The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-16
TAX SCR AMPLE OVER WITH.
Wild Scenes at the Court House During
the Last Day of Registration

]
The last grand rush took place at the
| court house yesterday morning. AS was
BETTING such series Of spectacular ex-
hibitlons. the finale was a grand one. The
workers of both sides congregated in front
| Of the Drayton street entrance to the
number Of three or four hundred.
BY $50 o'clock a thousand or more spec
tators had gathered to witness the exhibit
tions which they knew would be the last
! Of its kind for some time to come. Dray-
ton street was black with people for half
! a block on each side Of the court house.
\ There was just dozen policemen on hand.
/ Lieut.. Reilly had hoped that this number
l would be sufficient, as he desired TO give
1 the men who had been on continuous duty
I for forty-eight hours or more a chance
/ to rest. When It was announced that the
/ door was about to be opened there was
/ rush and a jam and the alcove at the
! Drayton street door was packed with a
] mass of struggling humanity in less time
| than it takes 10 tell it, The workers on
each side realized that 1t was the last
/ day for such work and that IL was the
work which was done in the morning
which would count the most Consequently
/ both sides were making desperate effort
| to get the front of the line.
Lieut.. Reilly was afraid that with his
small force of police he would not be able
to control the crowd after it had been let
into the court house, and that the workers
might do each other some serious damage
! in their competition for places. on this
| account he decided to call out the reserve
and restore order before opening the door.
| Mounted Officer Mcguire, who was on
| hand, was sent to the barracks with a
message to the chief to send out the re-
serve at once. The reserve responded to
the order in short time and appeared on
the scene thirty-fve strong. Lieut. Reilly
ordered them to clear the place without
| ceremony and the police went at their
| work with hearty good will Policemen
1 are only human and they were doubtless
glad to get a chance to get even with the
people who have been causing them so
I much trouble for the last several days.
They waded into the crowd right and left
with their clubs. Many stalwart worker
went down before their blows and there
were many sore heads last night as the
result
1t took the police just about a minute
/ to dispense the crowd. Mounted Officer
| Mcguire rode into the crowd from the
rear, hitting right and left with his club
| When the melee was over one man was
found lying on the ground. He had a black
eye one ear was almost torn off and he
was otherwise badly used up. Nobody
seemed to know him. except that he was
rage by the Myers men and sent off to
have his wounds dressed. Instead of go
ing to bed he came back to the court
house and made a general nuisance of
himself, being drunk as well disabled.
After being put out several times by
the police he was finally sent off by Lieut.
Reilly with orders not TO return again. 1t
was charged that he was knocked down
and run over by officer Mcclure. The
police asserted that the man was drunk
before he was injured and that his injury
resulted from striking his head against a
stone when he was knocked down in the
rush.
After clearing the sidewalk the Drayton
street door was opened and the workers
dashed in. The first three men in line
were James Ballantyne, Frank keenan,
and James Mcbride Jr., all Duncan work
ers. After them the crowd seemed to be
pretty evenly divided, each side claiming
to have the most men in line. The work.
ers wer very sore at the manner in which
they had been handled by the police, and
made many threats of getting even. The
police had some trouble in keeping them
in order after they first got in, and several
of the most obstreperous had to be put
out. One worker who is employed in
barroom, declared that he would put
opium in their whisky the next time the
police came around for drink
The usual programme was gone through
with. The workers were supplied with
coffee, beer and sandwiches, and as they
got near the door of the tax collectors
office means were found to slip them list
of names with money to pay taxes. Some
times IL was a special delivery letter, and
sometimes the worker received his list
enclosed in a sandwich. Many of them
were evidently worn out with their weeks
work, getting up early in the morning and
standing in line all day. 1t was no I'M
common thing to see a colored man fast
ag1a in, line with hi Oh
against the wall.
Interest in the tax paying dropped off
toward the afternoon. Most of the
crowd left the court house for the pre-
cincts where they might be useful in drum
ming up voters and helping out their
friends in case of a scrap. Both sides
seemed to have about exhausted their
lists of names and money seemed to be
running short, too, there was really
very little left to interest the workers
Before o'clock there were more police
in the corridor than there were men in
line. Yesterday was the only day of the
week in which every man who took his
place in line in the morning and stuck
to it succeeded in reaching the tax collec-
tors Office. Only few late Corners were
shut out.
Probably not more than 800 polls were
paid during the day. The work proceeded
very slowly, because many of the names
presented were not on the collectors
books, and much time was lost in looking
them up.
1t was reported that burly worker who
had been provided with a list of names
and $50 in cash pocketed the money and
walked out of line. The money had been
handed him surreptitously and it would
be difficult to prove that he received it.
so that the parties who furnished 1t were
helpless. The worker had evidently sized
up the situation and calculated that 500
in hand was better than a promise of s.
a day.
Janitor Donovan had a force of hands
at work last night cleaning the spattered
and filth begrimed floor of the court house
corridor, and he hopes to have it once
more in a presentable condition by to-
morrow morning. Tax Collector MCGOWAN
will take days rest and then set to work
to catch up with the large amount of prop
erty taxes which have been awaiting his
attention. He is about a week behind 1t
will be safe bet that there will not be
a dozen poll taxes paid this week, except