The crowd, seeing it was impossible to get past the sentinels at the corner, made a wide detour and attempted to gain a position upon a freight platform on the opposite side of the street. A few succeeded in doing so, only, however, to be scared into a hasty flight a moment later. Corporal J. N. Wilson and a private from Company B of the Third were guarding this platform. The man from the Third had a voice that would awaken the dead. When he shouted, “Get off there,” it had almost the opposite effect, it bound them to their seats. But, when the ominous click of Corporal Wilson’s rifle struck their ears, the spell was broken, and a rapid retreat ensued.
A line of sentinels, consisting of Corporals Burtis and McCulloch, Privates M. Claussenius, G. Radke, and W. Crowley, were posted across the street to the right of the building facing east, while Company B of the Third was posted similarly across the street to the left and facing west, both lines holding in check a large crowd.
It might be mentioned here that Company B of the Third did excellent work on this occasion, and showed that they could be relied upon in any emergency. They presented a very formidable appearance—big, brawny fellows. Whatever else might be said, this fact remains, they are fighters, every inch of them.
Captain Cook, in making a tour of investigation, made the discovery that in the rear of the buildings being searched was an alleyway leading out onto a side street. Instantly it flashed through his strategic brain that the sentinels were not posted to the best advantage. What was to prevent the strikers from making their exit with arms and ammunition through this passageway, or what was to hinder them from receiving reinforcements through it? He lost no time in reaching the street and remedying this defect. He ordered the sentinels posted at the corner to force the crowd down I street for about one hundred feet. The sentinels fulfilled the orders in short notice; a few sharp commands, a prod with the bayonet here and there, did the work, and our position was safe. Fortunately the weakness of our position was discovered before the strikers had the opportunity of making use of it; if this were not so, there is no telling how the day might have resulted. What if a crowd of desperate strikers had rushed through this entrance, overpowered the searching squad, taken away their guns, and then fired down upon the company in the street, perhaps massacring the whole body. One shudders to think of what might have happened. But let it be said that as long as we have at the head of our company a man whose brain in the time of battle is so clear, so far reaching, and at the same time so quick, there is no need to be alarmed that such disastrous results will flow from any neglect to guard our position well.
Private Tooker, while acting as a sentinel, by his firmness and unrelentless severity in forcing the crowd back, incurred the dislike of several of the strikers. On a high-boarded fence near by was a lithographic poster of Mephistopheles. Pointing to this lithograph, one of the strikers remarked that Tooker’s face looked very much like the face of the devil on the fence. This was not at all complimentary, I can assure you. Tooker is conceded to be one of the best looking, and at the same time one of the most unassuming, young men in the company; and the beauty of it all is, that he is unconscious of the fact. During the late excursion of the company to Stockton an insane man actually said that he would like to have Tooker’s face, as it was such a handsome one, and this, let me tell you, with all due earnestness, is no sign of the man’s insanity. So you can see that the transformation must have been wonderful for it even to be possible to conceive of making a comparison between Tooker’s face and that of the devil’s.
It was just after the sentinels had forced the crowd down I street that the cavalry, which had been ordered to the scene of the wreck, with instructions to arrest all suspicious characters in the vicinity, came up I street with a number of prisoners they had rounded up. The prisoners were on foot in the center of the troop, while behind them, also on foot, was a line of soldiers urging them along at the point of the bayonet.
Following in the trail of the cavalry was a large crowd, curious to see and find out what was going to be done with the prisoners. In their anxiety to satisfy their curiosity, they were oblivious of every thing else. As the commander of the cavalry rode through the lines he told the sentinels to keep back the crowd, which was consequently very much astonished when their attention was attracted, by a sudden and unexpected challenge, “Halt,” to the points of the bayonets held by the sentinels those in front came to such an abrupt stop that those in the rear almost piled on top of them before they realized what had happened. The crowd then remained stationary at a respectable distance from the points of the bayonets, until the cavalry, retracing their steps, passed through the lines again, when they once more attached themselves to the rear of the troop and moved away.
While the sentinels were dealing with the crowd on the outside the searching party, now augmented by Privates G. Claussenius, R. Radke, Stealy, F. Shula, and Sindler, were having, on the inside of the building, an exciting time carrying out their instructions. Of the original searching squad, Sergeant Clifford made the first discovery. Going directly to the rear of the house, and putting his hand into the corner of a closet, he pulled out a jar containing several pistols, a few knives, and some ammunition. Private Hayes was the next successful explorer. In one of the rooms on the upper floor he ran across a pile of about seventy Italian swords and sheaths. These were carried to the street and deposited upon a truck.
The “crust” broken, the searching squad entered into the spirit of the duty. Every room in the house was thoroughly searched. Doors that were locked and were not opened on demand were burst open, either with a swinging blow of the canteen, or else one of the squad would take a short run and launch the whole weight of his body against it. No nook in the room was left unsearched. Trunks were opened and their contents inspected, beds were turned completely over and the clothes well explored, closets were ransacked and the miscellaneous articles in them minutely examined. No ceremony was used. And while the search was thorough, we are glad to say that the searching party, under the careful eye of Lieutenant Filmer, was particular to replace everything they inspected in the same condition it was before the search began.
On the rear porch Sergeant Clifford discovered ten sacks filled with hard material. When he went to examine them carefully a bystander remarked to him, “It’s only coal.” On examination they were found to contain a species of coal known as boiler punchings. Sergeant Clifford called Colonel Nunan’s attention to the sacks, who immediately ordered them to be taken out.