The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-30

marched from the barracks to the
polls and took up an imposing sta
ton on the edge of the square. They
also were without apparent rhyme
or reason for their existence and
looked on the performance with a
bored and tired air.
Suddenly the whole situation
changed. Some keen-eyed satellite of
the administration glanced down Bull
street and saw approaching a lengthy
line of men-that it was the cohorts of
the opposition was sufficiently evident
and the men around the polls rushed
to their places in line.
Headed for the Boxes.
Steadily the Union Club workers
marched on. They crossed the square
and began to line up in front of the
boxes in which they intended to cast
their ballots. This was at $50 O'Clock
nearly an hour before the polls opened.
Peace brooded over the scene-but not
for long.
What started the row it would be
difficult to say, each faction ascribing
responsibility for it to the other. 1t
is probable that some of the Citizens
Club heelers were trying to push the
Union Club supporters out of line and
that Steve Curran, "A special importa-
ton of the latter faction from the
steamship Kansas City. drew back and
handed Jack Clarity of the admins
tration forces, stiff punch in the
Jaw. 1t didn't phase Clarity for a min
ute; he clinched with Curran. and they
mixed it up, in good shape, together
For days it had been rumored that
the special purpose of Curran's impor
tation was the destruction of Clarity
and other of the prominent heelers of
the, Citizens faction, and when he dis
covered himself they were dead ready.
In an instant a dozen of them had piled
on top of him. The members of the
police detail on duty precipitated them
selves on the mob and, getting hold Of
Curran, placed him under arrest. This
however scarcely increased Curran s
comfort for, firmly held in the muscu-
lar arms of three or four policemen,
he offered only the better target for
the fists and feet and billies of the at
lacking force.
Beaten to "A jelly.
In few minutes Curran's face had
been beaten into a jelly, blood was
streaming from half a dozen wounds
in his head. and two policemen led him
from the scene of the affray in a state
of practical insensibility.
For Gods sake, gentlemen" he MUIR
INJURED thickly, get me out of this
mess. "
The guardians of the peace got him
out and when they had him safely at
the station house gave him his liberty.
Curran said all he wanted was permis-
sion to get back to his ship.
In the meantime Sam Davis, a former
city policeman, was getting the worst
of another encounter, as to the origin
of which accounts differ. Davis and
his friends declare his only offense was
some expression of interest in the ex-
perience through which Curran was
passing. A Citizens Club heller
promptly raped him over the head
with a billy and the trouble was on
The Citizens Club men say that Davis
first used the billy himself. At all
events, when he emerged from the
scrimmage his face was streaked with
red like a railway prospectus, and he
had bumps on his head as big as eggs
and gashes in his pate that served to
mark and accentuate it's wide and glar-
ing eXpanse. Davis was sent into the
station house and locked up on a charge
of disorderly conduct and fighting in
the streets.