Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-06-30

Mr.. J. w. Wick wire Nearly Killed by
Tramp i'm Assumption Parish.
Donaltlsonyille Chief.

Well huo"H III Wis vicinity, WHO tIHFelS
along the Mississippi and Lafourche
coast in q small liatboat he has fitted up
as residence and workshop, was as
saulted and almost murdered on his
boat, which was lying in front of Mr..
Joseph Davis place, on Bayou La
fourche, about nine miles below Donald
sonville. The circumstances OF the das-
tardly crime were thus related by Mr..
WiCkwire to q representative of the
Chief who visited him Monday evening:
"On Saturday, June 18th, % bnrly IT.
isbman, giving the name of John Miller,
came to my boat and told me he was sick
and hungry, having eaten scarcely any
thing for two days. | took him in
through charity and agreed to give him
his board, washing, tobacco and Is
cents o week until he could find work
elsewhere. He stole money from me on
Friday, but denied doing so when l
charged him with it, | told him to look
for work Monday morning. On Sunday
nearly every body in the vicinity had
gone to the baptising at Dckerson's
church, and there was no one on the
boat but Miller and myself. lay down
on my bed to read at about II o'clock and
soon fell asleep. was suddenly awak-
ened by blow on the head and saw
Miller standing over me with an TX;
heard him say, "D-n the luck" and at
once understood that he had aimed %
blow at my head and the AK had struck
the roof of the boat, breaking the force
of the blow and interfering with his aim.
He struck at me again and | threw up
both my hands, palms forward. The
blade of the TX tore the flesh off my left
hand, slightly hurt my right, and also
struck me across the nose and right eye.
He again raised the weapon and | got
into sitting position on the bed, with
blood running down my face and nearly
binding my eye. As the ax came down
the next time | caught it by the handle
and turned it so that the blade struck
me sideways on the abdomen
ON trying to wrench the ok from me,
Miller assisted me to rise from the bed.
He struck me three times on the breast
with his fist and finding that he could
not take the AK from me, let 90 his hold
of it and seized me by the throat, chok-
ing me so that could not breathe. At
tins moment he said, captain, give me
your money and | won't finish killing
you" These were the only words spok-
en- during the entire struggle. | could
not speak If | had wanted to, but by q
desperate effort | loosened his hold of
my throat and showed him backwards
eight or ten feet. Weak from loss of
blood and feeling as if about to faint, |
judged that my only chance for life was
to escape from the boat. tried to open
the door, but Miller had closed it with u
wedge ran to the window and found it
also fastened and the curtain drawn
down; rushing again to the door, sue
ceeded in getting it open just rs Miller
picked up tho ok and started towards me.
ran on the front deck and across the
deck plank to the shore, barely escaping
blow from the Ak aimed at my head
by my assailant. Miller followed me off
the boat and into Joe Davis yard, but
alarmed by my cries for help, he turned
and started up the road. | fell on Da-
Wis gallery, almost fainting, Frank Mar
tin, Charles Patterson and Charles Car
ter started in pursuit of Miller, and
were seen joined by others. Seeing the
crowd increasing, Miller turned and
came back, and pretended that / had
been attacked by an old colored man
who had passed by few minutes before
the assault. A Justice of the Peace and
Constable were sent for and soon arriv-
ed. Miller at first refused to surrender,
but couple of shot-guns and % pistol
were leveled at him and he was then Sc
cured and taken to Napoleonvillc."
Mr.. Wickwire is very seriously injured,
but is quite hopeful ..of recovery. His
worst wound IS the one in the abdomen.
He is receiving the best attention and
we hope to be able to report in our next
issue that he is rapidly improving. The
black hearted rutfian who committed
this dastardly assault was in Donald
sonville and vicinity several weeks ago.
He worked day or two on the new rail
road bridge, but spent most of his time
gong about and begging money, under
the pretense that he wanted to buy med
icine, instead of which all the nickeis he
could procure were spent for whisky.