Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-07-27

Many Stores Were Looted by the
Marauders In Search of Arms and
Ammunitfon-Street Cars Held Up,
Negro Passengers Dragged off and
Beaten CONGRATULATIONS Killed,
Three Fatally Injured and Fifteen
Seriously Hurt.
NEW ORLEANS, July 26.-All last
night and up to o'clock this morning
mobs ran riot through this city on a
hunt for negroes and those unfortun-
ates who fell into their hands were
either killed or SO badly injured tina.
they were left for dead. After the
lnobs got started the negroes became
terrorized and took shelter in their
homes and the outhouses of white peo-
pie who protected them, so it was only
the unsuspecting and inoffensive ne
groes who were the victims.
The police were powerless, for as
fast as they apparently dispersed a
crowd in one section it only reformed
and moved to some other point to con-
tinue its devilish work.
The mobs were composed almost en-
tirely of boys under q 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, gathering force as it moved,
and gradually becoming inflamed to
the point of desperation. 1t was not
until after they had stopped in Nor
risOn square, on Washington avenue
and Franklin street, near the scene of
the assassination of Capt. Day, and Of
1cer Lamb, that they listened to a
speech from a man mailing from
Kenner, and then started out to waylay
the negroes. Many of the colored popu-
lation had taken warning from the ex-
element OF the night before and kept
indoors, but there were some returning
to their homes from work, and it was
one Of these who was the first victim.
He was in 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
Alex Ruffin, a Pullman car porter, and
he was badly used up. He was cut and
shot and beaten over the head. There
was another negro with him in the car
who hid under the seat, and after the
car had started they discovered him,
but they could not catch it.
]. Cluney, the conductor of a Peters
avenue car, was shot in the foot on
Franklin street, and the car
Riddled With Bullets.
+. u. Davis, the motorman on the same
car, was also shot in the foot. Frank
Shepherd, white man who was in
the crowd was shot in the right arm.
Coming down to Jackson avenue
they met I. P. Sanders, the colored
porter of an insurance agency. He
had heard the indiscriminate shooting,
and stepped out of his gate to see what
1t was about. He ran into the arms of
the mob, and they made short work of
him. They stabbed and shot him in
the back and left him for dead. In
the attack his watch was stolen. A
dozen or more of the mob went out
further into the rear of the town and
met Esther Fields, a negress,t standing
an her door, and brutally beat her.
The main crowd continued on down
town, heading for the Parish prison.
They were met a block away by a
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 ammunition. The police made a
demonstration and drove them off.
After lingering around Rampant street
for an hour, the mob divided, one part
going down town and the other start
ing back up town The latter crowd
started for the new basin in the vicin-
ity of the Illinois Central depot, as that
is popular rendezvous for negroes.
Before starting, they INDUCED in lit
tie pistol play and wounded Oswald
Mcmahon a 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 mar
ket, shooting him as he ran. When
he fell with two shots in the back,
one of the young fiends stabbed him
to finish him. He is seriously injured.
John Deeds, white man, was shot
during the indiscriminate shooting in
the Poydras market. They searched
the vicinity of the basin thoroughly
and failing to find any one, walked out
toward Franklin street. where they
passed a negro seated in front of bar
room,
Whom They Promptly shot.
He was Dan White, a roustabout, and
got bullet in mis- right wrist.
About l O'Clock they headed for the
neighborhood of Canal street, and on
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