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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 24, 1914
Jan. 22-Trinidad, Colorado – General Chase Orders Cavalrymen:
“Ride Down the Woman!”
The women of Las Animas County gathered in Trinidad on Thursday afternoon to protest the military imprisonment of Mother Jones. They came marching with their children across the Picketwire River bridge and headed up Commercial Street passing by the Columbian Hotel. These were the women from the strikers’ tent colonies and they came singing the strikers’ song: “The Battle Cry of Union.”
Their banners proclaimed:
God Bless Mother Jones
We’re For Mother Jones
As they moved past Main Street, they were met by General Chase on his cavalry horse, and behind the General were his cavalrymen. Behind them were the infantry blocking the street. Nevertheless, the women and children continued singing as they marched toward the brave General and his troops. The General began to yell, “Don’t advance another step. You must turn back.”
The General spurred his horse forward and brushed against 16-year-old Sarah Slator. He berated her, raised his foot, and kicked her in the breast. His horse backed into a buggy and the General fell off. The women began to laugh at the site of the pompous General on the ground beneath his horse.
The General regained his feet, red-faced and furious, and shouted to his men:
“RIDE DOWN THE WOMEN!”
The cavalrymen spurred their horses forward, waving their sabers about and rode straight into the women and children. Several women were slashed: Mrs. Maggie Hammons received a gash across the forehead, Mrs. George Gibson nearly lost her ear, Mrs. Thomas Braley’s hands were sliced as she covered her face. Mrs. James Lanigan was knocked to the ground, and 10-year-old Robert Arguello was smashed in the face. A cavalryman chased the flag-bearer, Mrs. R. Verna, down the street, knocked her down with his horse, and tore the American flag away from her.
Young Sarah Slator showed great courage when she challenged a cavalryman who was threatening a mother with his bayonet as she struggled to run with her three-year-old child in tow. Sarah said, “You’re so low you could do anything.” Sarah was among the six women arrested. Twelve men were arrested later in the afternoon.
Colorado newspapers are full of derision for the victorious General and his triumphant cavalrymen. The Denver Express reported:
Great Czar Fell!
And in Fury Told Troops to Trample WomenA craven general tumbled from his nag in a street of Trinidad Thursday like humpty-dumpty from the wall. In fifteen minutes there was turmoil, soldiers with swords were striking at fleeing women and children; all in the name of the sovereign state of Colorado…The French Revolution, its history written upon crimson pages, carries no more cowardly episode than the attack of the gutter gamin soldiery on the crowd of unarmed and unprotected women.
Newsclip inset from above: The Rocky Mountain News of January 23, 1914
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Photographs from Trinidad Protest of January 22, 1914:
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20380177/
Out of the Depths
The Story of John R. Lawson, A Labor Leader
-Barron B. Beshoar
Colorado Labor Historical Committee
of the Denver Area Labor Federation, 1942
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse
Jan 22, 1914, (per TCN, RMN, etc) Trinidad, CO-“Ride Down the Women”
-pages 131-5: re Gen Chase’s Troops attack women and children:
Sarah Slater-16, Mrs. Maggie Hammons, Mrs. George Gibson, Mrs. Thomas Braley, Mrs. James Lanigan, Robert Arguello-10, Mrs R. Verna, Young Woman with child, age 3.
-“Great Czar Fell! And in Fury Told Troops to Trample Women…lost his temper and cried, ‘Ride Down the Women'” per Denver Express
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/131/mode/1up?q=%22ride+down+the+women%22&view=theater
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/132/mode/1up?view=theater&q=%22the+women+sang%22
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/133/mode/1up?q=%22ride+down+the+women%22&view=theater
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/134/mode/1up?q=%22ride+down+the+women%22&view=theater
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/135/mode/1up?q=%22ride+down+the+women%22&view=theater
IMAGES
Jan 23, 1914 – RMN p1 – Sabers Slash
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C601A5C4B97518@GB3NEWS-1478F605C13207C0@2420156-1477664960360860@0
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C601A5C4B97518@GB3NEWS-1478F605C13207C0@2420156-1477664964866720@6
Photos: Women March & Cavalrymen “Ride Down the Women”
https://www.du.edu/ludlow/gall2c.html
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 21, 1914
Mrs. Gertrude Lee of Colorado’s Democratic Party Could Help Free Mother Jones
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado.
Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on mines and mining,
House of Representatives…pursuant to H. res. 387, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee…to make an investigation…
p987-998: Testimony of Sarah Slator
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hj1e84&seq=1001
Jan 22, 1914 – TCN p1 – re “Riot”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1914-01-22/ed-1/seq-1/
Jan 23, 1914 – NY Eve Wld p10 – re Sabers & Sec of Labor WBW
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1914-01-23/ed-1/seq-10/
Jan 24, 1914 – Labor World p1+3 – Military Seizes Hospital for MJ
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1914-01-24/ed-1/seq-1/
Jan 24, 1914 – Appeal to Reason p2 – “Mother Jones Jailed Again”
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/140124-appealtoreason-w947.pdf
Jan 24, 1914 – United Labor Bulletin p1- “Miners Send Greeting to Camp Angel’s Prison”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1914-01-24/ed-1/seq-1/
More re MJ from ULB of Jan 24, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?lccn=sn91052295&dateFilterType=range&date1=01%2F24%2F1914&date2=01%2F24%2F1914&language=&ortext=&andtext=&phrasetext=mother+jones&proxtext=&proxdistance=5&rows=20&searchType=advanced&sort=date
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
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The Women Marched Singing the “Colorado Strike Song”
The Union Forever – «Colorado Strike Song»,
από το μουσικό σχήμα «Ρωμιοσύνη»
Lyrics by Frank Hayes