OCR Interpretation


The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, March 21, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 13

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-03-21/ed-1/seq-13/

What is OCR?


Thumbnail for

"DRUNK WITH AUTHORITY,"' SAYS JOBLESS
ARMY HEROINE CLUBBED BY EfcEPUTiES
San Francisco, Cal., March 21.
"They were drunk with authority,"
says Mrs. J. S. Wightman, evangelist
and heroine of the jobless army that
was forcibly ejected from Sacra
mento, capital of California, recently.
Mrs. Wightman is scathing in her
denunciation of the manner in which
a thousand members of the army of
idle were ruthlessly beaten and man
handled by citizen-deputies in the
bloody "Battle of the M-St. Bridge"
when, in driving them from the city,
these defenseless men were forced to
run a gauntlet of clubs, pick handles
and gun butts.
"The line of deputies extended
three deep for about seven blocks,"
said Mrs. Wightman, "and these un
armed, helpless, ill-fed men were
forced by water from a fire hose and
by the pick handles of the crowd to
run this gauntlet while each deputy
took a whack at them. Many fell
senseless from blows over the head.
"This uncalled-for bruta.Jity in the
'Battle of thje M-St. Bridge' will al
ways be a red stain on the citizenry
of Sacramento. The city police were
not nearly so brutal as the irrespon
sible deputies who struck men wan
tonly across the face or back without
giving the slightest thought to the re
sults of their blows,
"When the battle was over two
men, Stewart and Browp, were miss
ing. Their fate is unknown. . A boy
was knocked into a caldron of hot
soup during he fight and burned so
badly that he may die.
"My daughter was beaten across
the back with a pick handle during
the assault and later, when she at
tempted ,to cross the M-St. bridge
that spans the Sacramento river to
get to the unemployed camp, a citizen-deputy
leveled a shotgun at her
chest and ordered her back.
"We were both in the Sacramento
camp of the jobless army. During
the attack, I, also, was' struck. Bricks
were rained upQi.merand several in
flicted -painful -bruises. -
"Through all the trouble Hhe un
employed" army was gentlemanly.
Charges -that they were. abusive are
false. Even those citizens who
Upper, ' Miss Lulu Wightman, ana
below her mother, Mrs. J. S. Wight
man, both of whom were beaten by
citizens ot Sacramento, California's
capital.

xml | txt