The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-11
NEGRO WHO HIT GIRL MOBBED
CAREFUL OF MEN FALL ON HIM
AND NEARLY KILL HIM.
Wild Time on Elevated Train-Crowd Fol.
lows Prisoner Through streets-Girl
Attacks Him with Hatpin-Word About
Southern Methods Started Trouble.

A big negro who said he was Albert Traut
had a close call for his life last night after
he struck q young Southern woman In the
face in sight of fifty or sixty passengers
in a Sixth avenue elevated train.
Tie assault took place just after the
train, which was ~northbound, had pulled
in at the Seventy-seoond street station.
Miss Isabelle Oliver Of 2e2 West 142d street
was standing near the front OF the first
car, holding on to a strap. The negro was
standing near her. The car was crowded.
Traut started to push his way roughly
through the crowd toward the door. He
wanted to get off at the Seventy-second
street station. He bumped heavily against
Miss Oliver. She flushed and, turning,
asked him if he wouldn't be more careful.
Go to hell" said the negro under his
breath.
Miss divers cheeks flushed deeper and
her eyes snapped.
"You ought to know your place, even II
you are in the North" she snapped. Il
am Q Southern woman, and we know how
to treat you in the South"
Turning like a flash, the negro shot out
his right arm. His big fist landed squarely
on the bridge of the young woman's nose.
She fell to the floor like a log, n blood
spurted from the wound in her face.
J. 1t all happened 80 suddenly that the
other passengers in the oar had scarcely
time to realize what was up. For two or
three seconds after the blow had been
struck they looked at the big negro in
amazement, but as he started toward the
door the spell was broken. Five or six
men in the forward part OF the car made a
rush for him.
Traut turned and. backing up against
one Of the cross seats, waited for them to
reach him. But others were rushing from
the other end of the car. They closed in
on him from all sides, some grabbing him
around the waist, others around the legs,
and still others gripping him by the neck.
Down he went, and with him six or seven
men.
This was the start Of a fight which was
waged back and forth in the forward part
of the car for two or three minutes. Some
body had the presence Of mind to help Miss
Oliver out Of the melee,o or she would have
been trampled on. There were only one
or two women besides in the forward end
of the car. They jumped up on the seats
and managed to keep out OF harms way.
There were, however, a good many women
In the other part Of the car, and they be-
came greatly excited.
The train started just a second or two
after the assault was committed. The
guard tried to force his way through the
excited crowd, but couldn't, Then he
signalled the moterman to stop. The
train had gone about one hundred feet.
The motorman had got some idea himself
as to what was happening, and after signal
ling he backed down to the station platform.
Then he began to toot his whistle for the
police.
The men in the car were still banging
away at the negro, often hitting each other
instead Of Traut, when the car stopped at
the platform again. The crowd quickly
cleared out, and then the fighters, forming a
sort Of flying wedge with the negro at the
apex, rushed him out on to the platform.
Policeman Michael Flattery of the West
Sixty-eighth street station house appeared
at the head Of the station stairs just about
the time the negro landed on the platform.
The crowd had him dow and were punch
ing and kicking him. Women around the
outer edge Of the struggling group were
thrusting the points Of their umbrellas into
the openings, in a blind effort to jab the
negro.
The policeman had to pull his nightstiok
and swing it freely before he got the in
furiated mob ava from the man. Traut
was almost unconscious. Miss Oliver had
in the meantime been helped to one end of
the platform, where several women pas
senges took care OF her.
The crowd, after it had got its breath,
began TO press in on the policeman, crying
xiii himl Kill the negro!" and Flattery,
fearful Of the temper OF the passengers,
decided to start at once for the station
house with the prisoner. Almost every
passenger in the train piled of and instead
OF going on uptown fell in behind the
policeman and the prisoner and started
a march to the station house. On Columbus
avenue the crowd, which was being swelled
constantly by newcomers, began to shout:
Lynch the coon! Lynch hin! String him
up!r
FIattery, one hand on the prisoner n
the other on his nightstick, p%loughed his
way through the mob, threatening to club
any one who laid a hand on the negro. He
had sounded three blasts on his whistle-the
riot call-and he was soon reinforced by
two GODS. With their assistance the pris-
oner was got to the station house without
further trouble, although the crowd con-
tinued to call for the negro's life until he
had been landed safe inside the station
house doors.
Some Of the most excited in the mob
tried to force their way into the station
house, and Sergt. Stevenson turned out tho
house reserves to drive them away. Three
or four of the men who had been fighting
with the negro we're brought in as wit
nesses.
Miss Oliver also appeared at the station
house. 'The blood was still trucking down
her face when she entered the station house,
and her dress was stained.
The matron handed her a mirror and
when she saw the wound inflicted by the
negro she flew into a violent passion. Rush
ing from an anteroom to the sergeant's
desk she faced the prisoner and denounced
him h~ysterically. She grabbed a hatpin
and started for him A policeman caught
her hand. She pleaded first with the police
man and then with the sergeant to let her
get at him. The cops led her away to a
back room, where her wound was dressed