The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-19
TALL SWEARING
OVERYOUNG'S Sc
FaciIe evidence Cooks
Johns Goose.
~~r@ rnFr
SHOOTER GOES FREE
Details of How 0ne-Legged Man
Stood the Fire of Four Pistol Shots
and Lived to Get it in the
Neck on Three Charges
for Lack of LAWYER.

John Young, at whom, as told in
Sundays paper, Moses Mclean, a
restaurant keeper in the deep east"
fired four shots on Saturday night,
was yesterday bound over to Superior
Court by the mayor on two charges of
carrying concealed weapons and as
sault with a deadly weapon and, furth-
er convicted of disorderly conduct
and sent to the roads for thirty days.
Quite a little dose for John. now
wasn't it ?-and Moses?
Free, sirs, free as the maids who
grace the purview of Sawyer's bot
tom and the hills beyond-free as the
winds that blow, as the bounding
wave, as, aS-perjury.
Oh, but it was a swearing match,
my masters!-glib and gay, free and
undisturbed by inquisitive cross-ex-
animation. Not once did the promp-
fer have to speak, not once did actor
slur his lines. 1t was a business-like
performance of first night when
the dress rehearsal has been fitted to
its frills without the stretching of
seam.
And who did the shooting? Moses.
And what did the arreSting officer
say? That John stood on the side
walk and Moses stood in the door of
his restaurant and fired again and
again, apparently point-blank, though
without execution; that he arrested
both parties; that John struck no
blow had no pistol; that Moses, while
being carried to the station house
tried, even when under arrest, to
Jump the man he had tried to kill.
That is the policeman's story.
Johns story is that he went into
the restaurant, that the cook "sassed'
T., ~ I'd hot 7, Il, a
and he was bound for the East; that
when he got to the door, Moses jump
ed into the house, grabbed his pistol
and commenced shooting.
This was the story of the slight
figured John Young, as he stood In
the witness box with a crutch under
his left arm to support his body In
lieu OF q limb represented by swing
ing trouser leg. He meant nothing
by "a fifty-six, ., he said. that was
merely an expression of deep east
independence, or. words to that effect.
And then came a slick yellow cook,
one of these glib spoken, precise and
niggers'' with a "fawncy" vest. whose
every other word is II guess and
whose eyes and mouth and head roll
and sway with vehement sincerity,
that seems to asseverate. truth and
abhor the vulgar habit of lying to a
degree that sends him rafting through
his spiel, lest he forget"
All. yes. said he. he saw it all. |
John Young came in and he was ex-
tremely rude; yes indeed, his Ian
guage was vile. 1t was very ''in-
famed and vulgar He said that he
had a fifty-siX and he said "kid [
don't want no playing and witness
presumed that he was conscious of
the import of his words He was
Then Mclean demonstrated: he did
not desire that his place should be
pulled as a disorderly house. Would
Young not kindly move on or behave
himself "gentlemanly." And then
John placed his hand on his hip
pocket-yes he started to draw pis-f
tol-the witness saw the butt of the
menced before he could draw it.
And then came Earnest Reaves,
long slim and black, with a collar
of blue celluloid, who leaned far over
the rail of the witness box and
whispered at the mayor as though
awed at the recollection of John
Young's behavior Ernest corrobor-
ated the cook with full detail. He
described the scene graphically-how
Young had reached after his fifty
six how he saw the butt sticking
from his pocket, how Moses Mclean,
in fear of death. had rushed to his
counter and got his pistol and opened
fire before John could draw.
And then came Perry Hinton and
he was the star. For after the shoot
ing he had seen John Young walk
across the street and throw away the
pistol and he, Perry, had picked it IN
and there il was.
Now, of course, there were some
questions that might have been asked,
but were not-some speculation that
might have arisen but did not. For
instance, why should a man who was
striving to draw pistol and had got