Fierce Battle with Police.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 November 1911, Page 4

Fierce Battle with Police.

One of the most sanguinary battles in the history of Kentucky blood tends occurred recently at Pikeville, a little town at the foot'of the Cumberland Mountains, just on tho Virginian border.

I Kentucky and Virginia have long I'bcon noted for their savage vendotj ta.s, and tin' affair was <luo to an outbreak between two families named Smith and Barnet, who are notorious for their hereditary fowl. The actual, cause of the affray is not clear, but it is said to have been duo to insulting language used •by one of the Banicts about one ot the .Smith women. Tho Smiths at once gathered their supporters and descended upon their foes. A fierce battle with knives and revolvers followed in the lower stretches of the Cumberland 'Mountains, with the result that man ywere killed and injured. It is reported that a. dozjn were slain, but as the combatants carried off their dead and wounded the casualty list cannot bo considered official. The Barnits were routod, but the police, who had been summoned at the first intimation that the hereditary foes wore on the warpath arrived in timo to save them from annihilation. The Barncts, however, seemed by no means grateful for the intervention, and when, in response to a summons to surrender, the bnutlis and their allies retreated tlo a tarmhouso, some of the Bursts accompanied them. The force of the Smiths, who had suffered heavil.v in the fight, were reduced to nine members of the ? ei? + 7 f n lnly fl and one George fcmith. They flatly refused to surrender and defied the officers to arrest them. They barricaded themselves in the Denny's home am \ beat off several attacks. Reinforcements wero summoned, and the police attempted to storm the farm-house, with disastrous reSi h iy nn ' ee named Lcelie Colhns, and fienry, were ehot <lead, and a number of others were wounded, some of them fatally. The defenders are still 'holding out and as they are well equipped? wiiSi'. firearms and ammunition further blood-

Local feeling is entirely against SifSf"-.Wamnce on the scene something, n the way of "interference with :tho liberty of the As proving th, queer nature of these lneds it js stated that one of the defenders of the farmhouse is a fe! male nvinbcr of the Bamet Jam-

The police Lave t telegraphed to Lojiisvjllo lor military assistance as they are menaced by a general rising of the old "vendetta; faSe?' ZPSmnyf thC beleaguercd Smiths