The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-07
RECKLESS CROWD
 TRIES LYNCH|NG Greek PeddIer Narrowly Es-
 capes from Mob
NEW YORK AGAIN STIRRED
Offender Merely Kissed Little Girl and a Crowd of Foreigners Pur- sues Him and Try to
 Hang Him.

[ New York, August 6.-More of what have come to be seriously known at po- lice headquarters as near" crimes asainst girls were followed by nearer" lynch ings today. Out of the score of complaints that reached the police, a half dozen de- manded serious attention.
 Whether the number is extraordinary is disputed, but certain it is that never more has mob vengeance so frequently attend ed attacks upon children. Led by a wo- man who alternately in Italian and bro ken English cried: "Avenge my daugh- ter" a reckless crowd of perhaps two thousand persons tonight stormed the Fourteenth street car barns of the Metro politan Street Railway company, where a policeman had sought refuge with a seriously pummelled prisoner, Paul Sor- gera. Greek peddler, 30 years of age, who made the mistake. so it is charged, of kissing Grace Josco. an Italian girl of Il years
 A shrill cry from the girl, and an im- passioned appeal by the mother, put the foreigners of the nelghborhood in a rage and as the Greek took to his heels a crowd pursued He was overtaken and kicked nearly senseless.
 Nearly Hanged.
 By this time some one had stretched d clothesline from a window of a grocery store and the rioters attempted to put d moose over the offenders head. Only the eagerness of each rioter to have a hand in the lassoing saved the peddler's life.
 .,Ita rived and clubbed his way to the endan- gered man and dragged him to the near by car barns. Police reserves stood off the mob while the Greek was hustled into a patrol wagon. Through a crowd that cried Kill him. Lynch him,' the police fought their way to the nearest station house. He was in bad shape; his eyes were blackened, his nose broken. scalp torn face laeerated and his body black with bruises.
 Edward Pratt. millwright. 40 years of age had a somewhat similar experience late this afternoon in Fifty-seventh street. Nellie and Helen Farrell. each about 10 years of age. accused Pratt of improper remarks. He was frightfully mauled be- fore rescued by the police.
 Nurse Makes Fight.
 Adelaide Wilderer, a nurse, fought off an assailant on the west side today. The man was arrested.
 The man who attempted an assault upon a little girl in Green street escaped.
 Tony Sardo was arrested on a child s complaint in Brooklyn.
 The courts are acting promptly on as sault cases.
 P. J. Schmidt, blacksmith charged with having attempted to attack little girl. was today sentenced to the peniten- tiary for one year. Antonio Levant, for Il similar offense, was given six months.
 "There is not any crime wave" said Superintendent Jenkins of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. today. "Our statistics show no increase in the number of actual assaults commit ted upon girls under 16 years. At this sea- son of the year there Is always relative increase in the number of assaults and attempted assaults upon girls under Is. They have not. however, increased rela- lively to the increase of population. There are about the same number to date, this month and last. that were reported in July and August of 1906.'