The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-22
TOLD BY NEGRO'S PRISONERS.
WHITE WOMEN KEPT IN SPRIGGS'S
DIVE TESTIFY.
rvo Jurors weep While Hattie Warren
Gives Her Story OF imprisonment n
Outrage-The Defendant Says He Is
Jnnoccnt and VIII Tell HIS Own story.

Gives Her story OF imprisonment and
Outrage-The Defendant Says He IL
Innoccnt and VIII Tell HIS Own story.
There was no sympathy for Bob Spriggs,
,eero divekeeper, when Hattie Warren
cot through telling her story in Judge
Sowine's court in General Sessions yes
terday. Two Of the jurors wept. The
uirl sobbed through her story, or most OF
There were tears in Judge Cowing's
.vos Women were not allowed in the
court room.
E,riees insists that he ia innocent and
that he will take the witness stand and
ta,l his story. His counsel have talked
with District Attorney Jerome about his
pleading guilty, but Spriggs refuses to
entertain any such proposition. As the
two white women testified against him
Yesterday he fixed his ayes on them, hut
they avoided looking at him.
Assistant District Attorney Caravan an
nounced in his opening that he would prove
tina, Hattie Warren had been taken to
spriggs's house unconscious, 2 victim of
abduction. Her clothes we're taken from
her. and although she pleaded with Spriggs
10 Ire allowed to 60 way he kept her a
prisoner.
Mr.. Garvan asked that the defence con-
cede that Spriggs had been convicted Of
running a d~isorderly house in 1889. This
was refused. and then a policeman was
called who identified Spriggs az the man
he vas arrested for running a ~disorderly
house District Attorney Jerome emem-
bered that he had prosecuted Spriggs,
taI-.lra..SI - nonaro1 GooaiNna ilanfi.
fed the records in the Spriggs case. Then
Hattie Warren was called. She looked
a physical wreck.
She said hat she was married. In Feb
rlary. 1905, she had been in a saloon in
sixth avenue and took a drink. The next
thing she knew she foundherself in astrange
room in Spriggs's house. Her clothes were
gone, She put on a wrapper and asked
Spriggs for her clothes. He told her she
wouldn't want them. He made her stay
in a room and told her that she would have
to receive colored men. She protested
and he beat her.
He beat me several times she ga id.
Once he struck me in the face and knocked
out two of my teeth. ] fell to the floor.
I went to a dentist with Mrs Spriggs. She
ID u WDIlS "OHdll' 4 "oIo hci OiO'hCo'
HAD she escaped she could have beeA ar
rested for stealing Mrs. S~priggs's clothes.
She paid the bill
Hattie described the condition Of the
house, The shutters were never opened.
The windows were nailed down. The
doors were always locked and some man in
the employ Of SpTiggs guarded them.
Once she got ont Of the house. 1t was
a bout { O'Clock in the morning and every
- III Oh -.-~ - H. Ill 4.
and got an ice pick. She broke a lock
and got out. She had on only a skirt, which
she had found in n Of the rooms. She
went to the corner saloon and told her story,
asking for protection. She had no money
and nc place to go. Finally Spriggs and
lame Joe Boggs. who worked for Spriggs,
came to the saloon and got her. She was
TO the house and Spriggs and Boggs had a
fight. Spriggs blamed Boggs for having
let her get out and he kicked Boggs into the
street, bat later Boggs returned. When
the police raided the place they had to
break into a closet with their nightstioks
TO get the clothes for the women.
The witness was cross-examlned by law
yer Mark Alter. He wanted to know why
she hadn't told the Magistrate or the police
after the raid. She said she was afraid
and that Alter, who had then appea rcd for
spriggs, had advised her not to. She had
lt W " III thC " ~ % o"it VIII
tion, she decla red. A couple Of times she
escap ped from the house and went to hotels
in the neighborhood. She never told any
body at the hotels because she was afraid.
EACH time she was brought back to the
Cornelia street house. She didn't think it
her story. She was followed each time she
went out Of the house and she was afraid
that she would get struck on the head or
shot.
You were never dragged back to the
house" said Alter.
NO, 7 was not she said, but they drove
me back. was afraid
Alter wanted to know why she hadn't
run away when she was discharged in the
Jefferson Ma rket police court after Spriggs's
place had been raided. -.
There was a girl arrested with me-a
white girl" she said: she was siok. She
was dying on her feet. | couldn't leave
her, could |? We went to a house in Third
street. There they got me again. That
girl is now dead"
Hattie said that she first told her story
to Hattie Ross. a negress who does mission
airy work in the Tombs. Then she told it
to the District Attorney. She had no
promise of immunity she said.
They simply asked me to tell the truth
she said. "and I'm telling it."
She said she once wrote two letters to a
man asking him TO bring her clothes so that
she could get away. He never brought
the clothes. When she got out Of the house
once she stopped a policeman and told him
that she had just broken out Of Sprlggs's
house.
He wanted to know where | had come
from and I told him." she said. He said
that niger Joint down the street, and l
said yes told him | had no clothes, that
they had been taken away from me. Sew
eral persons had collected and he told me
that if ] didn't move on he would arrest
me for disorderly conduct"
Archibald Gardner, a dentist, testified
that Hattie came to him and had her teeth
fixed after Spriggs punched her.
Then Cora Chester took the witness
stand. She said that the night Hattie was
brought to the house Mrs. Spriggs DOL
Hattie's clothes. She heard Hattie ask
spriggs to let her out, and also saw him
kick and beat her. The witness was out
of the house three times in FIVE years, she
said. Each time she went to the theatre.
She was afraid that il she didn't 60 back
she would be arrested,