DESPERATE STRIKE RIOT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2886, 10 December 1898, Page 4

DESPERATE STRIKE RIOT.

— ♦ Particulars of a desperate strike riot are to hand from America. A telegram received at New "Xork from Virden, Illinois, says the arrival of a number of negroes from the Sooth to take the place of miners who. were out on strike was followed by a desperate battle. Five hundred shots were exchanged between the strikers on one side and (Sheriff Davenport and his deputies and a force of railroad police on the other. It was at first stated that there were at least twenty killed and wounded on each side, but according to the best information obtainable ten were killed, while five were fatally and five others seriously injured. .Nine men on the train Were killed and thirteen wounded. Fifteen hundred armed strikers lined each side of the line on thearrival of the train, which was stopped m front of the east gafces|by some stockades which had been erected at the mine belonging to the Chicago and Virden Coal Company, and the j trouble then began. Dozens of shots were fired from the stockades at the whiten, while, as the strikers allege, they were half a mile away. Great excitement ensued, the men securing all available arms, while women and children fled to their homes and barricaded the doors. The wives of some of the miners who were killed declined to go to their homes, being almost mad with grief and anger. It is said the miners were fired on from the stockades after the train had gone through. The Mayor sent to the neighbouring town for doctors and nurses, and a special train with doctors and nurses was asked for from Springfield, Shortly after the first conflict Mr Lukens, manager of the mine, tried to escape from the shaft. He was met by a f usilade from men supposed to be miners. He and some detectives thereupon took refuge behind the buildings, but the assailants continued firing. The sheriff asked Governor Tanker to send troops immediately. Mr Lukens is held responsible for the affair, and great indignation is felt against him.