Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — INFURIATED AMAZONS. [ARTICLE]

INFURIATED AMAZONS.

MINERS ATTACKED BY HOOSIER WOMEN. They Ferociously Felt a Train of “Blacklegs” with Clabs and Stones—Quiet Restored by a Squad of Folice Officers— Many Miners Are in Want. Trouble In the Coal Fields. A mob of women, half crazed from hunger and want, made a furious attack on the “blackleg” train when it stopped at syndicate mine No. 8 the other morning, says a Brazil (lnd.) correspondent. With curses and screams of rage they pelted the train with stones, and when it came to a standstill they made a rush for the cars in which the “blacklegs” were, declaring that not one of them sh uld escape alive. Fortunately for the men, they were well armed and soon drove their savage assailants back. Several of the miners were severely bruised with blows from the clubs the women carried, though none were seriously injured. There were several hand-to-hand conflicts, but the women were weak from want of food and were easily overpowered. The fight was over in less than ten minutes, but for nearly an hour the women loitered around the mine, screaming like a band of Indians at a ghost dance and swearing vengeance against the “blacklegs.” Having venfod their spleen, they joined their husbands, who had been highly interested spectators on the top of a high blutf overlooking the mine, and then returned to (aseyvilie. It was a complete surprise to the operators. They had recel. ed no intimation of the trouble, and for the first time since the mine resumed operation General Manager McClelland did not go out with the tiatn. The women were concealed behind a long row of coal cars, and did not show themselves until the train was within a few coda of the stopping p'are, when they made a rush from their ambush, showering stones on tho train as they came. Bobert Wallace, the mine superintendent, and August Narkais, the pit boss, attempted to intercept them, but they might as well have attempted to stop a torrent Mrs. Thomas Short carried a pick-handle, and with Ihe fury of a hear robbed of her whelps she made at Narkais. He dodged the blow and quick as a flash seized her about the waist and attempt d to wrest the club from hergra-p. Ho was not equal to the task. With tho strength given by rage and desperat'on she threw him off and a second time rushed upon him, screaming w th a I her might that she would kill him. Again he dodged tho blow, and this time he teized her by tho throat and threw hor I ack several paces In hor effort to k-eep from falling she lot go tho club and the pit doss got K. Mrs. Sandy Jenkins, Mr\ Falkner and Mrs. McDona d, who, in their efforts to reach the “blacklegs,” had not before noticed the fight between Mrs. Short and tiie pit boss, now came to the recue a d he fled, witii the worn: n in hot pursuit Superintendent Wallace tried to stop them, when he became involved in a hand-to-hand coutict with Mrs. Jenkins. The other women set npon hi n with such fury that he had to give it up. By this time the “blacklegs” had left the train, and by pointing their weapons at the women kept them at a safe distance. As soon as tho women left the mine the train was sent back to Brazil, and in the afternoon it returned with a s uad of polic e officers and General Manager McC elland. Word was then sent to Caseyville that if the women came to the mine in the evening they would be arrested and taken to jail. It had the desired effect, and none of them appeared when the train pulled out. Tho women, and men of Ca-eyville persist that they are not in want, but they condemn the State and national officers in bitter tcims for not sending tho aid that was promised when the strike was declared. When talking at home they are frank in expressing themselves as wishing to go back to work without being ostracized as “blacklegs” when the trouble is over. Syndicate Mine No. 8 is the only place in the Brazil coal-fields where the “blacklegs” have, been mo'ested. At other miiies three times as many “b'acklegs” are at work, and none of them have been molested. In the communities away from Perth and Caseyville the strikers agree that a man is justified in “blacklegging" to prevent his family from starving. The State officers of tho United Mine Workers of America deny that the men are returning to work at the different parts of the districts, in spite of this assertion the number of “blacklegs” is daily increasing. Not around Perth and Caseyville, to be sure, but in the mines around Brazil and south it is sa