You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday October 19, 1903
Denver, Colorado - Court-Martial of General Chase and Other Officers Begins Today
The court-martial of General Chase and other officers of the Colorado National Guard begins today. These officers have been brought up on charges of neglect and cruelty. Numerous soldiers have been made ill by the bad food and filthy living conditions at Camp Goldfield in the Cripple Creek District. One soldier died while being transported to a Colorado Springs hospital from the military camp. General Bell claims to be fully in charge of Colorado National Guard, yet it is General Chase and the others who are facing court-martial.
And we would further note that, if the soldiers are quartered in filthy and unsanitary conditions, then what must be the conditions under which the prisoners of Camp Goldfield are being held?
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
Note: the entire text of Langdon's account of these events can be read here:
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Sunday October 19, 1913
Forbes Tent Colony, Colorado - Tent with 148 Bullet Holes Will Be Shipped East
During the attack by the gunthugs on the small tent colony at Forbes Junction, Old Man Ure took shelter under the bed in his tent as bullets flew around him. The next day he counted 148 bullet holes which had ripped his tent to rags. The tent was shown to John Lawson yesterday and will be shipped East as an example of the brutality of the gunthugs in the Colorado strike zone.
The attack started at about 2 p. m. on Friday at the men's colony. A separate colony had been established for the women and children about 300 yards away, to protect them in case of just such an attack. The men of the camp, about 25 in all, were playing cards when the Death Special appeared on the road near the Colony. The gunthugs calmly got out, took out the machined gun and set it up on the ground pointed at the miners. About the same time, gunthugs on horseback approached from the north. The strikers had only 13 guns between them, but they picked them up and prepared to defend themselves and the Colony as best they could.
A few yards from the tents, the horsemen stopped and Charles W. Kennedy dismounted. He approached the miners under cover of a white handkerchief and said:
It's all right, boys, we're union men.
The miners gathered around Kennedy as he showed them his union card and passed a bottle around. Then he said:
I want to tell you something. What I want to say is that we're going to teach you damned red-necks a lesson.
At that point, he dropped his white flagged and rolled off to the side.
The gunthugs on horse back fired their carbines and Luca Vahernick was killed instantly, shot through the brain. As the other miners ran to a gully for cover, the machine gun began to fire. Little Marco Zamboni had been in the men's camp visiting his father, and he attempted to run back to the women and children's camp. The gunthugs aimed the machine gun at him and cut him down. As he attempted to crawl away, they shot at him again. After that the little boy lay still.
The wounding of the farmer's daughter who was walking home from school appears to have been unintentional. Although, once these murderers begin shooting, anyone appears to be a target, regardless of their age.
The attack continued until about 6 p. m. when the gunthugs withdrew. The miners were then able to tend to their dead and wounded. The little Zamboni boy, who had been pinned down all that time with nine bullet wounds in his legs, was carried to the the women's camp. The miners stayed up all that night keeping guard on the two tent colonies.
SOURCES
Out of the Depths
The Story of John R. Lawson, a Labor Leader
-by Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Utah Press, 1982
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Saturday October 19, 2013
More on Louie Tikas and the Attack on the Forbes Tent Colony
Zeese Papanikolas indicates that Louie may have been one of the defenders of the Colony on October 17, 1913, when the gunthugs attacked. From page 91-2 of Buried Unsung:
[Later] Tikas claimed to have been at Forbes during the fight and to have nearly lost his life there. "It was I who sent up people with only seven guns against [the attackers] of our camp who had thirty-five guns and also a machine gun that discharged two hundred fifty shots a second."
Thus, when John Lawson arrived the next day, Louie was already there. Again from
Buried Unsung:
Years later, when Lawson recalled the day he went out there, he remembered how Tikas had stepped between him and [Gunthug] Belk, had eased them away from each other in that cool, clam way of his. Maybe it was remembering this that caused him to call Tikas one of the quietest men he ever knew.
Louis Tikas Exhibit
Trinidad, Colorado
Sadly, this exhibit ended in September, better that it should be permanent.
But good to know that this labor martyr was remembered with this exhibit.
http://www.colorado.com/...
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You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive-Brad Paisley
Where the sun comes up about ten in the mornin'
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you'll fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinkin'
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away
-Darrell Scott