The labour troubles at Homestead, Pennsylvania, are by no means
over, the union men still declaring that they will in some way or other prevent the employment of the non- union men who have been taken on, and who are now working in the mills. Two out of the three regiments of Militia have, however, been withdrawn, a sign that the authorities do. not now fear any violent action on the part of the strikers.. On Saturday last, an attempt was made to murder Mr. Frick, the manager of the Carnegie works, by a foreigner- named Berkman, which fortunately did not prove fatal. The assassin is probably connected with the Anarchists of Chicago. When the news reached the camp of the Militia, Private Jams, of the 10th Regiment, shouted, "Three cheers for the assassin !" The Colonel, who heard the shout, instantly paraded the regiment, and ordered Jams to advance. two paces. He was then ordered to the guard-house ; "the Colonel and staff, including the surgeons of the regiment, followed. Jame was then hung by his thumbs for thirty minutes, the surgeon keeping watch on his pulse and heart. When released, Jams was in a state of collapse, and appa- rently unconscious for some time." The offender's head was. then shaved on one side, he was stripped of his uniform, and drummed out of the camp." The severity of the punishment is said to have been due to the fact that Jams refused to. retract his lawless words. General Snowden expressed his approval of the Colonel's action, and though the-incident has created a certain amount of indignation, there has been_ nothing like the excitement that would, under similar cir- cumstances, have justly been felt in England. We cannot help strongly condemning both the use of a punishment which is pure torture—hanging by the thumbs, though it does no- actual injury, fills the body from head to foot with intolerable aches—and the infliction of any punishment without a court- martial. It is a pity that the wise and sagacious support always given by the Americans to military discipline should have been strained by association with an act so barbarous.
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