"

He further states: "At Jefferson Square I saw a fatal clash between the
military and the police. A policeman ordered a soldier to take up a dead
body to put it in the wagon, and the soldier ordered the policeman to do
it. Words followed, and the soldier shot the policeman dead."

Among the many stories of this character on record is that of a
concerted effort to break into and rob the Mint, which led to the death
of fourteen men, who were shot down by the guard in charge. They
had disregarded the command of the officer in charge to desist. They
disobeyed, and the death of nearly the whole of them followed.

DEATH FOR SLIGHT OFFENSE.

As may well be imagined, the privilege given to fire at will was very
likely to lead to examples of unjustifiable haste in the use of the
rifle. Such haste is not charged against the United States troops, but
the militia and volunteer guards showed less judgment in the use of
their weapons. Thus we are told that one man was shot for the minor
offense of washing his hands in drinking water which had been brought
with great trouble for the thirsty people gathered in Columbia Park. It
is also said that a bank clerk, searching the ruins of his bank under
orders, was killed by a soldier who thought he was looting. More than
one seems to have been shot as looters for entering their own homes.

Among the reports there is one that two men were shot through the
windows of their houses because they disobeyed the general orders and
lit candles, and one woman because she lighted a fire in her cook
stove. Yet, if such unwarranted acts existed, there were others better
deserved. It is said that three men were lined up and shot before ten
thousand people. One was caught taking the rings from a woman who had
fainted, another had stolen a piece of bread from a hungry child, and
the third, little more than a boy, was found in the act of robbing
tents. One thief who escaped the bullet richly deserved it. He came
upon a Miss Logan when lying unconscious on the floor of the St. Francis
Hotel after the earthquake, and, rather than take the time to wrench
some valuable rings from her hand, cut off the finger bearing them, and
left her to the horrors of the coming fire.

The climax in the too free use of the rifle came on the 23d, when Major
H. C. Tilden, a prominent member of the General Relief Committee, was
shot and killed in his automobile by members of the citizens' patrol.
Two others in the car