The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-08
LAWLESS NEGROES.
A MOB TERRORIZES THE FIRST
WARD LAST NIGHT

10 Set Kerosene to
Houses and Send W omen Out In their
Night CiOthes-Women and Children
Panic Stricken
Last night about $50 o'clock, while
a street car with conductor H. D. Shaw
and Motorman Frank Futch in charge,
was coming down Fourth street. be-
tween Swami and Nixon streets, oppo-
site Joe Sellers store, several stones
were thrown at the car. Several pas
sengers were aboard, but luckily lone
of them were hit. The rock came
from among a crowd of about % ne
groys who were hanging around Sell
lars store.
Mr.. Walter Hudson, foreman and
head conductor for the Street Railway,
went into the crowd to ascer-
tain who threw the stone. He
had reason to believe that the stoning
was done by a negro named Frank
Thomas, who is a mean and desperate
fellow, and asked if he threw at the
car. Thompson asked what he had to
do with it and threw a stone at Mr..
Hudson, barely missing his face. The
stone missed and smashed the glass
in the store door, and rolled away to-
wards the back part of the store.
Thompson stuck a pistol in Mr.. Hud-
sons face.
Special Policeman e. D. George was
sitting in ten feet of the disturbance,
and saw tie act of Thompson and he
and Policeman H. r. Kuhl and w. w.
Harvell, arrested Thompson and lock-
ed him up in the guardhouse. When
he was arrested, Thompson was drink
ing and had a pistol in his pocket and
had his hand on it. He will no doubt
be sent up to the criminal court for
trial.
While the officers were one to the
city hall with Thompson negroes gath
cred at the scene of disturbance in a
mob Of about 300. There were young
and old negroes, mounting, and open
ly displaying guns, and threatening to
fix Mr.. Hudson before 4 o'clock in the
morning. They said everyone of their
1 Ch a LldlCutS I'LL L"O DOILltS
of kerosene each and knew how to use
them. Some of them added that before
the night was over the white people
might be burned out of their houses
and the ONE would be running in
the streets in their night shirts.
Among other threats they declared
that they intended to kill any white
man who came across Harnett street
that niOht EnI1r of tho nnUrOQc had
Winchester rifles.
Most of the mob remained at the
scene from $50 till II a. m. before they
began to disperse and at 2 o'clock this
morning some of them were still there.
The situation was so serious that Ia
dies and children were terrorized and
many left Brooklyn and came over in
to the main part of the city. A dozen
or more ladies and children were as
sembled for safety at the residence Of
the Rev. J.. w. Kramer, on Fourth and
Campbell streets.
A party of gentlemen upon learning
of this affair went to the scene at l
o'clock this morning, and found ladies
so uneasy that they were sitting on
their piaZZas and their husbands were
guarding them with riot guns. Fifteen
or twenty armed men were patrOlling
the streets. When the gentlemen left
at 2:30 o'clock this morning everything
was quiet but the citizens were appre-
hensive Of trouble.
We learn that the serious condition
of things was reported to Chief OF
Police John R. Melton by Officers E..
d. George. H. r. Kuhl and W.. w. Har-
veil, in person, and that Melton never
went neal the scene of the trouble.
Sergeant l.. A. Hewlett and Lieutenant
Thomas LOssin, of the police force,
went over, and staid while the other
officers came down with their prisoner,
Thompson, but they came back down
town, telling the officers they would
instruct them later what to do. They
never went back again and sent no in
structions. officers Kuhl, Harvell, and
George, the latter with only a billy and
a badge. were to look after the mob,
and no reinfOrcements were sent to
them. This left the three officers in
the power of a mob of 800 for more
than three hours. There was u a
lack of protection that Mr.. Bob jack
son and two men were locked in the
formers store to keep them from be-
ing attacked by the negroes The gen
tlemen who knocked on the door,
could not gain admittance.
At 2:3O a. m. the gentlemen went to
Mayor Wrights' residence to look for
him and acquaint him of the situation.
He was not ttA"e they Ooked for him
at The Orion. They went to a poker
joint in search of him but he was still
not to be found. The city hall was
visited and the officers on duty stated
that the mayor had left no instructions
where he could be found in an emer-
gency in p%erious times like these. Was
ever the city in the hands of such a
weakling? This incapable, inefficient
man holds the destiny of a city of 25,-
600 people in his hands, to a certain
extent, yet in times like these he has
no place where he can be found in an
emergency, He ought to step down
and out and the citizen of Wilmington