Hellraisers Journal: The Denver Post: “Siberian Exiling Scenes Re-Enacted at Telluride” and News from Cripple Creek

Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 20, 1904
News from Colorado Strike Zones of Telluride and Cripple Creek

From The Denver Post of January 15, 1904:

SIBERIAN EXILING SCENES.

Telluride, Colo., Jan. 15-Tears, curses, maledictions and prayers were heard at the depot this morning when the train pulled out of the station having on board six union miners, who were being deported by the military. The men were given breakfast early, the meal being served from the Sheridan hotel, after which the wife of one of them was reluctantly permitted to visit her husband in jail. At 8 o’clock a bunch of blue-coats, under the command of Captain Scholz, marched to the court house and the prisoners were taken to the county jail and formed into line, ready for the march to the station.

A woman with a small child attempted to fall in line with her husband, but was brutally prevented by the soldiers, who forced her back on the sidewalk. With a face drawn with bitter agony and grief she endeavored to keep up with the soldiers as they marched down the streets, but the prisoners had reached the train long before she had gone a block.

At the depot the men were immediately put aboard the train and two soldiers stationed at the car windows. The relatives of the men were allowed to talk to them, and for a moment the air was filled with tearful good-byes and well wishes.

Fifteen minutes before the signal was given to start three women came running down the track. One of them , a Mabel Marchinado, a mere girl, hardly 17 years old, weeping bitterly, rushed over the icy platform to the window in which one of the men was sitting, and exclaimed: “oh, papa, what are they going to do with you?”

Her father, Tony Marchinado, endeavored to comfort her, but the girl continued sobbing pitifully. The sympathy of the entire crowd at the depot went out to this girl, and some turned away. Then the soldiers ordered her to move on.

The girl suddenly ceased weeping and, turning to those standing, and in a voice loud enough for the military to hear, said: “I think it’s living shame for men living in this country to be treated in such a manner.” She was not arrested.

The woman with the small child in the meantime reached the depot almost exhausted. She purchased a ticket and boarded the train on which her husband was about to be sent into exile. She cried bitterly and her baby was blue with cold. “I am too sick to work and look after our baby alone, and I am going with my husband, if it means the jail.” she moaned. If ever volumes of mute sympathy went out from a crowd, it went out greater as she bent down her head and fondly kissed the lips of her offspring, in vain endeavor to hush its cries from the biting cold. It was by far the saddest incident yet recorded in the military occupation of Telluride and the subsequent deportation of striking miners…

[Emphasis added.]

The names of the six deported men are: Tony Marchinado, Tony Sartoris, Louis Sartoris, F. W. Wells, Matt Lingol and Battiste Monchiando.

—————

News from Strike Zones of
Western Federation of Miners
at Telluride and Cripple Creek

Friday January 15, 1904-Denver, Colorado
-Report from the Colorado Federation of Labor, Special Convention:

Mrs. Emma F. Langdon of the Typographical Union, delegate to the Special Convention of Colorado Federation of Labor reports on yesterday’s events:

A committee of the State Federation of Labor called on the governor [January 14th] and made the following requests:

That the troops be withdrawn.
That the vagrancy order be rescinded.
That the deported men be allowed to return to their homes.

The governor gave a specific reply. He promised “justice” to all the miners, etc.

The report of the committee was made by Chairman Thos. Hyder, who spoke of the governor as “wearing a smile that never comes off.” Among the things the governor offered against the Telluride miners was that he had “only deported foreigners, ex-convicts, etc., most of whom bore assumed names.” The writer, at the very moment the chairman of the committee was making the report, had the honor of occupying a seat next to Guy E. Miller, president of the Telluride union, who had been deported by order of the “czar.” I made inquiries of Mr. Miller, ” Guy” as he is commonly called, as to his convict number, and also as to what his real name was, but for the reason that at birth he had been christened Guy E. Miller and for the additional reason that he had never been to the penitentiary I could obtain no satisfactory reply to my question.

While the committee was still reporting the good promises made to them by the “czar of Colorado,” how each and every man would have “justice,” etc., there came a message to the convention from the Cripple Creek district that Sherman Parker had again been arrested by military and again confined in the Military prison. The message aroused the indignation of every delegate in the convention….

Guy E. Miller made a motion that the convention wait upon the governor in a body and demand the release of Parker. The appeal made by this loyal union man, who had suffered arrest three or more times, incarceration in the bull pen and finally deportation, will ever remain fresh in my memory; the eloquence of his address not having been surpassed by any orator I have ever heard…The motion so ably placed before the convention by Mr. Miller lost, and a committee was appointed to see the governor [this] morning.

Sunday January 17, 1904-Denver, Colorado
–Colorado F. of L. Endorses Mrs. Langdon’s History of W. F. of M. Strike

Before adjourning, the Special Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor unanimously adopted this resolution which was introduced by John Oliver of Denver Typographical Union No. 49:

Resolution

Whereas, Mrs. Emma F. Langdon, representing Victor Typographical Union No. 275, in this convention, when the employees and editorial force of the Victor Daily Record were thrown in the “bull-pen” for defending the rights of organized labor, in an effort to compel the suspension of that paper and throttle the friend of organized labor in that district, did jump into the breach, and alone and unaided did issue the paper; and

Whereas, Mrs. Langdon is now compiling a comprehensive history of the strike in the Cripple Creek district, which will be a true and concise resume of events from its inception to the close of the aforesaid struggle, be it

Resolved, That this convention does endorse said history and recommend the same to the public in general and to organized labor in particular, so that they may know the facts as they exist.

Monday January 18, 1904-Victor, Colorado
–Mrs. Morrison Dragged from Her Home by Militia, Marched to Victor

Yesterday militiamen commanded by Lieutenant Gunn paid a visit to Independence where they surrounded the home of Mrs. Mart [Matt] Morrison. She was home alone at the time. Nevertheless, when they demanded entrance, she opened the door. After searching her home, the lieutenant questioned Mrs. Morrison. Not caring for her answers, the lieutenant had Mrs. Morrison seized and dragged from her home, during which act of “military necessity,” her dress was torn. She was not allowed to change, and, in that torn dress, she was forced to march on the road all the way to Victor where she was charged with disturbing the peace. She was later released by Colonel Verdeckberg, but, to the best of our knowledge, was not provided transportation back to her home in Independence.

From The Scranton Republican of January 18, 1904
-Ex-Congressman John M. Glover Taken to the Bull Pen:

CRIPPLE CREEK, Col., Jan 17.-Ex-Congressman John M. Glover, who had a battle royal with the militia in this city on Dec. 20 and who was wounded in the left arm, arrested and paroled and who surrendered his parole by sending a letter to Colonel Verdeckberg and was arrested and placed in the county jail, was taken last night to the bull pen at Camp Goldfield.

Mr. Glover issued a statement saying that Governor Peabody could imprison miners and obscure men by falsely charging them with crimes but that in the effort to advertise the prisoners as criminals the governor would advertise himself a liar.

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SOURCES & IMAGES

Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM
Autobiography Chp 13, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/13/

The Denver Post
(Denver, Colorado)
-Jan 15, 1904
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C7581AC4BD0728@GB3NEWS-133D9F39C94D2638@2416495-133D977D71F73AB0@12-133D977D71F73AB0

The Cripple Creek Strike, 1903-1904
-by Emma F. Langdon
Victor, CO, 1904
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/mode/1up?view=theater
p215: Denver Post: “Siberian Exiling Scenes”
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/215/mode/1up?view=theater
p201: “Committee Calls on Governor Peabody”
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/201/mode/1up?view=theater
p201: Resolution: Colorado F. of L. Convention Endorses Langdon’s History of Cripple Creek District Strike
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/201/mode/1up?view=theater
p224: Summary of “Law and Order” Necessities
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/224/mode/1up?view=theater
p227: “Courteous Treatment of a Lady” (Mrs. Morrison)
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/227/mode/1up?view=theater