While the squad was searching the basement of the building, they were startled to hear from above the report of a gun. For awhile their position was a peculiar one; hearing, however, no further reports, they concluded that it was an accidental discharge—which it really was. It seems that while Lieutenant McIver was unloading one of the captured Winchesters, a shell was jammed and exploded, the bullet striking the bottom of the truck, and glancing upward entered one of the sacks of boiler slugs.
The buildings having been thoroughly searched, the searching parties and sentinels were called in and the companies re-formed.
Just as we were about to move, an incident occurred which showed how far a sympathetic strike can be carried. The driver of the truck upon which the confiscated articles were placed, when told to drive on, refused to do so and dismounted from the seat. Here was a man connected in no way with the strikers, except in the larger conception of the universal brotherhood of man, placing himself in jeopardy merely to show his sympathy for the strikers. This did not, however, cause any delay, for the sergeant major of the Sixth Regiment mounted the seat and manipulated the reins.
The two companies then marched to the corner of Second and J streets, at which point Lieutenant Filmer again led his merry squad of searchers out and proceeded to search the Pioneer Bakery. Corporals Burtis, McCulloch and Burdick, Privates M. Claussenius, Keane, Wise, and others, assisted by part of Company B of the Third, guarded the crossing of the streets below the bakery, while Privates O’Brien, Flanagan, Overstreet, with others of the Third Regiment, formed a line of sentinels across the street above the building. The searching squad was made up of very nearly the same men who composed it on the previous search.
In the bakery, the searching party was met by the proprietor, who informed them with great solemnity that there were no weapons of any kind on his premises. In spite of this assurance, the place was searched, and the results did not harmonize with the proprietor’s statement. The inside of the building was found to be a perfect labyrinth. Winding stairways and dark passages in such profusion that it was extremely difficult to make a thorough search. Besides this, the dirt and filth of the place was something frightful. It seemed to be more fit for a pigsty than a dwelling-place of men. Sergeant Clifford, by feeling his way, managed to reach the roof. On looking around he saw that the roof of the adjacent building was about twelve feet higher than that of the bakery. Against the wall of this building a ladder was leaning; so, thinking that the roof might be worthy of investigation, he was about to ascend, when he met a lieutenant of the Third coming down, and who mentioned that there was nothing up there. The sergeant, knowing that it was impossible for the lieutenant to make a careful search in the time he was upon the roof, proceeded up, and was well rewarded for his pains; for there, lying side by side, were five Winchester rifles, with a pile of ammunition stacked alongside of each gun. Sergeant Clifford also noticed that brickbats were piled around the edge of the roof, with the evident intention of throwing them down upon the militia on the streets. In descending to the ground floor, Clifford encountered in one of the small rooms a hard-looking citizen, who he promptly ordered to throw up his hands. On being searched, the man was found armed with an old powder-and-ball revolver, of 38-caliber, which was taken away. This Sergeant Clifford still retains as a memento. In addition, twelve pistols were also found in the different rooms.
While the search was going on inside, Private O’Brien had a thrilling experience on the outside. Just above the bakery is a small alley running perpendicular to Second street, and as far as K. Here a number of strikers were gathered. These, Private O’Brien, assisted by a private from the Third, ordered back into the alley, and told them to keep moving until they reached the street a block above. The strikers moved back. But when they were about seventy-five yards from the corner, and near to the street above, they halted and faced about. Then, drawing revolvers and leveling them at O’Brien and the man from the Third, they yelled for them to get out of the alley.
The bluff didn’t work worth a cent. O’Brien merely seized a chair, and, placing it in the middle of the alley with its back toward the strikers, straddled it, and then, resting his arm upon the back of it, he drew a bead upon the strikers. The situation remained unchanged for a minute or so, when the strain proving too great for the strikers, they turned, fled up the alley and disappeared around the corner, shaking their fists and hurling imprecations at O’Brien as they did so.
The crowd that thronged around the lines of the sentinels at this place was much larger than it had been at the former place of search. The blockaded streets were the principal thoroughfares of the city, and many persons in the crowd were prevented by the blockade from transacting their regular business. Some of these became extremely angry at being stopped. One old, irascible gent, wearing a silk tile, which gave him a sort of a professional appearance, on being told that he could not go through the lines, but that if he had any business to transact he would have to go back and pass around the block, became very indignant at the thought that he, an important personage, should be treated like a common, everyday individual. He had to go around the block, just the same.
The bakery having been thoroughly searched, and the “spoils of war” deposited upon the truck, the sentinels were withdrawn and companies again re-formed. The march was then taken up and continued down L street. Soon, Company B detached itself from the column, and, turning to the left, marched to the Golden Eagle Hotel, where an excellent dinner awaited them.
The search, judged from every point of view, was a complete success. That it was a surprise is evidenced by the fact that no attempt was made to remove the weapons from any of the buildings. The probabilities are that the strikers had no idea that a search would be instituted, and further, that they did not become cognizant of the movement until the searching party stood before their door. One thing, above all others, did the result of the search tend to show, and that is this, that the strikers, if not as a body, still to a considerable number, were prepared and really intended to engage in an actual conflict with the troops.