Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1900-07-27

1
in the city.
NEW ORLEANS, July 26.-Wild reports
are reaching the police headquarters
from various sections of the city giving
information of the beating of negroes.
Work on the levee, where negro labor
is largely employ ed, has been suspended.
The big grocery and produce houses are
also practically doing nothing because
they cannot get their drivers to risk
their lives.
NEW ORLEANS, July 26.-All night,
and up to $3.50 O'Clock, mobs ran riot
through this city on hunt for negroes,
and those unfortunates who fell into
their hands were either killed or so bad
ly wounded that they were left for dead.
After the mobs got started the negroes
became terrorized and took shelter in
their homes and the outhouses of white
people who protected them, so it was
only the unsuspecting and inoffensive
negroes who were the victims.
The police were powerless. AS fast
as they apparently dispersed a crowd in
one section it only reformed and moved
to some other point to continue its devil
ish work.
The mobs were composed almost en-
tire1y of boys under 81 years of age and
they had no leaders, but acted on a
common impulse. The movement started
from a gathering of men at the Lee
statue. Being ordered to d1sperse, the
crowd moved up st. Charles street,
gathering force as it went and gradually
becoming infiamed to the point of de-
struction. It was not until after they
had stopped in Morris square, near the
scene of the assassination of Captain
Day and Officer Lamb, that they listened
to speech from man ha1llng from
Kenner, and then started out to waylay
the negroes.
Three White Men Shot.
Most of the negro population had
taken warning from the excitement of
the night before and kept in doors, but
there were some returning to their
homes from work and it was one of
these who was the first victim. He was
in o. crowded Henry Clay avenue car,
near the square, and when the mob saw
him they rushed for the car and dragged
him out, firing one shot in the car. He
turned out to be Alexander Ruffin, a
Pullman car porter, and was badly used
up He was cut and shot and beaten
over the head There was another ne
gro with him in the car who hid under
the seat and after the car had started
they discovered him, but they could not
catch the car.
j. Cluny, the conductor of Peters
avenue car, was shot in the foot on
Franklin street and the car riddled with
bullets.
f. O. Davis, the motorman on the
same car, was also shot in the foot
Frank Shepard, a white man who was
in the crowd, got bullet through his
right arm.
Coming down to Jackson avenue they
met T. p. Sanders, the negro porter of
the Post g Bowles insurance agency.
He had heard the indiscriminate shoot
ing and stepped outside of his gate to
see what it was about. He stepped into
the arms of the fiends and they made
short work of him. They stabbed him
and shot him in the back and took his
watch. They left him for dead.
A dozen or more went out further into
the rear of the town and met a" negro
woman named Esther Fields standing
in her door and brutally beat her.
:. Looting Begins.
The main crowd continued on down
town, heading for the parish prison.
They were met block away by squad
of police, who stopped, them. They
| then began breaking into the second
hand stores on Rampant street in that
neighborhood hunting for arms and am
munition. The police made a feeble
demonstration and scared them off. At
ter lingering around Rampant street for
an hour the mob divided, one section
going down.to and the other starting
back up town. The latter crowd started
for the new basin in the vicinity Of the
Illinois Central depot as that is popu-
lar rendezvous for negroes. Before they
started they INDUCED in little pistol
play and wounded Oswald Mcmahon, q
12-year-old boy, in the leg. The boy
had been following the crowd.
On the way up they went through the
Poydras market and found a negro
Waterman, George Morris, whom they
proceeded to chase through the market,
shooting him as he ran. When he fell
with two shots in the back one of the
young fiends stabbed him to finish him,
and nearly did so.
John Deeds, a white man, was shot
during the indiscrlminate shooting in
the Poydras market. They searched the
vicinity of the basin thoroughly and
failing to find any one, walked out to-
ward Franklin street where they passed
negro seated in front of a barroom
whom they promptly shot. He was Dan
White, a roustabout, and got bullet In
his right wrist.
About 1o'clock they headed for the
heighborhood' of Canal street and on the
way looted two second hand stores
They were trying to break into one place
and fired several shots into it with the
result that they wounded one of then
own crowd, man named John Doran
whogot bullet In the leg. They moved
on down to Canal street and at the
corner of Rampant started to break into
another second hand store, but patrol
wagon full of police came up and they
desisted. They stood there for half an
hour and then gradually melted away.
Terrible Execution.
The downtown mob, however, dld
terrible execution and kept up its tiend-
ish work until $3.50 O'Clock. A notorious
ol,aro ctaY. povoad Pena. Roses took the