Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-04
ACCUSED OF BRUTALITY
FEDERAL OFFICIALS RESCUED
MEN ABOARD OYSTER BOATS.

| Fresh from the CHASTITY scenes of the
| Chesapeake's slave traffic, where men, white
and black captiyes aboard dingy oyster
dredges suffer and die as their hard hearted
! masters decree. and after stormy cruise
| of more than 300 miles along the bay shores
of Maryland and Virginia the revenue cut
| ter Window. bearing members of the fed
eral expedition, dispatched by President
Roosevelt to the aid of the tortured dredge-
men at the instance of Philadelphia and
Maryland officials dropped anchor Satur-
| day Off Baltimore.
| With the arrival Of the Window ended an
expedition unparalleled In the history of
/ Maryiand-an expedition which brought re-.
| lief to a score or more of Philadelphians,
| shanghaied aboard ill-kept "bugeyes' and
'pungies" of the Chesapeake, and one which
meted out justice, swift. sure and severe in.
| the extreme upon score of sailing masters,
/ charged in federal warrants with brutally
beating their half-starved crews.
A Sleepless Expedition.
| The story of the WINDOWS long chase is
told by a correspondent of the Philadelphia
! Press. He says that from Tuesday morn
| ing last when the trim cutter having on
| board United States Marshal John Lang
| hammer, United States Commissioner Bond
! and Deputy United States Marshal William
| zimmerman, together with a detail of Sc
| cret service and Treasury Department
| agents slipped quietly from this port on the
cruise destined to bring about a long-de-
| layed reform in the great oyster industry in
| this state, until tonight not an official. Off
Ger or sailor has slept wink, so persistent
and tlreiess was the chase after the defiant
and brutal dredge masters OF the oyster
fleets.
Hurled about in the teeth of nor ca sters
for two days and then for twelve hours
n ST off, Ia
Chesapeake by a dense fog, under cover Of
winch score of accused oyStermen made
good their escape, the Window steamed into
port Saturday night unscathed, bringing
with her under arrest Alonzo Hoffman the
youthful skipper of the ''bugeye'' Genesta
In the cabin of the revenue cutter lay Geo
Kiss!ck OF PAS North Cleveland avenue
Philadelphia. VINO charged the boyish mas
ter with cruelty beating him
Victim Nearly Dead
kisSick, when rescued from the Genesta
OFF Lower Cedar Point, was all but dead
For almost a month he had toiled at the
dredges since he had been shanghaied
aboard the craft from Philadelphia He
was a weak man, particularly untitled to
withstand the icy winds Of the bay and
man the rusty, poGderouS dredges.
When found his arms were a mass of
sores. His sole covering was a pair of
cheap ollskins, frayed and torn. His
hands were cut and stained with blood
while wrapped about his feet were mis-
shaped objects that had once been shoes
He said he had pleaded with The young
skipper to give him shoes. The latter
he and the crew swore, only cursed and
beat him.
Il would have died if you had not taken
me away were his first words, as The
sturdy aCamen of the Window hauled him
aboard, a living wreck of what was once
a man. He was confined in the forecas-ie
with Edward Paliister a stalwart youth
from Detroit. Pallister. too, swore that
HAY
Years old had beaten him with a knott ID
rope, and to verify his story the unfor-
tunate man barred his shoulders before
United STATES Commissioner Bond aboard
the cutter.
Pallister was machinist. He had been
shanghaied from Baltimore. He is an in
telligent young man. Herbert G. Smith was
another of the victims taken from the
Genesta by Marshal Langhammer Smith
is from Cohoes. n. Y. He saw both ks
sick and Palister' beaten. he swears and
will testify against Hoffman before the
federal grand jury.
Oxford Man Saved.
Another Pennsylvania WAS rescued from
the hands of the cruel masters. He is Law
renee Davis, a well-educated young negro
of Oxford, Pa whose father had for three
months made desperate efforts to rescue
him from the life of a dredger. Davis was
taken from the Sloop Lennie, off Lower Ce-
dar Point, Gu the same day that Kissck,
the Philadelphian, was taken, by Marshal
LanShammer.
He left last night for his home in Oxford
-but Will return to Baltimore to prosecute
the man who shanghaied him. should the
police succeed i'll locating the crimper"
While but one prisoner was brought back
eight shippers overhau!ed by the Window
in various parts of the Chesapeake We're
held in $1,000 bail for hearings before the
United States commissioner here.
Probing Death Mysteries.
During the six days that the speedy reve-
nue. cutter plowed the waters of the Ches-
apeake, searching for these masters against
whom the federal authorities held warrants
for brutality, the secret service opera tives,
working with the men from the Treasury
Department. busted themselves with probing
into the mystery surrounding the deaths of
James McCabe and William Clark, the Phil
adelphians whose strange deaths led to the
universal demand for the annihiiation of
the Chesa peake's reign of terror and blood
shed. From the day that the cutter glidei
forth upon her humane mission until Sat
Grday night Capt. George Mcconnell her
commander, and Lieuts. Eugene Blake and
Cecil Gabbett paced the bridge sweeping
the bay with marine glasses for signs of
the Sadie K. Gibson, commanded by Capt
William Wheatley, the boat on which both
MeCabe and Clark were shanghaied.
Visited Many Fleets.
The Gibson done with, Marshal Iangham-
mer visited the dredging fleets In Breton
bay, Piney Point. St Georges bay, Point
Lookout. st. Jerome, Point No Point and
off Cedar Point.
Another storm set in, accompanied by n
heavy fog, and the Window felt her way
cautiously to harbor, her foghorn sounding
at regular intervals. The fog lifted ard
shortly after o'clock In the morning the
revenue cutter Window set her course for
Baltimore.
On reaching here one prisoner and wit
nesses were taken ashore and lodged in iail
Meanwh ile the federal officials scurried 10
the government buildings, where they re-
manned behind locked doors preparing re-
ports.
FUNERAL OF j. n. PEAKE.