The times., 1898-11-18
sJtB MEN FOR MONEY.
Stories of Brutality ON the Lower
Potomac Oyster Beds.

Potomac Oyster Beds.
II the story told by three battered,
bruised hungry and Ill clad young Ger
mans. who applied to Capt. Cutler. sup r
intendent of the Municipal Lod sing
House. for lodgings. be true. the days of
traffic in human beings still exist. at
least along the Potomac River.
Footsdre and weary. Otto Kralle. six
teen ye4rs Sf age; Ernest Flaum, eight
cen years old, and Charles Essrig. twen-
| ty-one years of age, walked into the
Municipal Lodging House last evening
about I o'clock and asked for lodgings.
The story told by them In broken Eng
| lish was narrowing In the extreme. and
| had more the smack of the tales told of
| the treatment OF colored slaves aboard a
| trader before the Civil War than a recital
of the hardships aboard a Potomac River
| oyster boat.
According to the story told by Charles
| Essrig. who spoke English more fiuently
than the others, they all arrived in Nor
folk. Va, October last aboard the Ger
man sailing vessel Mabel. They came.
he said, from Thurgia. From Norfolk
| they made their way to Baltimore. where,
on October 25. they shipped as help
| aboard an oyster schooner. which. he
thought, was called the Was. and the
| captain OF which, he believed, is named
| Jean.
Kralle, the youngest of the three. from
what could be learned, was not large and
strong enough to do the work required By
Capt. JEAN" of tis crew. and after he
had been beaten with cubs and iron RODS
to compel him to do the same work as
the other members he was sold for 50 to
capt. Alonzo Lee" the master of an
other oyster boat.
Kralle said he remained with Capt. Lee
for thirteen days. but being too light 10
| do the work required there he was re-
turned to Capt. Jean. who refunded Lee
his purchase money. on his return to the
schooner Villas Kralie says he was
given another sample of Capt. Jeans
methods of getting work out of his crew.
When he failed to do his task his hands
were tied together with a rope, the end
of which was attached to a windlass,
which was then put in motion. His limbs
were stretched and while in this position
he said his body was beaten black and
blue and his face was pounded.
The story of the treatment Of the others
| was similar to that told by Kralle, differ
punishment. Wnen the schooner Villas
reached Cedar Point on Monday night.
Essrig says he and Kralle and Flaum
were called on deck by the captain
and run ashore on the Virginia side of
the Potomac.
Robert Maybury. another member of the
crew. who Joined the vessel with them.
was also put ashore. He went to Phiia-
| delphia while the others came here.
When they were directed toward Wash
ington they started to walk here and
Tuesday night slept in the woods. on
the following night. however, they were
given shelter and food by a farmer about
twenty miles from this city
Essrig said that the boat on which he
and his companions shipped at Baltimore
was oyster schooner No. 9S, and that
Capt. Lees boat was No. -.
The unfortunate men were made as
comfortable as the surroundings would
permit by Capt. Cutler last evening. This
morning he will assist them in gaining an
audience with the German ambassador.
Robert Johnson, who shipped at Balti-
more with; Capt. Tom Evans, aboard the
oyster schooner Colonel Nelson also
spent last night at the Municipal Lodging
| House. He had a hard story to tell of
| his bad treatment while on the river.
He and two fellow members of the crew
were. he said. pat ashore about ten miles
below Mathias's Landing, on the Poto-
mac, at a, M, on Tuesday last John
son said that Evans refused TO pay them
any wages for the time they had worked
aboard the schooner