The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-12-07
PAST OF CDLORED TROOPS
THEY SHIELDED MURDERER IN
RANKS AT VALENTINE.
MURoERoUs BRAwLs FREQUENT

OF the Past History Of the Twenty.
fifth Infantry.
c. II, Cornell. n banker nc Valcn.
tine and prominent citizen In north.
ern Nebraska, has written the follow.
Ing letter giving brief summing up of
the past career of the colorcd troops
who were recently discharged at
Brownsville Tex, and into whose dis.
charge congress IS to probe
Gould the persons, oven the cOlorCd
ministers and others who are holding
mass meetings, dcnouncing President
| RoOscvclts action in Diminishing from
| the service the entire enlisted
| strength of the three companies of
| the TwCnty.ilfth United States inrnn-
| try, which were stationed AT Fort
Tex, was "shot up" have had the OPP.
portunity of knowing those troops bet.
ter the chances are they would not
be so severe in their criticism of the
presidents action
Two battaliOns (cight companics) of
that regiment came to Fort Nlobrara
for station, directly from the Philip.
pines in 1902. They remained at that
post continually until its abandonment
in July last, when in leaving, they
were assigned to stations In Texas.
Valentine. four and ono-half miles dis.
tant, is the railway station where all
the posts business was transacted,
a 90
200, sustained very much the same
relation to Fort Niobrara as Browns.
vile to Fort Brown, Tex Consequent
ly they were in and out OF town con
stantly, singly or in numbers, trading.
loafing or attending errands. and Il
Is said by our citizens, rightly, that
they were well.behaved and no citl-
zen, not looking for 1t, had the least
excuse for getting into trouble with
any one of them.
However. among themselves and
with their camp followers principally
discharged soldiers from the colored
regiments), a part at least were ter
rors, and in their brawls seemed to
place no more value upon human
life than though the taking of the
same were mere incident in their
purpose of destruction. In the dance
halls and resorts (Which followed
them into the country and went out
Of business and left Immediately on
the departure of the troops), they
would fight like demons, and the rec
ords of our district court have been
loaded down with criminal cases due
to these fights, with goodly number
of participants In the state peniten-
tiary, to say nothing of the number
punished by military court martals
Bearing particularly on the phase
which brought about the Wholesale
dismissal n somewhat similar case
might be rected:
A Terrible Killing.
A discharged soldier from one of
the colOred regiments, named Stratton,
kept a rooming and dance house on
tract of land about a mile and a
half from Fort Niobrara On the
night of October 20, 1904, about mid
night, while the usual dance was in
progress, a team hauling a spring
wagon with four occupants drove up
in front of the door and one of the |
inmates (called Lul Johnson) came
out of the house to the wagon. I'm
mediately shots rang out, apparently |
fired at the wagon, but from a point |
that each must take effect there or |
pass into and in some instances
through the dance hall, which was
very well filled with dancers. When |
the firing ceased it was found that
Turnbull, the driver, was shot through |
the arm; Raymond Smith, an occu-
pant, through the body; Lul Johnson |
through the breast near the heart, one |
horse killed and the other wounded |
Inside the building a stove had been |
hit and shattered, the bar shot up
but miraculously no person
hurt, although there were any mum.
Der of close calls. Coincdentally, two
men in khaki were seen with guns
across their shoulders starting toward |
Fort Niobrara. Next morning sixteen
empty Krag-Jorgensen shells were
found on the ground at the point
and the location the two men were !
seen leaving. The wounded were TAX
en- to the Fort Niobrara hospital
where the Johnson woman died next
day. Turnbull recovered promptly
and Smith finally.
The shooting having been commit.
ted off the reservation, came under
the jurisdiction of the civil authori-
ties. Consequently the sheriff and
coroner were notified a coroner's jury
empanelled and post norton held at
the post hospital, which resulted in
that from the character
of the wound it was done by a Krag-
Blacks Shielded Murderers.
The murder aDnparino so yuontOn |