The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-30

While the Justice Considered His
an Effort to settle Their Differ
ences sitter Their own Fashion.
Dave stokes, Jr., Pounded Smith
Over the Head With a BilIy-An
the Men Very Drunk and Liquor
Added Its Excitement-Refus Ar
rest by Constable and when Police
Officers Arrived the CuIprits Had
Departed.
What threatened to be a riot
between half a dozen drunken
litigants from the Black Ankle
section of the county took
place in front of the Office of Justice
Thomas Bourquin, on the Ogeechee
road, yesterday afternoon. and for a
time it looked as though it would de-
veIop into serious proportions.
The men who took part were Dave
Stokes. Sr.. Dave Stokes, Jr., Asbury
Horning. The two last named were
suing the Stokes family for the pos
session of a calf, for which a possess
sorry warrant had peen sworn out.
The hearing had been concluded and
the justice had taken the case under
Amusement when the fight began. The
men gathered in the middle of the
road and began to try among them
selves the issues so recently left to- the
decision of Justice Bourquin. In half a
minute fists were flying with terrific
speed through the air and one of the
men, Dave Stokes, Jr., welded a billy
with admirable effect. The men all
come from a section of the county re-
nowned for its scrappers, and they
fought with each other with desperate
determination, the Stokes, father and
two sons, against Smith and Horning
beaten With Billy.
Smith was badly beaten over the
head with the billy young Stokes
welded. while the other men in the
party were more or less the worse for
wear They were all fearfully and
wonderfully drunk and this fact in
creased their willingness to fight and
their anxiety to prolong 1t to the last
extremity.
The fight was going on at a steadily
increasing pace when Constable Whit
aker of Justice Bourquin's court looked
out of the court room door and caught
glimpse of how desperately the
peace was being disturbed. The con-
stable bounded over to the scene of
the melee and informed the whole
bunch they were under arrest. They
stopped their fighting for a minute to
receive this bit of information, but for
a minute only. Then they went at it
again, hammer and tongs.
The constable renewed his exhorta-
lions and gradually the members of
the fighting bunch consented to listen
to reason. One by one they stopped
pounding each other, but they never
would admit they were under arrest.
WomIdn't Prefer Charges.
They declined 70 prefer charges
against each other, informing the con-
stable that such differences as existed
were purely personal to themselves
and that they did not require any help
from him. They took the information
that they were under arrest more or
less as a joke.
A telephone call for the wagon and
detail of officers was sent in to police
barracks and Sergt. Lingg loaded De-
tectives Murphy and Stark, with Pa
trolman Ungar, into the patrol wagon
and sent them out to the scene of
what the telephone message had re-
ferred to as a bloody ARRAY
When the wagon arrived the birds
had flown and Constable Whitaker
showed a considerable number of signs
of having been in a fight himself. 1t
was stated he had received these
marks in an effort to impress upon the
Black Ankleites the fact they were I'M
der arrest. to which they would by no
had calmly mounted their horses,
brushed him aside and pursued the
even, if somewhat hurried tenor of
the way towards their homes.
Police Too Late.
The police officers saw no good rea-
son Why they should attempt a chase
of men mounted on horseback in a
wagon, and they returned to the bar
racks and reported the condition of
affairs they found existed to the SER
geant on duty.
1t is probable no arrests will follow.
AS the men said the matter was one
purely personal to themselves, which
they had settled in their own way.
and to their entire satisfaction. They
did not regard it as any matter for
the interference of the law and re-
fused to prefer charges against each
other. AS they all live in a somewhat
isolated locality, and We're suffered to
reach in safety the protection of their
own homes, it is not likely that any
effort to disturb them will be made.