Anderson - Horrors of history: massacre of the miners

C OVER PHOTOS

Courtesy of the Librarian Congress

C HAPTER 1

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60427]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60475]

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60470]

C HAPTER 2

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60384]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60547]

C HAPTER 3

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60388]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60564]

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

C HAPTER 4

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60380]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60372]

C HAPTER 5

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60404]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60555]

C HAPTER 6

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60544]

C HAPTER 7

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection [x-60548]

C HAPTER 8

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

C HAPTER 9

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library,Western History Collection [x-60482]

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library,Western History Collection [x-60399]

Courtesy of the Denver Public Library,Western History Collection [x-60447]

E PILOGUE 1

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Dedicated to the innocents who lost their lives on April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado

Copyright 2015 by MTM Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

MTM Publishing, Inc.
435 West 23rd Street, #8C
New York, NY 10011
www.mtmpublishing.com

President: Valerie Tomaselli
Series creator: Hilary Poole
Project Adviser: Thomas G. Andrews
Designer: Annemarie Redmond
Illustrator: Richard Garratt
Copyeditor: Hannah Mahoney

Published by Charlesbridge
85 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472
(617) 926-0329
www.charlesbridge.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, T. Neill.
Horrors of history: massacre of the miners / T. Neill Anderson. pages cm
Summary: Young Frank, his father, and the families of all the Colorado miners on strike in the Ludlow tent colony are uncertain of their fate when the camps guards attack during the Ludlow Massacre of 1914.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58089-520-0 (reinforced for library use)
ISBN 978-1-60734-786-6 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-60734-711-8 (ebook pdf )
1. Coal Strike, Colo., 1913-1914Juvenile fiction.
2. Strikes and lockoutsCoal miningColoradoHistoryJuvenile fiction.
3. Coal minersColoradoHistoryJuvenile fiction. 4. Ludlow (Colo.)HistoryJuvenile fiction. [1. Coal Strike, Colo., 1913-1914Fiction. 2. Strikes and lockoutsColoradoHistoryFiction. 3. Coal mines and miningColoradoHistoryFiction. 4. Ludlow (Colo.)HistoryFiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Massacre of the miners.

PZ7.A5516Hq 2015

813.6dc23 2014015800

Printed in China
(hc) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Display type set in Cracked and text type set in Adobe Caslon Pro
Printed by Jade Productions in Heyuan, Guangdong, China

My dad got his gun out, and the shells were flying all around our heads. I wanted to go with [him]. We were out of the tent, and I wouldnt let him go. I hung onto him.... I knew my dad was going to be killed. They were going to murder all of us.

Helen Korich
(The Marat Moore Collection. Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University.)

Tuesday, April 21, 1914

THE SUN ROSE, CASTING GAUZY shards of light over the smoldering ruins of the Ludlow tent colony. For the past seven months, the camp had been home to more than a thousand people, but now it was in ashes. Most of the tents had been reduced to skeletal remains: charred frames, mangled bedsteads, and coiled springs. Some tents still burned; laundry still hung from a clothesline. Flocks of chickens clucked, and a wet, soot-covered Saint Bernard, bleeding from one ear, skulked down one of the paths between tents. Its tail smacked against the charred frame of a baby carriage as it passed.

Militiamen moved among the few tents that remained standing, looting what few valuables they could find: silverware, bicycles, bedding, tools, and jewelry. A series of rifle shots rang out from the hills outside the camp, and the militiamen dropped to the ground. A few moments later the shooting stopped, and they returned to their work, dousing the tents with coal oil and setting them aflame.

At the front of the colony, in the second row from the road, a disheveled woman gasped as she crawled out from under the floorboards of a burnt tentonly the frame of it remained. She clambered out of one of the many pits that had been dug under the tents as hiding places for the colonys women and children. Dazed and coughing, she looked up and saw the militiamen scouring some tents nearby. She dashed in the opposite direction, toward the arroyo, covering her head for fear of being shot. One of the militiamen caught sight of the woman and set out after her.

Please! she shouted, waving her hands above her head. My children! My children!

The man laughed and stopped in his tracks, peering into the pit she had just vacated. Your children better scat out of here like their mama, he shouted after her. This is our camp now.

She fled, skirting two bodies lying on the ground. Shielding her eyes from the wreckage of the camp, she continued south and escaped the scorched colony.

The militiaman stood at the dark mouth of the underground hideaway as two of his fellow militiamen approached.

Im sure she wasnt the only one in there, he said. Shall we see?

After you, one of them replied.

He slowly stepped down into the pit and shone his torch in front of him. On the second step he stopped and sucked in his breath.

On the dirt floor in front of him was a jumble of charred clothing and the twisted, lifeless bodies of two women and almost a dozen children.

Sunday, April 19, 1914

OK, GATHER ROUND, EVERYONE, Louis Tikas said. Weve got a special Easter present for the ladies.

A crowd of men and women was gathered outside a large tent where many of them lived, on the south end of the Ludlow tent colony. It was a day they had been looking forward to all week: Greek Easter.

Louis clapped his hands and repeated his plea to the women. An enthusiastic rumble surged among the other Greek men standing around him. Some of them held tin cups of beer; others were bent over and fillingor refillingtheir empty cups from the two barrels that had been brought in for the days celebration.