The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-16
Scenes at New Orleans Several Weeks
Ago Duplicated In Gotham
Streets Last Night.
SCORES OF BLACKS INJURED
SOME CEUBBED by 400 EXCITED
TAMMANY PATROLMEN.
Trouble Started by an Inebriated
Woman Who Was Attending Funer-
al of Murdered Policeman.

NEW YORK, Aug. ia mob of several
hundred persons formed at IL o'clock to-
night in front of the home of Policeman
Robert ]. Thorpe. Thirty-seventh street
and Ninth avenue. to wreak vengeance on
the negroes of that neighborhood because
one of their race had caused the police
mans death. Thorpe was stabbed and
bruised last Sunday night by several ne
groes while he was attempting to arrest
colored woman. The man who inflicted
most of the injuries is said to be Arthur
Harris, a negro who came here several
weeks ago from Washington.
In few moments the mob tonight
swelled to 1,500 people or more. and as they
became violent the negroes fed in terror
into any hiding place they could find. The
police reserves from four stations, number
ing four hundred in all, were called out.
The mob of white men, which grew with
great rapidity. ragged through the district,
and negroes, regardless of age or sex, were
indiscriminately attacked. Scores were in
iured. 1t took the combined efforts of the
reserves. with as many more policemen on
regular patrol duty in the four precincts,
to restore order. Clubs used until
the policemen were almost exhausted. Re-
volvers were emptied into the air and in
one or two instances fired at the upper
stories of the negro tenements, from which
the negroes defensively threw bricks, paw
ing stones and other missiles.
CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.
The trouble grew out of the death of
Policeman Robert ]. Thorpe. of the West
Thirty-seventh-street station as the result
of a murderous assault by a negro early
Sunday in Eighth avenue and Forty-frst
street Thorpe was attempting to arrest
negress, when Arthur Harris and another
negro attacked the policeman with razors.
He died the following day.
The policeman's death aroused the white
residents of the district. included from
Twenty-ninth to Forty-second street and
from Ninth to sixteenth avenues. Open
threats against the negroes were made and
the blacks replied in kind. While not con-
doning the offense of Harris, they insisted
that he was only one man, and that the
race ought not 10 be blamed for his action.
home tonight in Ninth avenue between
Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh streets At
once the house became sort Of shrine, and
from all over the vicinity men and women
called to pay their respects. Many carried
handsome floral offerings. AS the night
grew on the feeling against the negroes
seemed 10 grow. The fact that many sa-
looms round about were crowded had its
influence doubtless on the rising tide of
anger. a small group gathered about the
policeman's home, and Captain Cooney, OF
the West Thirty-seventh-street station
sent a small squad of men. Trouble was
not anticipated, however, and the squad
was more in the nature of a guard of honor
for their dead comrade.
few minutes before II o'clock an Irish
woman under the influence of drink came
out of the place. She set up howl and
began 10 recite the virtues OF the dead po-
liceman. She said the negroes ought to be
killed. Just then a young negro walked
by. The white men made a rush for him
and he was quickly surrounded He was
beaten and kicked and was rescued with
great difficulty. If there had been a care
fully arranged plot and this had been the
agreed signal the outbreak could not have
been more spontaneous. Men and women
poured by the hundreds from the neigfbor-
ing tenements. Negroes were set upon
CONTINUED ON SIXTH PAGE)