The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-03


 | around their bodies leading to tho buggy. A Polish Jew. was found ly. ing under a tree by the, road on the came upon him as he lay there ex. hausted from running. He was taker in charge by Eric Won Axelsom, Mayor
 The man was in a pitiful state said MT. Won Axelstom. He wal afraid we were going to send hin back to the camp and he was afraic that men from the camp were coming to beat him and take him back. I haC heard some of the stories these mer had been telling of their alleged mis- treatment: The next day I was going down to Pnsacola and 1 took this un- fortunate fellow along with me found after got down there ano | that they had already begun to inves- | tigate the affair
 | The first talk of brutality and ille- l gality began when a Pensacola, mar I came back from a visit to Laurel Hill | and said that he had seen men chasing an escaped laborer wls4l dogs. He had later seen these men come back with tue workman sitting behind them IT
 Dr. Newton Craig. a physician and l druggist of Laurel Hill. was in the has been summoned as witness in 1 the Pensacola investigation.
 We were driving out in the -coun. try. three or four miles from Laurel Hill when we saw this stranger come down the road walking fast" said pr, | Craig. T knew he was not a native of this section, because he had the look of city workman. He were derby l hat, short sack coat and did not look 1 like a countryman. In few moments we met two of the men from the log ging, camp in buggy. The dogs were a trail. On our way back we met this | buggy again. The man we first saw was, not tied. but he was in the back l "one of us asked the men in the buggy, Where have you been and he | replied. as he 1erked his thumb back wards, We have been after this
 Witnessed By Ladies.
 l This incident had an important effect upon the investigation because 1t was | charged that the men who were in the Robert Gallagher and w. U. Porter | had overtaken the man in the road al the edge of Laurel Hill. and while three ladies from nelghboring. houses watched them beat him brutally with | heavy whips and cursed him terribly | in the hearing of the spectators. II | was further alleged that one of the men had whipped. out pistol and had 1 thrown 1t under the nose of the escap- | ing man. Alleged witnesses to this ] scene are Mrs: J. M. Paul. Mrs. Lizzie 1 Gibson and Mrs J. H. CarnleY. They | have been summoned to testify in the | case at Pensacola.
 It is admitted that a Hungarian work | man escaped over the Florida line into | Laurel Hill and was there captured by Robert Gallagher and another employe of the company. Gallagher says the 1 man stole a suit of clothes from a | fellow workman and ran away. He | followed him to Laurel Hill to notify Deputy Sheriff John Atwell. and to ask him to arrest the Hungarian. On his way. he overlook the Hungarian. "The man with me started to search the Hungarian for a watch and some other things which had been stolen from the camp" said Gallagher. The fell were struggling in the road. I may | have reached over from the buggy and struck the Hungarian a time or two. It was our intention of turning over the Hungarian to the Florida authorities but he begged so pitifully to be carried back to camp that we brought him along with us. Now that is all there Is to the charge that we have been running men down with dogs and Florida
 The incident. however. not only at- ttracted attention form the talk of the Pensacola man. but 1t set to talking the husbands of the ladies who were said to have witnessed the scene in in Pensacola heard of the incident in two ways.
 What M. Stokes Says.
 B. M Stokes. merchant of Laurel | leading from that town to the Jackson company's lumber camp, declared he had seen men led back to camp with has seen men from the camp pass | through the town looking for men. and | he has seen them return later with the men tied and being carried back
 The foreigners who have been brought in are densely ignorant" said MT. stokes. "A couple of weeks aga an old Hungarian turned up at the door of my store with a water bucket. He was tired and seemed to be terrihIv distressed. Somebody had sent him 1T, the woods for bucket of water and | of a big bush.
 "'They tell me to look for bush" the old man said. I know nothin' Of bush; l no see bush until I come
 He had wandered more than six miles. l got an old negro to guide him back to the lumber camn"
 There are other stories in and around Laurel Hill as to men being tied by the neck with ropes and of them being beaten in the road with whips and sponsor for the stories. There Is ap- parently no authority for this gossip. Nobody in Laurel Hill was willing to father definite statement as to these
 But practically all that heen set out together with it's authority, was ls i'd before United States Commissioner CT Marsh in Pensacola. He had number of the men who had come from the log ging camp brought before him for pri- Vate examination. Many of them have already made their way back to the North.
 In the meanwhile. The Pensacola Journal had gotten hold of the tnfor- nation that had come to the Commits sioner. and after holding 1t up for a couple of days. printed what it had Much of the same story was wired The Advertiser. and a synopsis of 1t was put on the wires of the Associated Press. The publication of the story brought forth an indignant denial from Manager w, J. HHrlon of the Jack son Lumber Company, and calling down for the paper for publishing the story
 Commissioner Marsh had decided that the affidavit made by the workmen were sufficient grounds for d warrant for two of the employees of the company who were stationed at the logging camp. He sent a deputy marshal to Laurel Hill to catch the accused men should they come over from the Alabama side of the State line but the wait of the marshal In Laurel Hill for couple of days was without result.
 While this was going on The Pen- sacola Journal made a not reply to Manager Harlan, intimating that inas- much as he had asked for an investiga- tion of the situation he could secure a complete investigation. not by try ing the case in the newspapers, but by turning over to the Florida Commis- sioner the men in Alabama who had