The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-11
CORY LOVE PLOT
SaWyer's Bottom Sees
Clean of Razor, Trail
of Blood.

A murmur of deep and excited negro
voices. the screams of two women, the
trample of running feet put Policeman
Austin, who was doing the deep east
beat last night. on notice that there
was big trouble at the bottom of Saw
yer'S bottom, in the valley of which
lies what is known in police parlance
as the dead line. Sawyer's bottom is
at the foot of Vinegar Hill, and it is
place that is Uttered with the shanties
infested of vice and dirt and, occa-
sionally of crime. 1t is usually quiet
except for drunken yells. except when
the common greed of vice breaks into
the spasmodic lust of blood. Then
the inhabitants forget there, as in all
the world the value of discretion;
they become in an instant. frankly, the
brutes that they are; they feed on
passion and on fear and the instinct
of fight like animals that have burst
their chains The cry of blood is as
distinguishable to the police as the
voice of a woman from a man. Po
liceman Austin. farther up the hill at
Hicks restaurant went on a run
for Sawyer's bottom.
AS he passed the door of Maroon
the Good, running bent double in the
shadow of the dark side of the street,
the policeman spotted the scene OF
the trouble A miserable shanty
poured out it's packed inmates like
ants swarm from Il mound that is
poked with a stick Only the women
continued to yell. the dark shadows of
men. stunning the electric pathways
as the plague, drifted on all sides into
the darkness. Two of these forms
drifted along at full speed towards
the policeman, one passed, the other,
lodging as the hand of the officer
reached for its grip, was half stopped,
doubled like a hare, turned and was
off into the darkness, the officer at its
heels. Down a side street went the
fleeing man, the officer, unfamiliar with
the ground that his quarry knew like
the pictures on the bill boards, stumb-
ling at every few steps, yet strangely
gaining ground. The man turned
with the desperation of flight into a
back yard. the officer went into an OBJ
struction and fell. He was on his
in the air. Still the man ran and
still the officer gained. At Lepoir
street. the chase ended with capture.
The panting shadow stood at bay In
the hands Of the policeman.
But the sight was not what the Off
GER had thought to find. Instead of a
murderer. he had caught the man who
was hurt. The blood streamed from
his face: his clothes were covered
with it. Exhausted, his knees tottered
as he stood. His assailant had been
The first shadow that had passed. The
law had run down the victim. instead
of the criminal.
The injured man. found to be an
eighteen year OLD negro named Will
liam Hinton, who works at Upchurch
and Holders. was a mass of blood
from head to waist. His check was
laid oDen with a staring cash that ran
from his left temple below the chin
and onto the neck. His clothes We're
in shreIs. The policeman, thinking
that ne had what would soon be q
corpse on his hands, called a carriage
and the man was taken to the station
house, where he made a pool of blood
on the floor and was soon sent on to
Rex Hospital. An excited crowd gath
cred and the story WAS long in COM
ing out with any degree of connected
ness.
"Dev was five on him. said one
negroes. "He want nothin' but q
chile and dey done Kill him. Yass;r.
dev carved him to de heart"
"De man what cut him want no
bigger dan he is said another voice.
"He done pick fuss and got scraped
--dat's al"
However, the story came out fin
ally. The cutting was at the place of
u negro woman called Vandelia Dunn.
Win ner ilNeu q lfleHu WIN CdpSic:-
ties of being a belle Her hair was
so reached that she might have been
MY lady of the kinks 1t was
fatal beauty. William Hinton. who
curried horses by day was under the
spell of il. So was 'Babe Osburn.
heavier set and older gentleman of
the dark meat. They net at beauty's
feet They slared and both were
bous.d by love They glared again.
Words passed Babe" reached sud-
denly in the shoe of foot that he
brought up on a leg crooked To his
left thigh. In his hand flashed
razor. He jumped on William Hin
ton like a tiger, flashing light. He
was a hurricane of swiShing slaShes-
Hinton. in a fright ran to the door,
behind him. on his back. over his
shoulders. the blade swirled and rip
ped and cut. Hinton left behind
trail of blood. He did not know that
he was cut. He ran first from the
blade. afterwards from the instructive
fear of the police. Thus it was that
the police caught the wrong man. He
did not know that he was cut. for all