Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1886 — MORE BLOOD FLOWS. [ARTICLE]

MORE BLOOD FLOWS.

Three Hundred Strikers Assemble in East St. Louis and a Riot Ensues. Stones Are Thrown at Deputy Marshals, When They Shoot Into the Crowd. Six Persons Killed and Four Wounded Before the Battle Is Terminated. , [St. Louis (Mo.) dispatch.] The first blood to be spilled as a result of the railroad troubles in East St. Louis was shed there at 3 o’clock this afternoon, when a group of Sheriff Ropiequet’s deputies, sworn in and armed this morning to take the places of his regular men, who bad been sent back to Belleville last night, filed into the crowd of strikers and spectators who had gathered near the Cahokia Creek bridge, and killed five persons, while two are mortally wounded and others badly hurt. The killed are: Pat Brisco], employe of the water-works; Oscar Washington, a painter; John Bohman, a water-works laborer, not a striker; C. E. Thompson; unimown man, shot at the bridge approach; Mrs. John Pfeiffer; Maj. Rychmann. The day opened with but little prospect of serious trouble, although some of the strikers intimated that the roads would find it less easy to run trains than they anticipated, and early in the morning the yards presented an animated scene. Switch engines were running backward and forward making up trains; the platform men were busy loading and unloading freight, and trains were arriving and departing without any interference. This condition of affairs continued until noon, and it was thought; that the day wo.uld pass without any demonstration by tho strikers. At that hoar, however, the trouble which afterward grew to such alarming proportions begun. A number of strikers, without apparently having formed any preconcerted plan, congregated at the relay depot and began a discussion of the general situation. As time passed their number was augmented until the original knot of men increased to fully two hundred. The discussion became animated and the crowd more demonstrative until some one proposed that they go to the Louisville and Nashville yards and drive out the men employed there. The cry of “On to the Nashville yards” was caught up, and the crowd advanced. As they proceeded their numbers again increased, some joining the mob simply as spectators, while others were in full sympathy with the movement, until from three to four hundred were advancing toward the yards. Arriving there they swarmed into the yards and persuaded the men at work to desert their posts. The crowd remained in the yards for some time, and, although considerable excitement prevailed, no violence was resorted to.

Just at this time, however, a Louisville & Nashville freight train was slowly passing, guarded by eight Deputy Sheriffs, armed with Winchester rifles. In the meantime crowds of men, women, and children had congregated on Broadway, where the Louisville and Nashville tracks cross the street, and also upon the Broadway bridge, which spans Cahokia Creek, and in the open space to the east. Just as the train reached the Broadway crossing the trouble began. The crowd on the bridge began to yell and jeer at the officers, and it is asserted that stones were thrown, which struck two or three of them, while it is also said that a pistol was discharged. At once the deputies opened fire upon the crowd with their Winchesters, and a scene of the wildest terror and excitement followed. Mrs. John Pfeiffgr, a middleaged woman, who was returning home from a shopping expedition with her husband, stepped on the bridge just as the first shot was fired and almost immediately fell mortally wounded, a rifle ball passing clean through her body. She died within an hour. In the crowd were quite a number of women and small boys who began to scream, and a stampede in all directions followed. The deputies emptied their Winchesters .and continued to fire their revolvers: Pat Driscoll, a Wabash section hand, and John Bonner, a coal miner, neither of them a striker, were the next to fall, and died on the bridge. Maj. Rychmann, a rolling mill employe, in no way counected with the strike, was shot in the head and shoulder, and has since died, and a young girl named Kleinmann was wounded. The greatest excitement immediately prevailed, and pandemonium reigned. The crowd fled in every direction, and the deputies, realizing how fearful was the result of (heir fire, sought means of escape by rashing for the bridge, with a view of fleeing to this city. At the approach, and just at the bridge tower on the east side, they were met by Mayor Joyce, City Clerk Canty, and a third man, who seized the deputies’ guns and endeavored to turn them back. One of the deputies, in his terror, fired upon the trio, killing a man named C. E. Thompson, who stood between Joyce and Canty. Some shots were fired by the remaining deputies at the approaching strikers, and all started for the bridge. The scene on the bridge was one of the wildest confusion. Coal teams and other teams with wagons were galloping westward, and their drivers shouting to all pedestrians and teamsters to run back. Women and men on foot were running toward tho city, and waving back all they met, while immediately behind came the deputies, pursued by the vanguard of the crowd from East St. Louis. One of the frightened guards threw his gun into the river, while another hid his weapon in a wagon that was in full retreat. A few of the more violent strikers, after arming themselves, announced their intention of attacking the deputies on guard at the Ohio & Mississippi yards, and advanced in that direction. When near the yards they were met by several deputies and' fired upon. One of their number is said to have been killed. The Sheriff made hasle to wire Gov. Oglesby the state of affairs, announcing that he was unable to preserve the peace, and invoking the aid of the State troops. The Governor immediately returned answer that he had ordered eight companies of militia to the scene of the disturbance.