Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-12
A VERY QUEER STORY.
A Black Ghost and White One Out Riding
in a Buggy-Omcers Suspended.

Black Ghost and a White One Out Riding
i'm a Buggy-Omcers Suspended.
Early yesterday morning a drunken
couple. as some say, in buggy created ex-
citement by reckless driving down Seventh
avenue. 1t is said that Officers Keller and En-
gleman successfully fired their revolvers, but
the occupants paid no attention, and not
only run the gauntlet of the police success
fully but passed the Seventh street bridge
officer who, they allege, also fired at them,
and finally disappeared in Allegheny.
1t seems that some fertile imaginations
developed the story until the occupants of
the buggy grew to be black man and
thinly-clad white woman, or couple of
spooks, or something else.
The police in general seemed to regard the
matter as something in the nature of fake,
but the officer on the Pittsburg end of the
Seventh street bridge veri6es a part of the
story. He states at 240 o'clock he heard pistol
shots in the vicinity of Penn avenue, and almost
Immediately after a spirited horse driven by
a black man shot out on the bridge. The Off
Ger called to the driver to stop and also at
pulled the lines hard and the horse struck a
Maud gait. and considerably inside of a
minute was at the other end of the bridge.
The bridge officer states that he did not see
aught he knows there might have been one
crouched down in the buggy, as he devoted his
attention to trying to stop the horse, but did
not as reported, shoot after the fugacious
The first report was sent in from the Four
teenth ward station house. Lieutenant Snyder,
of that district, reported to the station house
that he had met horse and buggy. containing
a white woman and a colored man, dashing
along Penn avenue toward the city at the corner
of Station street, and when he attempted to stop
rsr 10 ar1f had i'm
away. Some time later, Lieutenant
Fitzgerald heard the report and started to
meet the rig. He saw 1t approaching on Forbes
street. at Oakland, and running out to stop it,
received the same treatment that Snyder had.
He fired two shots after the buggy and called
for the driver to stop, but the horse sped on
and was not again seen until Officer Baltz at
tempted to intercept it at Pride street.
The next heard Of it was when Officer David
inston street. He followed it down Fountain
street to Seventh avenue, where Officer Manion
started in the chase, firing three or four shots
along the ground TO scare % the driver into stop
shots after the rig on Seventh street. The DO
lice on the Allegheny side noticed nothing out
The police investigation developed that the
woman was white woman, and was dressed In
white, as Office Baltz was close to the buggy as
it passed him. The officers in the lower part of
the city all declared that there had been no
woman in the buggy when they saw il. This
led to the supposition that the coIored
man had gotten the woman out of the
buggy after he went up Pride street.
woman was and have her located, but will not
tell until after they get chance to talk to her,
who she is. The theory of the police is that the
colored man is driver for a private family in
Allegheny and without permission he took his
employers buggy to give the woman a ride.
They were In the East End when the chase was
started, and the man did not want to be arrested
for fear of an Investigation and loss of his
situation. For this reason he made his hard
drive, got the woman into the house where she
is stopping on the hill, and then driving to Al
legheny put the rig away before he could be
located.
No report was made to the police inspectors
of the affair. and last night Lleutenants Fitz-
gerald and Snyder were suspended for this rea-
son. Other suspensions will probably follow.