
! dred and fifty years ago and settled in
the Virginia wilds. They are essential
lily children of nature. Civilization.
with its arts and graces and shame
faced restraint, has made little head
way among these people. Their emo
Itions are as primitive as their man.
lners. They are a different breed from
any people on the face of the globe.
And through the makeup of almost
all of them runs that strange thread
of duality that makes them smile with
murder in their hearts and gruht and
glare when they are happy.
The loyalty and affection between
friends and the passionate ardor be-
! tween lovers were peculiarly apparent
Iduring the trial at Williamson, which
by the way, was. in point of number
of defendants, unique in American
court annals. Never before had twenty
three men been arraigned simultan-
leously upon a murder charge before
the same bar of justice. Wives and
lsweethearts clung tenderly to the
ARMS of their men in prisoners row
Women were al4o plentiful among the
spectators. Jeers. Kisses, handclaps
lshouts of approval punctuated al
hearings. The whole trial was sur
charged with emotionalsn.
On the first dav of the great legal
drama-January 26-the whole jam
) med courtroom escaped by hair:
breadth tragedy which staggers i'm.
|. .Iagination
Credit for averting it unquestion
ably belongs to Tom Felts head of the
Baldwin -Fets Detective Agency No
until after the hearing was over die
), il become generally known that prac
tically everyone Of the twenty-thres
accused were sitting on the accusers
benches. armed to the teeth. All hat
one gun, most Of them two. How
many "gats" were bulging in hint
pockets among the men in the audi