Wichita eagle., 1889-02-22
A BEAST OF PREY.
Angry Vicksburgers After the Life Of a
Would-be Rapist

VICKsBURG. Miss, Feb 21-Yesterday
afternoon Wesley Thomas (colored) at
tempted to criminaIly assault two ladies
at point barely outside the city limits,
but was prevented by another negro
named Jake Littleton, who shot and cap
tured Thomas and held him until the
! arrival of officers from the city. The
negro was lying in wait for no person in
particular, it seems. He first accosted
| Miss Raft, who screamed and ran away,
escaping to place of safety. Hardly
minute afterward, and before Miss Raft
could give an alarm, Miss Katie Pinkston
passed and was at once set upon by the
ruffian. She resisted fercely, screaming
| for help the while. which finally came In
! the shape of Jake Littleton, who was on
the path few hundred feet away. He
ran to the spot from whence the screams
came and not knowing the nature Of the
assault, eXpostulated with the fiend, who
tore the cloak off the young lady. She
ran to an adjoining negro cabin where
| several negro women were. Thomas strug-
| gled loose from Littleton and pursued the
| flying girl, swearing he would accomplish
his purpose.
The negro women protected Miss Pinks-
| ton with clubs until Littleton who follow
ed. had arrived when he grapsed Thomas,
who struck him with an iron instrument
LittletOn then drew his pistol and fired on
Thomas, the bullet striking him in the
forehead II fiattened itself against the
nesro's skull and knocked him down.
Littleton then tied the scoundrel securely
and delivered him to the officers.
Thomas was jailed but as two prisoners
have been taken from the jail here and
hanged within the last two years the dep
uty sheriff spirited the prisoner away a
few minutes after he had been incarcer-
ated.
AS soon as the nature of the crime be-
came known last night crowd visited the
jail and were disappointed in finding the
negro gone. A searching party was at
once formed. If Thomas is in the city he
will be found and hanged. Men of high
standing are in the movement and swear
the young woman will never have to tes-
tify in court against her assailant.
THE "ELECTRlC SUGAR" REFINERY.
NEW YORK, Feb. 2l.-The secret cham
Der of Prof. Friend, located in his electri-
cal sugar refinery in Brooklyn was ex-
plored yesterday by reporter, who was
the first stranger to cross its mysterious
portals. The following is a description of
1t: There are two doors to this room, an
outer one leading into an ante room, and
then the inner door These doors are
each about two feet thick. They are
lined on the outside with two thick
nesses of sheet iron, especially ham |
mered and prepared for Friend. Inside
of this comes great blocks of gnarled oak |
laid so that the grain of no two blocks |
run IN the same direction. Then came |
transverse bars of iron, then more wood, |
and then another thick sheet of iron Next !
to this iron was more oak, and then on |
tie inside was iron sheetings. The whole |
mass was bound together by bolts as thick |
as ones wrist and the front of the doors |
was all studded over with iron nails which |
looked like spikes. Along the sides of the |
secret room were long tables covered with |
zinc. Upon these tables the electric sugar |
which had been brought up in the |
machinery cases was spread out and |
as the sugar was of character to |
stick as a solid mass it had to /
be broken up. The tables Were used to
break it on. In the center of the room was
a large quartz sugar crusher. The sugar
was thrown into this and crushed. 1t
passed through to the floor below where it !
was sifted in the granulators and dropped
into the tubes whence it rushed to the
stockholders whenever there was a dem
onstration. The factory has five engines,
two dynamos to furnish electric light, two
boilers, two pumps and one large injector
There is not Il floor that does not possess
its own heaters and electric lights 1t is
thought that at least S125000 of the COM
panys money went into this factory.