 |
| National Guard encampment at Shenandoah, Pa. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, August 1, 1902.
CAMP IS ESTABLISHED.
Citizen Soldiers on a Hill Overlooking Shenandoah, Pa.
TOWN NOT UNDER MARTIAL LAW.
Troops Are Merely to Assist Local Authorities—Joseph Beddall Died at Hospital—The Four Policemen Who Were Shot Will Recover—Wounded Strikers Arrested.
Shenandoah, Pa., Aug. 1.—Twelve hundred state troops are encamped today on a hill overlooking Shenandoah. Down in the town where rioters and policemen fought the bloody battle Wednesday night all is quiet and the indications are that so long as the militia remains the peace of the community will not again be broken.
The thousands of idle men and boys in this vicinity who had been gathering in large numbers and marching from place to place did not repeat their demonstrations and the authorities consequently had little or nothing to do.
The arrival of the citizen soldiery proves to be a great attraction for the large array of unemployed and hundreds came to town to see the troops.
The first companies to arrive came from St. Clair at 6:30 a. m. and from that hour up to 3 p. m. when the Governor's troop of cavalry disembarked and galloped up the main street, Shenandoah presented a lively appearance.
Brigadier General P. H. S. Gobin of the Third Brigade, in command of the troops here, and his staff were on the scene early. The camp is located on a very high hill just outside the town proper and commands a full view of the town.
Within the camp lines are quartered two full regiments—the Eighth and Twelfth—two companies of the Fourth regiment and the troop of cavalry. General Gobin expressed himself as highly pleased with the rapidity with which the camp was established.
Foreign Element Responsible.
The major portion of the population here is made up of foreigners and as a rule they kept close to their homes during the day. It is claimed by the citizens of the town that the foreign element was solely responsible for the trouble.
Contrary to popular belief Shenandoah is not under martial law. The local authorities and the sheriff of the county have not relinquished control of the town or county and they remain in as complete control of their respective affairs as they did before the troops reached here. The soldiers are merely in camp on the outside of the town. It was deemed advisable, however, by the brigadier general to establish provost guard in certain parts of the town. Major S. Farquhar, of Pottsville, is the provost marshal. So long as the situation remains as it is at present there is no likelihood that the regimental companies will be scattered through the mining towns of Schuylkill county.
General Gobin spent a busy day informing himself of the situation throughout the county. He had a personal interview with Sheriff S. Rowland Beddall in the forenoon and a telephone conference with him in the afternoon. The general also received messages from various parts of the territory.
In an interview with the correspondent of the press, General Gobin said: "The general situation is very quiet. There were no incidents during the day worthy of note, except the arrival of 500 or 600 men on freight trains. It seems that a lot of the idle men for want of something better to do, jump freight trains and ride from one town to another. They call such rides 'John Mitchell excursions.'
"I have received dispatches from different parts of the county which tell of meetings, marches, attacks on individuals, violations of the law and the refusal of local police authorities to enforce the law. Upon these dispatches I am not yet ready to act. What I will do depends largely upon what the sheriff is going to do. We are here to give him support in his efforts to enforce the civil law; we were ordered here because of his inability to do so."
Mine Workers Incensed.
The mine workers are greatly incensed over the calling out of the troops. They assert that this action was entirely unwarranted and is an unjustifiable expense on the state. The strikers, through their officials, are making an effort to have the soldiers withdrawn, The first step in this direction was taken when a telegram was sent from here to Governor Stone requesting him to send a personal representative here to investigate the conditions and expressing the belief that after such investigation he will learn that the presence of the troops is unnecessary.
Of the 20 or more persons who were beaten with clubs or struck by bullets during the rioting, one man, Joseph Beddall, who was beaten to insensibility, died last night at 10 o'clock, at the Miners' hospital. The four policemen who were shot and the strikers who were also hit by bullets will recover. Most of the wounded strikers claim that they were merely onlookers.
The district attorney and the sheriff are prosecuting an investigation with a view of placing under arrest all those who participated in the riot. Several of the wounded strikers called at the Miners' hospital to have slight injuries dressed and after the doctors got through with them they were arrested and taken to the Pottsville jail.
END OF THE STRIKE
Prophesied for Sept. 1.—The Method Not Yet Stated.
New York, Aug. 1.—According to stories in circulation here today the coal operators have agreed upon a plan for breaking the anthracite strike by Sept. 1. Vice-President Loom of the Lackawanna said yesterday that the operators had made their plans, but would not make them public.
John B. Karr, vice-president of the New York, Ontario & Western company, said he expected that there would be very little left of the strike by Sept. 1.
"Coal will be mined again on Sept. 1," he said, "but little will be done before that time. No attempt will be made to rush matters. The miners will be put to work as soon as enough will come back to open collieries." A representative of the Erie railroad said that he believed a week or two would end the strike.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Against a Sympathetic Strike.
The attitude of President Mitchell of the United Mine Workers at the convention at Indianapolis in counseling the bituminous coal miners against a sympathetic strike has been generously and generally commended. President Mitchell urged that such a strike should not be undertaken not only on the ground of policy and because he believes that, as a rule, sympathetic strikes fail, but more positively and more forcibly on the moral ground that pledges and contracts made by labor associations should be kept inviolate even under discouraging and tempting circumstances. Speaking of sympathetic strikes, he said:
Sympathetic strikes have many adherents, and the efficacy of such methods appeals strongly to those who, being directly involved in trouble, do not always recognize the effect of their action upon the public mind, but the history of the labor movement teaches lessons which should not be forgotten today. I do not know of one solitary sympathetic strike of any magnitude which has been successful. On the contrary, the most conspicuous among the sympathetic labor struggles have resulted in ignominious and crushing defeat, not only for the branch of industry originally involved, but also for the divisions participating through sympathy.
The plan suggested by President Mitchell and adopted by the miners convention was that the bituminous miners through their district unions should contribute to the support of the striking members and that an appeal be made to all American trades unions for financial aid. He suggested that the national treasury of the United Mine Workers should contribute $50,000 from funds now on hand and that an assessment of not less than a dollar a week should be levied on members of local unions. This, it is believed, will place in the hands of the striking anthracite miners a fund of approximately $500,000 a week.
.jpg)
 |
| Holden & Sons coal yard. |
THE COAL SITUATION.
Only Two Dealers Have Coal and the Price Has Advanced.
It is estimated by one of the coal dealers of this city that at the present time there are not to exceed 100 tons of hard coal in the yards of the local dealers, where usually there are at this time of the year 10,000 tons.
There are only two dealers in Cortland that have hard coal for sale, and these are selling only in small lots in order that the limited supply may be made to last as long as possible. The price has been raised by one of the dealers to $6 a ton, and by the other who has raised coal to $8. It is the impression of the dealers that it would have been better all around to have raised the price of coal at the beginning of the coal strike. This would have cut down the demand for coal and there would now be a supply on hand to meet the trade that actually needs coal at the present time. As it is they think that a large number of people have put in their supply for the winter, and that factories will suffer on this account.
RAINFALL IN CORTLAND.
July Breaks all Records Since Statistics Began to be Kept.
The rainfall in Cortland for July surpasses that of any previous month since January, 1896, when the United States weather bureau records began to be kept here. It is quite safe to say that so much water never fell in a single month in Cortland before within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant.
The record for the month shows that it rained upon nineteen of the thirty-one days and that the aggregate rainfall for the month was 10.45 inches. And Cortland seems not to have had several of the big rains that visited McGraw and other sections of the county. If the record had been kept at McGraw it may well be believed that it would have exceeded a foot of water. The nearest approach to the rainfall of this month was in Aug. 1898, when 9.44 inches of water fell. Aside from this July there have been but five months in the six and one-half years when the rainfall has exceeded five inches. It is also noteworthy that the rainfall for the first six months of this year falls very little short of the total rainfall for both the years 1897 and 1899.
Notwithstanding the fact that this month has seen a great rainfall we may be glad that we do not live in Texas where in Caldwell and Hays counties Wednesday 14 inches of water fell in a single hour. Everything is washed out, property destroyed and lives were lost.
The tabulated rainfall by months since Jan., 1896, is as follows:
CELEBRATED AT I. H. PALMER'S.
Lightning Struck the House and Produced Variegated Fireworks.
Lightning struck the residence of Attorney I. H. Palmer, corner Prospect and James-sts., shortly after 12 o'clock today and did considerable damage. The occupants of the house were not seriously injured, but all were more or less frightened by the awful current that entered the residence.
A chimney on the east side of the house was struck and the top was taken off, and the bricks were thrown about the yard. The queer element seemed to glide from this to the water gutters of the tin roof on the back part of the house. The gutters were torn out, and the current passed down the water pipes to the rooms below.
Mr. Palmer was in one of the back rooms when the house was struck. He says they can all talk of the din and roar of artillery, but "this had it beaten forty ways for Sunday." They had new kind of fireworks upon the bill, and there was nothing lacking either in the display of light or the noise that necessarily attends a genuine celebration.
SHOCKED BY LIGHTNING.
Telephone Fuse Burned Out While a Lady Was Speaking.
Mrs. W. H. Clark of 31 Prospect-st., was at the telephone this noon when I. H. Palmer's house across the street was struck by lightning. The same bolt affected the telephone wire leading to Mrs. Clark's house and a bit of fire flashed from the telephone into her face, shocking her so that the receiver was jerked from her hand and a great pressure seemed exerted upon the drum of her ear against which the receiver was held.
There has been a prickling sensation all the afternoon in her left cheek, arm and side. The fuse of the telephone was burned out.
BARNS WERE BURNED.
Struck by Lightning—Horses Burned and Property Destroyed.
A horse barn and a hay barn on the farm of Henry Edson, near Virgil, were struck by lightning about 11 o'clock today, and burned to the ground. Both were new buildings. Two horses were burned in the barns. It is also reported that a horse was killed by lightning in the barn of Dewitt Hollenbeck, who lives near the Edson place. The barn on the Hollenbeck place was struck, but was not burned.
Death of A. L. Hutchings.
Abraham L. Hutchings died at his farm home, 2 1/2 miles from Dryden on the Etna road, early yesterday morning from pneumonia, after an illness of a very few days. The body was taken to his home at Dryden village yesterday, and the funeral will be held from the house Sunday at 1 o'clock, p. m. Burial will be made in Dryden.
Mr. Hutchings was born in Virgil, this county, in 1838 and lived in that town until sixteen years ago, when he moved to Dryden. Aside from his wife, he leaves one son, Fred Hutchings of Virgil, and one daughter, Mrs. I. E. Pearsall of Los Angeles, Cal.
SUICIDE AT MCLEAN, N. Y.
McLean, July 31.—George Sutfin, aged 80 years, living one and one-half miles south of McLean, committed suicide this morning by hanging himself in a hog pen. No cause is assigned excepting poor health. Mr. Sutfin leaves a wife, two sons and one daughter, Mrs. Harry Phinney, all living near McLean.
BREVITIES.
—New display advertisements today are—The Corner Grocery, Cash store, page 6.
—The Cortland City band will give an open air concert at the park tomorrow evening. Dancing will follow.
—Cortland county will have its public school money from the state increased this year by the sum of $5,550.
—The front of the county clerk's office building is being improved with a coat of sanded paint. Mr. George A. Loucks is master of ceremonies.
—A crab apple tree with both blossoms and ripe fruit upon it is one of the curiosities in the yard of the S. D. Freer homestead on Port Watson-st.
—Elisha Champlain, commonly known as "Hiki", was sent to the Onondaga county penitentiary this afternoon by City Judge Davis. He was charged with vagrancy.
—Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Summers, D. L. Griffiths and Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Hollister entertained the party of Welsh singers this morning at their home, 18 East Main-st.
—The month of August is now fifteen hours old and the rainfall so far is .95 inch. It all came in the shower that lasted the greater part of the time from 12 o'clock till 2 this afternoon.
—Mr. A. B. Benham informs us that the three cows killed by lightning on the Benham hill in the big storm last Sunday did not belong to him, and that so far he has been fortunate in never being the victim of lightning's pranks.
No comments:
Post a Comment