The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-31
FOURTEEN SLAIN
IN BELFAST RIOTS
Seventy Wounded Seriously in
Last Three Days.
Ulstermen and Catholics in
Savage Street Battles.
IT IS CREED vs., CREED
Only Sisters of Mercy and
Nurses Forget Religion.
Charged UIsteriteS Got NUM-.
tiOns From Special Police.

Belfast, Aug. 81. = Exhaustion
brought about lull this afternoon in
the savage fighting that has ragged in
the Catholic center of this city. which
has been virtually continuous for
three days and two nights. The toll
as canvassed at noon totaIed IA killed
and at least 70 wounded.
Large sections of Belfast are a ''no-
mans land" wherein the populace.
lowering behind barred doors. is panic
stricken. In scores of cases, doors are
being battered down by the infuriated
fanatics. who then attack the inmates.
The latter, forced to fight against
odds, scurry for refuge elsewhere and
are made the target for snipers. Wo-
men and children are shifted about
by the rowing battle front.
The latest heard of the conflict. in
hich Orangemen are fighting Cath
olics is at York street. There garden
walls have been demolished and form
the bulwark of trenches which have
been thrown up hastily. Gunmen
may be seen resting their rifles on the
tumbled down bricks and seated on
stools, sniping at luckless refugees.
Many of the snipers are equipped with
field glasses to spy out opposition
snipers.
Fourteen Are Slain.
The number of killed since the
fighting started thirty-six\hours ago is
! fourteen, according to the Belfast
| News Letter. This newspaper stated
that the ammunition used by the
Orangemen to attack the Catholics
was supplied by the Ulster special po-
| lice.
The Northern whig warned Sir
James Craig and his Ulster govern
ment that it must act at once to
stem the rising tide of anger against
the plague of riots"
Not even in the bitterest phases of
| the Sinn- Fein Ulster warfare was
: there such unrestrained play of pas
| sions as marked the terror that the
4 people of Belfast have Just passed
thru. Religious fervor bordering on
fanaticism, was displayed by men and
women.
Women Were TrampIed.
The night was marked by stam-
\ pedes, IN which women were trampled.
while Orangemen and Catholics
fought in bitter hand hand strug-
| giles in various sections OF the city
AT one place party of men
equipped with rifles, lay in the street
and fired volleys into passing crowds
Creeds were strictly observed, even
in the shadow of wholesale murder.
The only ones who were left unaf-
| fected by the fanatical fury of the
| fighters. were sisters of mercy. Pro-
! lestant nurses succored Catholic VIC
tins and Catholic sisters were seen
bending over Orangemen, giving them
! first aid.
Street Fighting Savage.
Street fighting of the most savage
! character continued in this city last
night, following a day of disorder
| Many streets in the very center OF the
| city were left in inky darkness be-
/ cause the lamp lighters refused to en-
| ter the bullet-swept thorofares. and
in the obscurity the opposing snipers
were very active.
| The days rioting and outlawry cul-
minated at 500 O'Clock in the appear
! ance of a party of men armed with
rifles, who entered Stanhope street.
took positions on the ground and
| opened hot fire. Pedestrians SIAM
peded from the fusilIade. Many men
who were near enough to see the men
doing the shooting. declared the rifles
were brand new. 1t was the most au-
dacious incident of the fighting since
| it broke out on Monday
| The exchange of shots between the
contending parties began early in the
morning and gradually spread over an
extensive area with increasing in
ltensity.
During a fusillade on North Queen
street in the afternoon, two persons
were killed and a dozen wounded. An
armored car was sent to the scene to
stop the fighting.
| Outside of detachments in armored
cars, the military forces of the gov
ernment have not fnterfered in the
rioting. Victoria Barracks where the
: troops are housed, was within the zone
of yesterdays disorders and the walls
of the buildings were hit frequently
by bullets.