OCR Text |
Show I 'Nine Mme Dead As Result of An I Attack at Forbes H ; Mine Guards Put Up Desparate Battle to H I Save Property But Are No Longer Able H to Cope With Situation. National Guard H Arrives and Take the Field M Forbes, Colorado, April 29, (by cour- B I ler to Trinidad) Sovon men Ho doad B fn the Forbes camp of tho Rocky K Mountain Vno Company. Most of H tho nilno buildings are in' allies. Nine B defenders are missing but aro bollov pBV ed to havo reached tho Majestic mine, ! i thrco strikers are thought to hare been killed In the latest outbreak In B tho Colorado labor war. n I An army of strikers estimated KB pBV 300 attacked tho property shortly af- PBV ter flvo o'clock this morning. There ! was a pitched b&ttlo lasting several pBV hours aftor which tho strikers dlsap-, pBV pearcd In the hills. PBa The Known Dead pfta S. A. Newman, f H Jack Smith, BJHJHJI Ed Kesslor, PBa Four Japancso, all defendors of tho PB mine. PBb Seriously Wounded PB Gus Whitney, negro, shot through abdomen. Ono Japaneso, shot through the shoulder. Two of tho bodies wore burned In tho ruins of tho mlno buildings. Twonty-elght mules were burned BBV when strikers sot lire to tho mine sta- i bio. Several horses were shot or burned. The burned buildings include in-clude the mine ofllco with the Unl-ted Unl-ted States postofllce, the tipple en- " glne house; boarding house, barn and , several homes of miners. HHB ' George Albert, wife and baby, were taken prisoners by the strikers, but released and made their way to a ranch house. Six guards wcro captured but released re-leased after being taken some distance dis-tance over tho hills., ( Barricade Built The camp ha4 been warned late last night of an Impending attack and had telephoned an urgent message to the militia camp at Ludlow a few miles away, for assistance. Superintendent Superin-tendent Robert Nichol put tho forty women and fifty children of tho camp in the tunnel of an abandoned mine, built a barricade of rock In front of the opening, armed his men, numbering number-ing forty, and prepared to defend tho property. The machino gun owned by the company was mounted on a hill north of the camp. Tho Forbes camp extends through a narrow canyon for dlstanco of more than a mile. Tho tlpplo engine house and office stood at the down canyon end, while tho mine proper was at the further end'. Tho superintendent posted guards and let some of his men go to sleep. Attacked Without Warning The attack came without warning. A shot was hoard on the hills south of the mine and In an instant bullets poured Into the camp from the east, south and west. The defenders ie-turned ie-turned the ftre vigorously, sweeping tho hills with tbo nitvchinb gun until Its mechanism lammed and It becamo useless. Superintendent Nichol Btaycd at Ms house with threo companions, telephoning tele-phoning for aid, until tllo wlro was cut. Then ho dashed for the hill where his men wcro plying rifles and mnchlno gun. Whllo tho lire was at its hottest, throngs of strikers swarmed down, from the hills In the face of the rifles of the guards. Dashing into the mine buildings, they applied torch and oil. In a moment fed flames and black Bmoke gave evidence of the destructive destruc-tive 'work of the attackers. As tho flames cracked' and tho timbers tim-bers crashed, the firing continued Incessantly. In-cessantly. Smoke of gunpowder mingled min-gled with that from the burning buildings. build-ings. The vicious spit of the machine gun punctuated the crackling of tho flames. , v I H l 4 'J 5 Striker Vanish When the fired buildings had almost al-most been reduced to ruins, the strikers, strik-ers, about 10 o'clock slackened the Are and vanished Into the hills, In, the direction of Trinidad. During' the hottest of the fighting three Greeks were seen' to tumble down the hillside. A party of newspaper men In an automobile carrying a white flag entered en-tered the ruined camp shortly before noon. They were the first persons from outside to reach the place and recolved tho first detailed account of. the ba,ttlo. When tho newspaper car drove into the camp, past the still blazing tlpplo, the correspondents were greeted by the defenders, who swarmed from their refuges and surrounded sur-rounded the machine. Dr. W. P. Woods, the "company physician was caring for tho wounded. Superintendent Nichols, awaiting another an-other attack, had his small forco of defenders on guard. Postmaster K. E. Cowdery waB examining the ruins of the mine office, in which tho mall, records, and stamps had all been burned. |