“For weeks the community has suffered from the lawless acts of men who had no respect for law and order, and who strongly had no respect for human life. Scarcely a day passed in which one was not assaulted, and one died on Thursday as the result of a beating. How far this condition would have gone I can not say had it not been stopped by Sheriff Martin and his deputies at Lattimer. It resulted only after we felt our lives were in danger. The strikers were far in excess of us in numbers and came toward us in an ugly threatening manner. Sheriff Margin met them and he was assaulted. A shot then came from their ranks and one of us was hit. I did not hear Sheriff Martin give the order to fire, but it was given, and we, fired only because our lives were in danger. ”
- an unnamed deputy, report to the Dallas Morning News on September 13, 1897
- an unnamed deputy, report to the Dallas Morning News on September 13, 1897