Page:Anti Chinese Riots at Seattle.djvu/5

 The first day of November came, but the Chinese remained.

On the third of November, the Chinese in Tacoma were forcibly expelled. They were driven out of their habitations in a pitiless storm and remained unsheltered on the prairie south of Tacoma until in some manner they were provided with transportation by railroad to Portland. The day after their expulsion the buildings which they had occupied in Tacoma were burned. The fires were started by citizens of Tacoma and there was a large gathering of people watching while the flames were accomplishing destruction.

President Cleveland issued a proclamation commanding all people to observe the treaty rights of the Chinese inhabitants, and he also sent a part of the 14th U. S. Infantry under command of Col. de Russy to Seattle, where they remained for a time.

At a meeting held in the Bijou Theatre a few nights before the outbreak, one of the leaders disclosed their purpose and declared it to be not only to drive out the Chinese, but to burn the City, take what goods they wanted from the stores, break open the banks and take the money therein; that it all belonged to them and that they would drive out all the white Chinese who opposed them.

The following morning, ten or a dozen men met in some office on the west side of Front St. I led off by making the first talk, saying that we were going to have to face a vicious mob, that I was not going to be run out, that I was going to stay here and favored organizing a force of 25 men, arming them with breech-loading guns and going out and standing off the mob. All present agreed to this and adjourned with instructions to go out and gather in men for the force.

Subsequently we assembled about 80 men at the fire engine house, armed them with breech-loading guns and they organized by making me Captain. All the men loaded their guns at that time, with the understanding that they were to use them on the mob in self-defense and enforcement of the law. This force was called the “Home Guards.” It had been arranged to give signals when the mob had begun the attack.

On Sunday morning (Feb. 7th), about 11 o’clock, the old University and M. E. Church bells sounded the signals. At a meeting the previous evening a committee had been appointed to take charge of the removal of the Chinese. They proceeded to the Chinese quarters with wagons, ordered the Orientals to pack up, then, with the aid of the rioters, placed them and