Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 89, Number 17, 13 March 1895 — RIOTING AT NEW ORLEANS. [ARTICLE]

RIOTING AT NEW ORLEANS.

Bloodshed Flows in the Streets of the Southern City. NEGROES SHOT DOWN BY A'MOB OF WHITE STRIKERS. At Least Five Persons Known to Have Been Killed and a Large Number "Wounded, Some Fatally — Police Powerless to Handle the Mob—Appeal for State Troops—The Trouble the Outgrowth of" the Employment of Negroes on the "Water Front. Special to the Rkcokr-Uniox. New Ort.eaxs, March 12.—New Orleans is to-day in a condition of excitement that can only be compared to that following the attack upon the Parish Prison March IG, 1892, when the citizens shot and lynched eleven men charged ■with implication in the assassination of Chief of Police D. C Henuessy. The thick fog early ibis morning was the veil behind which desperate white levee laborers gathered, and which they penetrated with Winchester rilles, all aimed at the colored non-union workmen on the ships loading at the docks. The attack was made at points several miles apart, just before the arrival of the police, and as a result there are half a dozen corpses and a dozen or so wounded men. > The police saw the atiack, but no arrests ! ■were made, they claiming that they were too few to cope with the unexpected outbreak. The <iay before the inaasacre ail wan quiet, and the Governor saw no grounds lor interference, but to-day the business men are denouncing both the Governor and police. The militia is in readiness to move, an appeal to the Federal (loverument has virtually been made, and even the foreign Consuls have decided to join in the move lor peace at auv price. The causes which led to the trouble have been of long standing, and grew out oi the attempt ot ship agents and others interested to reduce rates. The white screwmen claim that the colored men, who wore getting a share of the work under an agreement, made secret cuts j and violated the agreement in order to ! obtain more work and gradually crowd | the white men oil". The white association | then severed all ties with the blacks, and I refused to work with them or for the men ! who employed them. The white long- i nhoretneu joined the screwmen in this. \ Since then the steamship lines have been | gradually going over to the negroes, i .Lately the white Bcrowmen quit work on I the lines still loyal to them, staling that I they wouid not work until the whole I uflair was straightened out. Several more linos then took on negro laborers from necessity. The white union finally determined to retaliate upon the stevedores by accepting the reduced rates and dealing with the ships direct, Ships in haste accepted the j oiler, but the agents stood by the steve- | dores. The latter offered to pay more j than the screwnien asked, but the screw- j men refused to deal with then]. The merits oilered to pay the screwmen their wages aud place the stevedores over them m uineriutettdents, bat this the ■crewmen declined. Then the htevedores began importing colored screwmeu from Galveston, and tho whites, growing desperate, broke loose in riot. The polieu wore massed in the Sixth Precinct Police Station all night, uuder command of Acting Chief of Police John Journe. Everything was quiet, when there came a message that a dozen men j had been killed in front of Jackson | Square aud a terrible riot was in progress, i Police were at once hustled into the patrol wugous and hurried away. They had hardiy gone when Sergeant Richard j "Walsh, in command of the precinct, '■ heard a volley from the direction of the leveo in front of the station, lie rushed j to the scone, aud amony the freight cars, between Phillip and First streets, he found a crowd of negroes surrouuding a wounded companion. The man's head was covered with blood, lie was shot in the mouth. The negro, who was unknown, was taken to the station. Those about declare he was crossing the levee and found a mob of 250 men, aimed with Winchester rules and other guns. They marched along the leve9 to Eighth street, then back on Chopilouvas i Btreet to Jackson aud dispersed. Accord- i ing Co what seemed a prearranged plan, j at \\ sshlngrton street they wero arrested ' by Sergeant Walsh, who recognized a! man among the leaders as Walter Owens. I l'ort Warden McCobben said the riot- ' ers were from down town and did not i belong to the Bcrewinen. At >-:'-iO everything in town was comparatively quiet, with few weapons in ! t»ieht. All tiio negroes had left the levee, j The mob deposited their shotguns aud | riiles in the barrooms. While this was goiug on four negroes ' had beou shot and one Cam bean killed ! at the French market. The trouble oc-i curred at the landing of the Harrison line steamship, opposite Jackson square. ' In the Foe a hundred armed men got | through the guards of tho police and opened lire on the negroes at work. They in terror, some jumping into the river. Those who ran across the leveo In j the direction oJ tho squaro were subject; - to a volley. The aniuku seemed to come from doorways, windows, galleries and the street. Look where they would tho negroes' saw pistols and heard roports as the revolvers were discharged. Each man ran in a dilVerent direction, and the poor . creatures seemed panic-stricken. Those' whites not armed with revolvers picked | up stoneb, clubs and other improvised weapons and attacked the negroes, r'or i many minutes the liring continued on j the river front aud the police uiadono I move against the murderers. Not until every negro had lied did the white men ! desist The time of tho shooting seomod to have | beun fixed for tho hour just preceding j the beginning of the working day. As; a usual thing tho stevedores and longshor- } men begin work at 7 o'clock, and it was ; just before tins hour that tue liring began. It seems to have been totally unexpected, for the negroes were upon the levees in largo numbora. They evidently believed there was a suilicienl police force on the river front to protect ! them. The dead are: William Campbell, a colored screwman, shot at Phillips street; 1 .lules Calice Carrebo, s shoemaker, shot in front oi Lyons' clothing store; unknown man, shot in the vicinity of Crom- I well; negro in tho same vicinity, not yot jdenlilied; Leonard Mallard, a colored ' ■crewman. Injured: James A. Pane f white>, purser on the steamship Engineer, nhot in the head twice, dangerously injured; Henry i Brown, colored screwman, shot fivel times, in both arms and both logs, will recover; Lein I'eroßlon, colored coalwheeier, shot seven times, in both legs, thigh aud head, may recover; Lunis Cast, a colored employe of the sugar refinery, shot in the hip, will recover; Billy Williams, a colored screwuian, shot in the leg, will recover; Frank Lighthall I (colored), shot in the leg, dangerously; I Marion Brooks, a white Mougshoremau,' shot in the right leg below the kneo; two negroes, names unknown, jumped into the river and are supposed to be drowned. Ijeueral Johu Glyud, commanding the

State troops, was seen this afternoon by an Associated Press reporter, and asked what action the militia would take in case of further trouble. General Giynn stated that he was engaged in keeping Governor Foster well informed upon what was taking place; that orders received by him from the Governor would not be disclosed, but that orders issued by himself he could make public, and he had given none, awaiting the command of the Chief Executive.

A visit was paid to the British Consul. The Consul stated that Captain Woods of the British steamer Engineer had called upon him this morning after Purser Bane was shot, and made a statement of the facts of the shooting, The Consul declined to make any statement as to what action would be taken. Leonard Mellett, the negro who was shot in front of the Sugar Exchange this morning, died at the Charity Hospital at 5:30 i\ m. J. H. Bane, the wounded purser of the British steamer Engineer, is comfortably quartered at Touro Infirmary. His wounds are by no means so serious as they were at first supposed to be.

Another body has |been identified as that of Henry James, a colored laborer. Henry Bland, a oolored laborer who resides in Algiers, orossed the river this morning in search of work, and had just loft the ferry when the tight began. He received a load of shot in the body and was taken back to his home, whore ho now lies in a dangerous condition. The police up to 8 o'clock to-night had made but two arrests in connection with the riot. Robert Brooks and Mike Fitzpatrick, both white screwmen, were taken into custody early in the evening. Both were wounded, Brooks in the j groin aud Fitzpatrick in the wrist, and are said to have been shot by their comrades during the promiscuous iiring. The prisoners were charged with inciting to riot, and were remanded to await a hearing. All the attorneys representing the ship agents and stevedores began an early i consultation with reieronceto the terrible ' occurrences. On the Board of Trade the riot was coudemued in unmeasured terms. Among the general merchants, while the killing of the negroes was condemned, it was conceded generally that the ship agents were largely responsible for the trouble by bringing negro screwmen to take the places of the home men. The Grand Jury is investigating the riots. Judge Moise has instructed the Grand Jury to indict the city oilicers who i have been derelict. Urn S. TROOPS WILL NOT BE SENT. Washington, March 12.—The United States will not send troops to New Orleans until it has been fully demonstrated ! that the city and State officials are no longer able to maintain tho peace and | protect interstate trallic. This determi- j nation was reached late this afternoon I and telegraphed to United States Attorney Earhart at New Orleans. Mr. Oiney, in speaking of the situation at New Orleans, said that so far as he has been able to learn neither the city nor the State authorities had called out the local militia or taken any vigorous means to suppress the exciting lawlessness. He j had no doubt, however, of the ability of the local authorities to handle the mob if they really set about doing so, and in any j event the Government would not interfere until the situation was beyond the control ot the Government of the State, aided by all the military force at its command.