Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-29
To Me pisl,iet Commissioners.

| the law and trample the rights of his poor
neighbors beneath his feet has shown itself
| by two brutal assaults recently made upon
the writer, and the very fact that he was not
| arrested for two hours after he made the
last ferocious attack upon me goes to show
| how the chief Of police has his subordinates
in this precinct iniimidated by giving a lis.
tening ear to his lying tongue as we'll as
by threats 10 reorganize the precinct and
transfer some of the men on account Of his
complaints. / can but feel that you, gentle.
men, are also in a measure responsible for
these assaults on account of encouraging
the poor ignorant wretch in dehantly violat.
ing the law.
Well do you know that the FIRE marshal
has reported that his gasoline engine en-
/ dangers all the houses around it and jeop-
ardizes the lives of all who live in them,
therefore why do you not insist upon his
compliance with the regulations under
which his permit was issued. You know
that Ashford's assertion that he has done so
/ is false, absolutely false. Nevertheless you
wink at the dirty work going on between
him and Major Sylvester as though you had
no respect for the majesty of the law, for
| yourselves, or for us poor citizens.
/ Now why are you doing this? Do you know
that the whole District is agog with gossip
over the use that is being made of Luscombe
as poor ignorant dupe in vain attempts to
/ besmirch the character Of the man whom
you all know did him good service. Has
the thought ever occurred to you that in en-
couraging him to scatter printed stories re-
lating to matters in which you have figured
that you are posing as moral towards by not
denying what you know to be false, by not
showing as gentlemen would that instead
of making of him victim of imposition.
Mr. Raymond was faithful and uutiring in
urging consideration Of his case.
/ speak Of these things plainly, gentle
men, on account of the indignities / have
suffered through your weakness, weakness
that is the talk of the town, weakness that
makes of you laughing stock for the whole
District, weakness that ought to cause each
Of you to hang your heads in shame weak.
/ ness that has evidently led to police corrup-
/ ton that barred me from the courts protec-
ton until / became a victim Of a second
/ vicious attack. Ask me not how this was
done. but listen to my story of his abuse
and Private Duvall's remarkable conduct
/ We rent a small house Of c. R. Luscombe.
| There is but a three-foot alley between all
the houses in the row and the lot upon
]
\ located. When either of them is in opera
/ ton the noise is simply deafening. A few
| days ago kindly asked him to not run them
/ because had a sick child whose life it en-
daugered while in operation as it would be
impossible for her to get much needed rest,
but instead Of complying with my request,
as any reasonable man would he flew into a
/ fit of rage, called me division slut, said he
knew me when kept house of i'll fame, and
that if l would do a little thinking l would
remember when he staid with me. To this
TRADE of abuse, in the presence Of my
daughter eight years of age, merely re-
/ piled that his filthy tongue showed that he
was no good to which he retorted with a
villainous look that if l would take him into
my bed room he would soon show me
whether he was any good or not. He then
made other remarks too obscene to repeat
| in ones defense, much less to put in writ
ing. A few days later, while sweeping the
sidewalk in front of my premises, he came
| up to me in a beastly state of intoxication,
and, after calling me all the vile names he
could think Of, he shook his finger In my
face, and as he touched me on the nose he
said you are a dirty W. and you know
that / can prove it. On this occasion
threatened to have him arrested later on,
however, he told my husband that he had
police court pull that would keep me from
| getting warrant, but that he would be sure
to have one for me, and when I called for a
warrant it was refused by the warrant clerk,
who simply gave as his reason for doing so,
that he procured one ahead Of me- Ny OBJ
ject in relating this is not to intimate that
there has been questionable conduct on the
part Of the clerk, for my suspicion is that
Private Duvall went to the clerk and in
duced him to not give me one by represent
ing that was a hard character Ny reason
for believing this is that i knew Duvall was
playing the part of a sneak in keeping him
posted about other matters. Some time be-
fore this happened was in his house when
he directed his boy TO take some chickens
and eggs to Private Owen +. Duvalps resi-
dence, when with a knowing look he re-
marked that he would get a lot Of informa-
tion out Of Duvall for them, meaning that
Duvall would pump some one else out of
information he was anxious to obtain. My
/ impression az the time was that Duvall was
stuffing him to work him out of whatever he
was fool enough to part with on the strength
of stories hatched for that purpose. Further
more after Luscombe knocked me iusensi-
bic he sent his boy after Duvall on his BIZ
cycle, who was on hand in iiffy so / was in
formed but made no attempt 70 arrest him,
therefore his object in responding to his call
was evidently to arrest my husband in case
he should come home and attack him He
even told Duvall that he had struck me and
saw physician come and render me treat
ment, but remained for two hours without
attempting to arrest him. Finally Sergeant
Hodges came out and pat him under arrest,
but instead Of dumping him into the patrol
at the box close to his home at Nineteenth
and Bennings Road, as is the custom with
cowardly women beaters, he allowed him to
stagger along to the station-house without
50 much as his hand upon him, as though
he was Senator or knight Of the quill
under blue-coated escort to that safe har-
Dor known as the hrst precinct, where, / am
told, such fellows are usually run in to sleep
Oh their drunks His appreciation Of this
considerate treatment was shown on reach-
ing the station-house by threats to file