Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1892 — A REIGN OF TERROR. [ARTICLE]

A REIGN OF TERROR.

Inaugurated In Buffalo By thd Striking SwitchmenBondings and Cars Set on Fire—Many New Men Assaulted,and a Train x J The switchmen in the Erie & Lehigh Valley at Buffalo went out on a strike t Friday. Dispatches from Buffalo on the 15 th say: There had been more or less trouble Saturday between the strikers and their sympathizers and the men who Were doing the strikers’ work and a few desultry assaults had occurred. Things began to put on a more serious aspect at 2 o’clock Sunday morning, when a serious of incendiary fires broke out simultaneously in the Lehigh Valley yards. Eighteen or twentytfreight. cars filled with wool, cotton, hay and various other merchandise two passenger coaches and two watchman s houses were burned. The fires occurred at places where the firemen could not successfully stay the flamesr on ac count of an absence of water besides the difficulty of access to the fires. ) *The water tank adjacent to /the coal trestles was smashed aud an engine that was taking water there wpx&ed by a string of ten runaway cars that bad been turned loose from the trestle. Fira was first discovered in the eastboundyards east of Dingens street. Here a little office building and two or three freight cart were destroyed. At this time Yard-Master Mead discovered flames in two passe'n ger coaches used for the conveyance of workmen, and turned in an alarm from William and Dingens streets. In the yards east of Dingens street fire raged among the cars of merchandise. It took the hose from three carts to reach the flames from the nearest hydrant. The firemen, however, prevented the destruction of a great dumber of cars, and the loss of perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property. The cars destroyed were in the midst of a great number of other cars. The firemen uncoupled a number of cars and removed them from danger. A dozen or so of ears were thrown from the Lehigh tracks through a misplaced switch. !- The first intimation of anything wrong was when the coal cars were set loose and demolished the water tank. Then the 1 fires broke out simultaneously. That, briefly, was what happened up to daylight Sunday morning. But that was only, the beginning. Tho strikers, or their sympathizers, have pulled pins, turned switches and driven off crews. Three men are at the hospital badly hurt. One was assaulted at 3 o’clock Sunday morning, two others at 11 and another at 3 in the afternoom ' , The man who was assaulted at the WeslefnT New . York & ' “Pennsylvania crossing was on his way for tho wreck at the time and was turningaswitch. The strikers had turned switches and thrown six cars from his train before that. He was struck on tho head. When taken to the hospital he was completely dazed and did not know what had occurred. Ono of the men was assaulted at the passenger station and two at William street. One of the most cowardly things done was the throwing of switches under passenger train No. 17 at William street at 7:30 o’clock Sunday night. Two passenger coaches were thrown from the track, but the conductor-does, no t thlnk any body was. hurt, though many were badly frightenedFifty men boarded passenger train No. 3 atjll o’clock in the morning and molested the employes, driving them off. The crew finally succeeded in getting the train to the station. Then the mob- took possession of the Senrea switches three or four times during the day and drove off the signal men. Three stalwart policemen were stationed at the landing and in the hallway leading to the offices of Superintendent Brunn and his associates. The strikers say they are determined to win the fight, and they assert the roads are losing heavily by not having mon to perform the work of tho strikers. Two trains of freight cars standing on sidings in Cheektowaga, the railroad suburb of Buffalo, were burned to-night. The Lehigh has called on the sheriff for protection. He sent Six deputies to the scene and will swear in fifty more. The police have yards in seven out of eleven precincts In the city to guard and all the reserves are called out. . 1 At 1 o’clock Monday morning fire has broken out in three places in the Lehigh yards again simultaneously. The fire department seem to be unable to quench It The New Y’ork expresj, No. 100,(Erie), is held two miles out because it cawnot pass. Now York expposs, No. 4, basnot been sent out sor z 4fie same reason. Word lifreceived-that a train of fortyon the Erlo road, filled with fine merchandise, a WlHlaarsV" is now burning fiercely with no protection At the same time the switch' lights on the Erie between Smith st. and the Western New York & Pennsylvania target were stolen. .It is impossible to tell how the switches were set. J