The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-15
THE POLICE CALLED.
Investigated Case in Which a Con-
stable Had Figured.

Bicycle Patrolmen Schroeder and Hauser
were called last evening to No. 623 North
Blackford street. and when they returned
they made a report to the superintendent
which said a constable from Squire Hay
court had broken in door at the house and
assaulted and choked Mrs. Sarah NJ Puggs-
ley, colored, while her furniture was being
taken away by the dealers from whom she
had bought it, she having failed to entirely
pay for it.
The house is in miserably poor neighbour
hood, where the buildings all look like ruined
barns, and No. 623 is like the rest A visitor
last night was admitted into room lighted
by the yellow Pickering flame of a lamp.
The floor was bare and the only furniture
was washstand and a stove the size of a
tomato can. On one side of the stove sat
Mrs. Puggsleys little children-a boy and a
girl-with their faces in their hands, half
asleep. The woman lay on a mattress on
the floor, and by her side were two children,
whose mother Mrs. Della Southall, had re-
sponded to the knock at the door DR.. Fur
Miss was bending over the woman on the
floor, asking her questions about her cond-
ton. Mrs. Southall told the story of the
alleged assault.
u was washing clothes in the back
ROOM" she said "and l heard a knock at
the door, 1 went out and saw two or three
men at the door and wagon in front. One
OF the men asked me if / was Mrs. Puggs-
ley, and told him no, but that Mrs. Puggs-
ley was inside. Mrs. PuggSley in the
front room, and this man went in and told
her he was a constable and had come after
Ter furniture. She said the room was not
Eers, and said she would go into her room.
She went through the hall into her room,
and he followed her. She slammed the door
behind her and locked it, He called to her
nj ir1u
With him not to take her furniture away
from her. She said she could pay for it in
a short time, He told her he would break
the door down unless she opened it, She
did not open it, and he threw his weight
against it, breaking the lock. The furniture
men came in and began to take the bed out.
Mrs. Puggsley was going after them, but
the constable caught her, and when she
struggled he put his hands around her throat
domen with his knee The furniture men
took out the bed and the chairs and the
table. I tried to help Mrs. Puggsley, and
the constable scra tched my hand His
Eame was Frank Glaze, or Glass.
Mrs Puggsley was moaning that the con-
stable had wrenched her back. An abscess
on her throat was just healing, she said,
and the constable, in choking her, had hurt
it. DR.. Furniss said he had been treating
had kicked her that her condition was the
worse for 1t. She was not in serious con-
dition, he said. The children corroborated
the story about the assault
The furniture was bought of the Dugan
Furniture Company, No. I'll East Washing
ton street. The price was $13 and Mrs
Puggsley said she had paid all but s. of the
amount. She became sick and could not
continue work but the furniture company
she said. would not give her more time to
will not be returned to her, she said, because
the company had made a contract with her
that provided that the money paid on the
furniture should be considered rent and
would be forfeited unless the whole amount
were paid.