Page:Van Cise exhibits to the Commision on Industrial Relations regarding Colorado coal miner's strike.djvu/8

7318 did the best he could to dissuade and quiet them. It was then that he, called Maj. Hamrock by telephone. Returning to the group of Greeks, he told them that he must go to the station to see the major, and got them to promise that they would do nothing until his return. Tikas met at the station Maj. Hamrock and the woman who had written the letter and who complained that her husband was being held a prisoner in the colony.

Tikas recognized this woman, and he then stated that he knew her husband, who had been in the colony on Saturday but was no longer there.

During this conversation at the station the first detachment from Cedar Hill arrived on Water Tank Hill, and their officer Lieut. Lawrence, galloped down to the station and reported to Maj. Hamrock. In the meantime the Greeks continued talking together in the colony, awaiting the return of Tikas.

Three women, who had been sent to the store near the station, returned excitedly to the colony, and called the attention of the Greeks to the arrival of the troopers on Water Tank Hill. This was enough to set the smoldering fire aflame. The Greeks, confirmed in their belief and consumed with a suppressed thirst for battle, forgetting their promise to Tikas, seized their rifles and defiled from the colony across the country to the right of the K to a railroad cut on the Colorado & Southeastern tracks, affording excellent cover for delivering a rifle fire onto Water Tank Hill. These Greeks, as nearly as we could discover, were estimated variously in number from 35 to 50 men. Their march across the country was in plain view of all save the major, Tikas, and Lieut. Lawrence—talking in the station.

At the same time there left the colony a much larger number of men of other nationalities, armed with rifles, going northwest to the arroyo crossed by the steel bridge at the foot of the K. This group was never observed by any of the soldiers and their taking position in the arroyo was related to us by civilians.

Lieut. Lawrence, having reported to the major, left to return to his detachment on Water Tank Hill. He had gone but a short way when he galloped back to the station and cried out: "My God, Major, look at those men; we are in for it," pointing toward the Greeks defiling toward the railroad cut. Tikas was the first to answer.

He immediately jumped up, saying "I will stop them," and, pulling out his handkerchief, ran toward the colony, waving to the Greeks to return. A civilian and union sympathizer who met Tikas as he ran, told us that he heard him exclaim: "What damned fools!"

Maj. Hamrock directed Lieut. Lawrence to return to his troop and await developments. After the lieutenant reached Water Tank Hill, and not before, the machine gun and remaining men from Cedar Hill arrived. Maj. Hamrock hurried from the station to his tents and reported the conditions to Gen. Chase in Denver.

While returning to his camp the major observed the women and children of the colony in large numbers running from the colony north of the shelter of the arroyo. This was observed also by the men in the tents, by the major's adjutant, Lieut. Benedict, and by the men on Water Tank Hill. All will tell us that the exodus of women and children was sufficient to account for all that were known to be in the colony.

Lieut. Benedict, observing the colony at this time through his field glasses, plainly saw Tikas leave and hurry toward the Greeks, now nearly arrived at their intended position. Tikas was carrying a rifle in one hand and a field glass in the other. It is evident that on returning to the colony and seeing the futility of preventing the outbreak, Tikas had armed himself and hastened to his compatriots. As yet no shot of any kind had been fired. In expectation of just such an attack, a signal had been devised. Two crude bombs were made of sticks of dynamite, and it was understood that if the colonists attacked suddenly, so that there was not time to telephone the various villages in the canyons or the wires were cut, these bombs should be exploded as a warning.

After telephoning to Denver the major caused these bombs to be set off, and, so far as we can learn, this was the first explosion of the day. We learned from the colonists that they were thought to be some new kind of ammunition or possibly artillery possessed by the soldiers.

In the meantime, while all this was going on, there were still but three men left in the soldiers' tents with the major, the rest continuing their routine duties at some distance, in apparent ignorance of what was happening.

In the meantime the men on Water Tank Hill were deployed as skirmishers, observing the advance of the Greeks toward their cover. The men almost