Show THAT AWFUL charles guscott the principal of the german school at la lattimer atimer pa and who was an eyewitness eye witness of the awful massacre by the sheriff and deputies near that place states etwas it was just when the affair commenced I 1 had just dismissed school and with my assistant si stant miss grace coyle was on the porch miss coyle and I 1 were attracted first by the deputies deguti es marching to a position about three hundred yards from the schoolhouse almost directly in front of it and a few yards on the far side of the highway along which the strikers matched marched the deputies came on a an n electric car left it near the road and marched to an open place on the road 00 yards from the car track they were drawn up in the form of a crescent with the horns toward the road the strikers made their appearance soon after marching down the road toward the lattimer breaker they were in orderly array six abreast carrying a small american flag two small boys one seven and one eleven sons of one of the strikers were in the van walking hand in in i hand several feet in advance of the men after the shooting I 1 found these two little fellows lying side by side dead they were pierced by at lewt least a dozen bullet wounds wound 9 and had probably been daitai ly killed as they lay side by side on the spot where they were last seen see n alive As the strikers approached the deputies sheriff martin left his men and advanced toward the on comers who stopped upon his command I 1 saw the sheriff talking vigorously rigorously to them and then he read the riot act the strikers lers crowded around him to the number of at least but I 1 do not think he was knocked down as he states finally I 1 saw him pushed aside into the ditch at the side of the road and then the strikers headed by the two little boys I 1 have mentioned swept toward lattimer and in a minute or two were in front of the deputies As the van confronted the armed men samuel price of hazelton who had volunteered his service as deputy stepped out oat in front of his line whereupon one of the deputies cried out come back or well weil shoot you to damn youl price did not reply in words word but leveled his rifle at the strikers and fired almost as if prices priced shot wp was the signal came the crash of the volley from the other men the sight was ind indescribable escrib able the strikers were dazed for a moment and then fled in every direction most of them toward the schoolhouse where miss coyle and I 1 stood we were petrified with horror edid idid I 1 did not realize our danger so that involuntarily we remained in spectators to the last and saw the horrible sight 1 I thought one volley would have been sufficient to disperse the strikers it was but it was wt not strident the ibl able rage for blood which the de deputies exhibited eg coego tha no longer fired in volleys but bat oue one after another taking care j Y a p f aa M ka 4 c jy ful aim and firing to killand kill and with deadly effectiveness too for man after man dropped as they ran screaming with fright for a place of safety A bullet crashed through throng h our schoolhouse window then one of the fleetest of the strikers with blood streaming from his arm ran toward us to gain the shelter of the building ile he had almost reached the corner when he was shot between the shoulders and fell dead almost at our feet you can judge of the care with which that fatal shot was sent when I 1 tell you that the nan an fell feet from the foremost of the deputies 1 I saw men who h had ad hidden behind trees tees and fences during the first fusillade fusi lade leave their places of concealment only to be deliberately shot down one man whom I 1 afterwards found was shot through both legs at the knees had crawled some distance from the deputies and sitting upright was shot hot through the back and killed 1 I wish I 1 could describe to you the deliberate bloodthirstiness of the shooting but I 1 cannot find words sufficiently strong enough to tell the story it was horn horrible ble the shooting lasted for ten or fifteen minutes I 1 am pretty sure it was more mere than ten and when it had ceased miss coyle and I 1 went to help the wounded one man passed us ua who had been shot in the stomach sto maeh miss coyle asked him if he could go into the schoolhouse and lay lav down until help arrived no he replied me want to see my wife before die and he be staggered ered on down the road he never saw her for we found him dead against the fence near the school soon afterward we got three of the wounded men into the school and attended to their wants as well as we te could one poor fellow called continually for water he was shot hot through the stomach and the water I 1 gave him served to dilute the blood which poured from his bis horrible wounds he died while being taken to the hospital mr guscott says that he saw the whole affair very clearly and did not see the strikers make a single attempt at viole violence uee not one of them remained to face the deputies after the first volley dt and said mr guscott It curious urious to know if any of the men were armed I 1 searched all of the dead mud and wounded I 1 could reach some forty in all and did not find a single weapon except a small revolver on one of the dead men san francisco star |