The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-16
WHIPPED WITH a sTAvE.
George Thomas Given a Brutal Beat
ing by Apprentices at the Central's
Ghona

George Thomas Given a Brutal Beat
ing by Apprentices at the Centraps
Shops.
George Thomas called at the Office of
Solicitor General Fraser yesterday, and
told story of most brutal treatment
which he had received at the hands of
number Of apprentices in the machine
shops at the Central railroad, among
whom he had started 70 work.
Thomas applied for work at the ma
chine shops in the early part of the week.
He was sent by Supt. McNeely to Master
Mechanic Erwin, VINO sent him to Fore
man Bushard, Of the apprentice depart
ment. He was put to work Tuesday
morning with the other apprentices He
attended to what work was given him
during the day. Just after o'clock, when
the men were getting ready TO knock of
for the day, Thomas said he picked up a
piece of waste to wipe the grease from
his hands when he was seized by seven of
the men, and was told he had to be mi
tiated
Some Of the apprentices are men % or
"A years old. Thomas did not object to
I peing initiated, he said, if it were Gus
tomary, but he warned - men that they
must do him no violence. Nlti7tt that, he
says, they threw him down on the floor
IN the presence of Foreman Bushard to
whom be appealed not TO let them do him
any injury One of the men sat on b IS
head to hold him down. Another took
barrel stave, not from an ordinary barrel,
but from an oil barrel, which is more of a
plank. being almost half an inch thick,
and hit him three severe blows on the
back. Then another took the stave and
administered the same punishment.
Thomas says he does not know what
happened after he had been struck about
ten blows. He was unconscious from
that time. and could not tell how many of
the other men in the shop took hand in
the beating. There were dozen or more
In the shop. and it is supposed they a..
had hand in the whipping, with the ex-
ceptlon OF the foreman, who stood by and
watched 1t, and a young man named
Brown, whom Thomas says took no part,
and tried to persuade the others to let
him alone.
The men were somewhat surprised to
see that Thomas did not get up after the
ordeal was over. He lay on the floor in
an unconscious condition, and it was half
an hour before he recovered sufficiently to
realize what was going on. It was with
dlmcuIty that he made his way TO his
home at $50 Abercorn street. He was
confined TO his bed until yesterday morn
ing, when he went down to enter his COM
plant before the solicitor general. He was
advised 10 swear out warrants against the
men for assaulting him. He does not
know the names of those who were con-
cerned in the beating and knows them by
sight only. He says there were seven of
them that he knows of concerned in the
whipping, and thinks others took hand
IN 1t after he had been rendered uncon-
scious.
Thomas was severely bruised about the
face as well as on the back The bruises
on his face were caused by having his
head pressed down against the floor, one
OF the men holding it there by sitting on
1t. He can move around now with DIM
Guilty. His mother, Mrs. Mary p. Thomas,
and his friends were very indignant at
the brutal manner in which he was
treated. The matter will not be dropped,
as Mr. Thomas says he will swear out
warrants against the men as soon as he
can secure their names. He intended to
have done so yesterday, and went to JUS
tlce Warning Russell's ONCE for that pur-
pose, but being unable TO give the names
OF the parties he had TO wait until to-day
He says young Eddie Cohen, who went
there as an apprentice a little over two
weeks ago, was similarly treated, though
not so badly as himself. and that Cohen
lett his work day or two afterwards.