Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-07-09
A CARVING SCRAPE.
SERIOUS AND BLOODY ARRAY OVER Al
MARTINS FERRY,
Ia Which Peni.sn6ary Birds Whisky, Wheel
ing Women and Butcher Knife Form
Component Parts.
Another case of ''almost tragedy" oc-
CURED over In Martins Ferry, Saturday

cuITcu OfcI III nAahtAh hSAayb
evening.
How nearly o trsgedy the occurrence
may prove has not been positively ascer-
tanned, on account of the sudden spiriting
away of the victim, but it seems, from the
information at hand, to be serious matter.
On Thursday, John Coss, better known
As ''Possum," was released from the Ohio
Psnitentiary, after serving a three years
sentence for breaking open q car on the
Panhandle railroad at Mingo Junction.
He was assisted in this job by
another Martins Ferry man named
Joseph Taylor, q son of Andrew Taylor, who
lives in little frame house on North Fifth
street near Walnut Grove. Taylor was
sent up for two years with Co.'s, his lighter
sentence coming on account Of his youth,
and the fact that it seemed that he was in
duced to assist in the job by Coss. "Pos-
sum" came home to Martins Ferry on
Friday, and Saturday commenced q drunk
with which to celebrate his return to free
dom. In this celebration he was Joined
| by Bill Mcknight, another former oceu-
pant of the Ohio Penitentisry, and young
man of considerable local reputation as
thief and hard case. Co.'s
called at q Martins Ferry hardware
store on Saturday and wanted to purchase
o revolver, but the proprietor, knowing his
reputation, refused to sell to him. Later
in the day, he and Mcknight and two or
three other companions came over to this
city, returning to Martins Ferry in the
evening. Coss had some money which he
had earned by working overtime in the
pen, and when the party returned they
were accompanied by woman or two from
this city.
Eight o'clock found the entire party, in
Guiding joe Taylor, his brother Andrew,
Stump" Taylor, and several Others
rendesouzed at the Taylor homestead, on
Fifth street. From that time till ten
o'clock, the party-except Coss, who had
departed-indulged in drunken hilarity
in Taylor's house. About ten o'clock Nc
Knight and Andrew Taylor had some
words concerning the noise, which Taylor
seemed to think was little too great for
safety, a. it was disturbing his neighbors.
Words led to blows, and Taylor claims
that while he and Mcknight were quar-
relling, q woman who accompanied Nc
Knight handed him q knife, with which
he cut Taylor in the sbdoman, inhicting
slight wound which bled profusely, but
amounted to but little, as it needed no
dressing. At hisjuncture Joseph Taylor,
the SON of the man Mcknight had cut,
took hand in the fracas, and somehow in
the melee isbbed knife into McKuight's
back. The knife used is an old carving
knife ground down to the proportions of q
very neat dagger, and made an ugly wound
about an inch in length and three inches
deep, between two of Meningitis ribs,
on the left side, about two or three inches
from the spinal column and little below
the middle of the back. Mcknight. &C
companied by friend, went to McSword's
drug store on Hanover street, where Drs.
ShuttIeworth and Hobensack happened to
be.
Mcknight was weak from the loss Of
blood, the path down Fifth street from
Hanover being spattered with the dripping
claret at inter walls of few feet. He lay
down in the store behind the prescription
case, and the medical men dressed his
wound. His cheviot shirt was solid mass
Of dried and clotted blood in the back, and
had the appearance of a journeyman butch
er's apron.
Mcknight seems to have suddenly gone
out OF existence, so far as could be
learned. He walked away from the
drug store, and none of the phyicians
have been called for since. A
knock ut the door of his home
yesterday morning failed to bring any
response, and his whereabouts is un-
known. 1t was rumored that he had been
brought over to this side, and was hid
den from the authorities 80 that he will
not he forced to tell who cut him, he and
the Taylors being great friends and the
Cutting scrspe only the result Of drunken
spree No arrests have been made 80 far,
and it is not probable any one will make a
complaint.
The facts, as outlined above, were learned
with great difficulty, yesterday, but the
story as given is believed to be correct.