The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-27
FACTIONS IN A Fight.
Boston Democrats
Have a Riot at
Headquarters.
ACES AND FURNITURE BROKEN.
)ne of the Contestants
Borne Out on a
Stretcher.
ACES AND FURNITURE BROKEN.
Especial Dispatch to The spy.]


Boston, Oct. 26.-Fhe dogs of war
we're let loose with a vengeance at dem
)cratic city committee headquarters in
his city this morning.
A more graphic reproduction of the
amous Donnybrook fair scenes was
never enacted. 1t was the slogan of
both sides, wherever you see a head,
hit it,
The widest kind of an uproar marked
the encounter. 1t was a fight for SUI
premacy between the supporters of Cen
Patrick A. Collins and Hon. John r.
Murphy, rival candidates for the DEM
ocratic nomination for mayor.
Few contests in Boston have brought
out bitterer manifestation of feeling
than this one and as the time drew
near for filing nomination papers at
headquarters, the tension became so
great that all hands knew that some
thing was bound to break before long.
To be the first in filing papers was
the aim of both factions. The Muir
ply men, fearing that some Napoleon
among the Collins forces might spring
coup detat on them, spent the whole
night outside headquarters, waiting pa
tientiy as hour after hour was tolled
from the tower clocks. Headquarters
would not open until o'clock this fore
noon. but the Murphyites feared that
if they were not on the ground, the
Collins men would jump in and score
a victory in the battle for first blood.
Gen. Collins had scouts out watching
the Murphyites doing their little drill
and when the scouts saw the move to
pre-empt the stairway, they went
around the corner and did the merry
"Ha! Hal" up their sleeves.
With the speed Of British couriers
rushing the Boer picket lines, with dis
patches from the front safely tucked
in their pockets, these scouts FASTENED
back to Gen. Collins headquarters and
made a report.
Instantly all was excitement. Some
of the more hot-headed Of the Collin
ties were for maneuvre in imitation
of Gen. Grant by making an immediate
advance on the enemy's lines, but there
were a few Won Moltkes in the crowd
that suggested the use of strategy as
a better weapon to Outgeneral the Muir
ply forces.
The Collinsites had plenty of artil-
lery and could probably have stornIed
the heights ON which the Murphyites
were entrenched. but this would entail
trouble and result in many head be-
ing broken 1t would be more spec
tacular, to be sure, the Won Moltkes
argued, but it would simply be playing
into the hands of the Murphyites who
would fight all the more determinedly
when they knew that the enemy was
bent upon dislodging them.
| Strategy prevailed after the council
of war and plans for carrying head
quarters quietly and without the knowl-
| edge of the Murphyites, were consid-
cred.
Just how it was done, is a mystery
at this time but the Colinsites man
out knowledge Of the Spartan force
without. 1t was like the surprise of
Leonidas at Thermopylae
AS bad luck would have it, one of the
Collinsites inside had the asthma and
he whee2ed so loudly that the Murphy
lites began to suspect that rodent was
within smelling distance. This was
/ confirmed when the asthmatic moved
across the room. Then the Murphyites
opened the kennel door and forth
walked the dogs of war, their teeth
exposed menacingly.
Some one took fright and sent for
the police and squads were dispatched
with more precipitation to headquarters
than British forces are to the seat of
war in the Transvaal
The police managed to keep the
until 8 O'Clock this morning. 1t was
herculean task, but for once in his
tory, the heroic spectacle was presented
of policemen on duty with their eyes
open and their brains active.
That blood was to be split was GER
tainty from the temper displayed by a
faction without and the faction with
in. At 8 o'clock, impatient to get in,
the Murphyites. at signal from the
ringleaders, gave a whoop and dashed
in the door.
Every man on both sides who was not
armed with a good pair of fists, by
some strange combination of circum-
stances had either a club or black
jack. Several hundred were mixed in
the melee and often 1t was a case of
friend hitting friend. There were black
eyes, bruised faces, clothes in tatters,
collars and ties torn so that they re-
sembled shredded wheat, sprained arms
and legs and blood galore The police
said it was one of the hardest battles
to suppress since the famous riot on
Deer island down the bay
One man, named Joseph Hankins,
was so badly battered with a black
jack that he had to be borne out on a
stretcher.
A Dutch democrat who Mapped along
as Hawkins was being taken out de-
scribes the situation in this picturesque
but graphic style:
1T vos like peing caught midout an
umperella ven der rain id vos some vet
ness"
Speaking of the condition of Hankins,
he said: His face id vos a painful
ness vor him ter wear id, like der
trousers of der small poy, ven Ply his
fadder ter der wood shed he vos daken
vor some spankngs, und der drunk
strab makes some motions.