The slaves of the South had enjoyed the right of petition. How could
these twentieth century miners anticipate that the sheriff would
massacre them on the highway for seeking to present a petition?
"Have you shot any one?" asks one of the deputies of his nearest
companion.
"Shot any one! Well, I should think I had. I've seen four drop. Here
goes a fifth."
To stand, to run, to fall to the ground, all are equally futile as means
of escape. Extermination is all that will stay the fire of the police.
Sheriff Marlin and Captain Grout stand in the middle of the road. Metz,
O'Connor, and Nevins, a mine foreman, are standing beside them.
O'Connor carries the white flag; Nevins the National emblem.
"Disarm those men," Marlin directs the Captain.
"Disarm them?" Captain Grout repeats, inquiringly.
"Certainly. They have sticks in their hands."
Two deputies, who have exhausted their supply of cartridges in their
magazine rifles, stop reloading and rush upon Nevins. They beat him over
the head with their rifle butts. The flag is snatched out of his hands.
O'Connor is dealt a blow an instant later.
The subjugation of the unarmed miners is accomplished.
One by one the Coal and Iron Police return.
Some of them bring in captives who have escaped death, but who still
have felt the sting of the bullets.
Of the sixty miners, twenty-three are killed outright; ten are mortally
wounded; twenty-one have less serious wounds.
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