The evening world., 1894-09-15
FOUGHT A BIG NEGRO.
1t Took Five Policemen to Over
power the Man.
officer Hayden Struck with a Brick
Durins the Melee.
Ninety-seventh Street the Scene of "A
Furious Encounter.

There was fight in Eas'
Ninety-seventh street late last
night. For awhile 1t looked as
though It would be serious matter.
But when 1t was all over, and burly
Charley Daven had been locked up, 1t
was found that the most serious damage
done was to Policeman William j. Hay
den. He had been struck with brick
and had to be taken to Harlem Hos
pital. The prisoner was badly battered
up, for resisting arrest, the police say.
In the centre OF the block Is concert
hall. kept by Council Il Willett, which
fiourished under the name of the Happy
Hours" In the rear of the saloon Is
large room, where negroes gather every
night and sing and dance.
In this back ROOM two negroes got
into an altercat ton just before midnight.
From the concert hail. they fought into
the street. and when Policeman Keller
hurried to the scene, attracted by the
cries of some hundred people, the men
were struggling with each other three
doors away from the saloon.
From this point the story of five police
men and that told by number of eye
witnesses differ widely.
Keller and his associates say that they
had a frightful time. When Keller rushed
up, he says, he separated the lighting
men. one of them showed fight, but the
a big fellow, grappled with the pClcen an
and the two were soon rolling over aId
over in the street.
Keller says he blew hi swh!stle, as he
was getting much the worse of the fight
and Policeman Hadden came up on run.
BY this time the crowd blocked the street
completely
ting the handouts on the negro Just ms
brick came flying through the air and
struck Hayden on the right side OF tn,
doubtless saved his life, for i wa.
deep cut in his head. During the res
Of the fight he sat on nearby step In
The negro, SCENIC that there was now
only one policeman, handcuffed though
he was, recommended the fight, whei
| four other policemen rushed up. They
were Daily. Eggers. Phillips and Moore
The combined force succeeded In over
towering the man and dispensing The
the East One Hundred and Fourth Stree
Police Station. He gave the name o
Charles Daven, said he was thlrty year
seventh street. policeman Hayden wa
taken to the Haralem Hospital At frs
1t was thought his skull was fractured.
! The version OF Otner eye Witnesses q
til, affair. both negroes and whites, !.
not the same. They say that when Pc
liceman Hayden had been struck by th'
| brick, and the four otners had come up
| Daven was handcuffed in hallway
where the fight had ended. Then tn
prisoner was brought out into the stree:
and the, policemen tok turns In brutallS
| beating him.
his handcuffed hands, they allege, bui
could do little more than utter appeals
for mercy, mingled with bitter oaths
Every time he turned his head to utter
would strike him in the face. This, the
witnesses say, continued all the way tc
| the station-house
Further than this. 1t was said by hall
a dozen persons who claimed to have
| been on the scene before the arrival o.
the policemen, that they arrested an In
nocent man. That the man who Is now
locked up was staEding near by and was
bounced upon by Policeman Keller Will,
| The two men were fighting and that H.
arresting an innocent man he allowed
/ the guilty ones TO escape. Daven strug
gled in self-deferse.
During the past year the Homer estate
has erected four large lighthouses ii
| Ninety seventh street. near Second ave
nue. They soon found that the houses
had been built in the wrong place. The
people who moved into the houses re-
manned but "A short time, as the nightly
scenes of disorder was more than they
| could stand.
The patromen on the post were begged
to keep the street quiet, and to subdut
some of the disurderly doings. Theil
reply was that they could not, and ad
vised a visit to the station-house.
To the station house the representa-
tive OF the estate went. When he re-
turned, he was more disheartened thar
I ever He reported that the sergeant tC
whom he had complained told him that
| he ought to have rected four churches
/ instead of four fat-houses.
/ The representative of the Homer estate
| hints that as he cannot get protection
from the police he may call the coditior
of the locality to the notice of the Grand
Jury.