Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1890-08-26
TAR AND FEATHERS.
How Bentley Was Called
Out Of His House
And Made to Suffer Gross
Indignities.
He Tells his Tale of Woe on the
Stand.
Taken Out Into the Brush, Inundated
With Revolvers, and Covered With
Feathers, Like Bird.

alton of the six youthful defendants,
who are charged with having tarred and
sfeathered Editor Bentley, of the Azusa
Ne,Ds. Many new witnesses for both
sides were marshalled in and sworn.
One old Quaker would not swear. He
affirmed, but the affirmation of Justice
Savage which he was required to repeat
did not suit him, for he added with evil
dent gusto: ''Under the pain and penal
ties of perjury" The witnesses were
then put under the rule and excluded
from the court room until needed.
The theory of the defense, as briefly
outlined by the attorney for the defen-
dants, is that the matter of the school
scandal and Professor Frazier, had moth
ing whatever to do with the indignities
offered Bentley, but that the outrage was
the outcome of the irrigation and water
district troubles at Azusa, and that con-
,sequently the accused, who were not
interested in these matters, had nothing
whatever to do with the night attack
upon the editor. The testimony of Mr..
Bentley is directly to the contrary. 1t
is plain and unvarnished tale.
George Bentley being placed upon the
stand said: 81 have lived in Azusa over
two years and am the editor of the
Azusa Ne,cs. 1 am acquainted with
Eclces, Cummins and Monkey, but 1 do
not know the other three defendants,
live at Covina. On the evening of the
Sth of August was at my home with
my wife, at the corner of Fourth street.
AT 8 80 some party came to the sidewalk
and called out 'Ho Mr.. Bentley! Come
out, want to see your l put on my
shoes. l was in my shirt sleeves, with
the sleeves rolled up. Thinking it was
friend, l went out. A man stood near
a gap in the hedge. 1t is about so feet
from the house. The man placed a re-
volver to my head and said: Your hands
up or your life!' 1 was solidly grasped
and showed through the opening
in the hedge, where five more men:were
hidden. A gloved hand was placed over
my mouth, giving me no chance to call
out. was marched down little ways
when all six exhibited revolvers and
continually threatened my life if
dared to speak. They rustled me down
country. Opposite Mr.. Jenners' house
between the Holiness church and Mr..
Huber's they took me into the brush.
w uClI bllCy CIOPpCu lllCy d ClIClC
around me and the captain of the band
ordered me on my knees. AS I did not
Immediately comply they pushed me
roughly down. The captain said: we
are the Azusa vigilance committee.
You have been publishing articles re-
fecting on the character of Prof. Frazier,
our teacher, Mr.. Clapp and the girls of
Center school house. 1 was then
asked by the captain if wrote the
articles in question. replied no. With
the revolvers pointed at my head I was
made to repeat the following oath: L
swear that l will never again publish
articles or accusations against Prof.
Frazier or the young ladies of the
Center school, They then in
quired who was the author
of the articles, and upon my refusal to
answer made me say at the point of
Two of the band were then ordered to
remove my shirt, and with my undershirt
they tied my hands behind my back,
giving me severe pain. They yanked
me on my feet and spread their stuff all
over met was tar They covered
me with it from the waist up. They
poured it on my head and it ran into
my eyes. Their next proceeding was
to cover me with feathers. My over
shirt was next pulled over my face,
One of the six young men became
tickled at the sight and chuckled-'He
is pretty Bird amt hep This was
Monkey. The captain replied holly
Shut up your mouth. damn you, or I'll
shoot you' l was then marched to
little clubhouse of the Holiness church
where was locked up. The men held
council. One of them was left in charge
of me with orders to shoot me down if l
moved. Four of the others left and the
captain then opened the door, saying
4 am sorry it happened, but we had to
do it, 1 recognized the voice
as that of Arthur Eccles. He said,
AYou will have to remain here five
minutes; then you can CO. After a
while looked through knot hole, but
saw no one. / could hear them riding
down Azusa avenue. 1 now left the
place and went directly to Mr.. Huber's,
who united my hands. He looked at
the time it was 10: 10 p. m. From
Huber's we went to Wells, where they
set some water to boil and cleaned me
off with coal oil. The operation lasted
till II O'Clock. When / reached home,
took another wash and finished my
mail There was no moon that night,
but the stars were out. All of the six
men wore cloth masks which went
down as low as their mouth. I recog-
nized the features of Eccles and Cum
Minis, Eccles was the captain and
spokesman. Part of the time he
talked plain English and part of the time
he used an Irish dialect. The others
did not speak out loud, but whispered.
Two of the men who took the principal
part in the outrage, were nearly six feet
tall, and stoutly built. One of these
was the captain, aud the other one was
the one with the glove"
Mr., Bentley's shirt and undershirt,
richly bedaubed with tar, were here
introduced in court as exhibits, and
Immediately the whole courtroom began
to smell like Philadelphia shipyard.
The witness then described the appear
ance of the other four men engaged in
the outrage, who were all much smaller
than Eccles, and appeared between
eighteen and twenty years old. The fol-
lowing morning Mr.. Wells found a pair
of gloves in the brush near the scene OF
the tarring and feathering. One of them
was plentifully besmeared with tar and
was recognized as the one which had
been held over the witness mouth.
The witness stated that Immediately