The sun., 1903-07-06
MYSTERIOUS ATTACK ON AGENT
,,rEyPT TO STTFLE ERIE TICKET
." SELLER WITH AMMONIA.
,.,,oun Person SIaps Cloth DIVER Ross's
Face and Escapcs-.Dersey City station
rrowde,. Int No One Sees Assailant
M Money StOlcn--ROss einhurt.


c,,,ebody walked into the ticket Office
=, rho Erie Railroad station in Jersey City
v.stertlav morning and put cloth satu-
.o,od with ammonia over the face Of c.
p Ross the ticket agent. The assistant
,,cke, agent, Harry G. Jeffres, was in
La Office at the time and the waiting
.oo,n was crowded but neither Ross JEFF
.ioa NOR auv one else saw the assailant.
whoever it was, did his or her work with
robtning rapdity. A small, empty brown
hot,lc which smelled of ammonia was
tourd in the hallway back of the ticket
aeico and a slit had been made in the
.croen door to the office, evidently for tho
rurnose Of unlocking the latch on the
inside.
The police have theory that the object
If the PERSON who attacked Ross was rob-
bery. although nothing was stolen. One
storv had 1t that there was about $50, 900
in the safe. the door Of which was open.
The railroad officials refused to say whether
this story was true and were very reticent
in talking about the case at all. Ross.
who was not badly hurt, told the police
,ha, he had no enemies and could give
no explanation Of the attack on him.
The assault happened about 1915 o'clock
in the morning. The ticket office is Just
inside of the ferry house at the entrance to
the waiting room. The window where
tickets are passed out faces the waiting
room. To the right and back of the ticket
office is an entrance with a stairway to the
balcony At this entrance there is a screen
door to the ticket office.
According TO the story which the police
got from Ross. he was sittin ng at his desk
with his back to the door. Jeffries was at
the ticket window looking at a book and his
back was TO the door. The distance be-
tween the two men was not over ten feet.
The first thing he knew, a cloth wet with
ammonia was slapped over his face. The
ammonia fumes filed his eyes and nostrils
and then the cloth was withdrawn. An
other version had it that the ammonia was
thrown in Ross's face.
At any rate Ross fell off his chair to the
floor, his eyes snarting, and almost blinded
His cry of pain startled Jeffries, who turned
around. He says he saw nobody in the
office hut Ross. How the person who used
the ammonia could have vanished so sud-
denly is not clear. and the police found
nothing to explain it.
Every seat in the waiting room was filed
with excursionists and there was a stream
Of traingoers passing the ticket Office win
dow Passengers from incoming trains
we're hurrying for ferryboats. and the
police think that the person who put the
ammonia-sOaked cloth over Ross's face
had no difficulty in mixing with the crowd
and taking ferryboat for New York
So far as could be learned there was no
great excitement after the attack on Ross.
The two Jersey City policemen on duty
NJ the station declared that they knew
hothing Of what had happened until Ross
told them aboutit. The policeman who was
credited with having made the report to
the station, told Sun reporter that he was
at lunch at the time iii is Jersey City
custom for the police 10 lunch at 1915
O'Clock in the morning., so he couldn't
have heard of it,
If the person who attacked Ross left
the cloth behind the police did not got il.
When an examination was made to find
ont how the person got into the office, the
slit which had been cut in the screen door
was discovered. Enough had been cut
close to the lock to allow hand to reach
in and unhook the latch. The safe was
not far from the door. but apparently the
person who attacked Ross made no attempt
10 commit robbery.
The foundation for the story that there
was $4,000 in the safe was based on the
fact that, Saturday being a holiday, a
great number Of tickets were sold to persons
going out of town over Sunday and as the
hanks were closed the money had to be
kept in the safe. Doubters Of this story
said that 40 per cent. of the tickets are
sold in New York and not in Jersey City -
From all that could be learned the am
monia did not do any great damage to
R0ss's eyes He went over 10 New York
and had them treated by a specialist and
then returned 10 work
Ross's home lis at so West Hampton place,
Jersev CITY His neighbors speak we'll
Of him and the police say that while the
whole thing is very mysterious to them,
they trust implicitly in Rass's story.