The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-02
REPORTED ASSAULTS
BELLINGER HEIGHTS NEIGHnOR-
 HOOD IS GREATLY EXCITED.
Mrs. w. T. Dean is Seized by Negro Who Wanted to Secure Money. d, Mrs. Bertrafn Reports
 Insult.

The Beilinger Heights Neighborhood
 was aroused last night by two alarms from prominent citizens of that re- zion to the effect that a negro, or two of them, had attempted assaults upon two of the well-known women of that vicinity.
 The first alarm came from w. T. Dean, who has a grocery store at 901 South Decatur Street, and stated that negro had frightened hls wife, by demanding entrance to her house, on Cramer Avenue, and the second of the alarms was that an assault had been attempted upon Mrs. c. o. Bertram of HOP South Hull Street.
 The notice from Mir Dean to the police department reached headquar- ters about 8.30 o'clock over the tele- phone, and was that negro had vis- ited the home of his wife for the pur- pose, as the negro stated to Mrs. Dean, of purchasing milk. Mrs. Dean, the husband states, opened the door and told the negro she had none for sale, and as she did, she was grabbed by the negro, who, at the same time re- marked: Give me all of your money"
 The screams of Mrs. DeanSwere heard by her husband, who was at his store, within hearing, and he and several friends at once rushed to the house. When they arrived the negro had fled, and found only the wifc, trembling and frightened, from her encounter with the brute. The police department was notified of the attack, but inasmuch as no clue to the negro could be given, work on the case was delayed,
 The second of the calls received at headquarters was received about 10:35 o'clock, and six bicycle policemen, two mounted men and Chief of Police w. H. Taylor at once responded. Police Cap Ia Tn Afflns Smith vyhn had haAn n n f. tendant upon the session of the City Council reached the scene very Vew minutes after the alarm had been sent in.
 Mrs. Bertram is the wife of c. Q. Der tram, a salesman of the International Harvester Company. and resides with her husband in a dwelling occupied by Mir. and Mrs. F. S. Laseter, at 1l02 South Hull Street She saw a reporter of The Advertiser last evening, and gave the following account of her en- counter: shortly after 10 o'clock I went into the house from the front porch for the purpose of getting quilt that was hanging on a line immediately outside of the dining room window. As l leaned out of the window to secure 1t someone, a negro, 1 afterwards dis covered, grabbed me by the arm, and as he did, I and a little girl, who was with me. began to scream, frightening the negro away, 'k
 T could not make out the features of the negro, but did notice that he was large and apparently without hat. Almost as soon as l screamed in less than ten minutes after, 1t seems, members of the police department had reached the house and were out SCOUT ing the neighborhoOd for any trace that they might find. l did not have the time to pay close attention to the negro, and then I was scared and could only scream.
 Mir. Bertram was not in the city at the time the attack took place, though MT. Laseter had been and had just left the house a short while before for the purpose of coming to town. He arrived at the house within few minutes after the police, however, but could offer no clue of any suspicious character that he had seen Tn the neighborhood.
 Miss Ethel. Gonzales. a visitor from Florida, who accompanied Mrs. Bert ram to the dining room. says that on last Wednesday she was approached by a negro while she was in the yard of the residence occupied by Mrs. Bertram, and that her screams fright ened the brute away. Mrs. Bertram and Mrs. Laseter, to whom she con fided the case, thought that the girl had imagined a man out of the shad ows. and hence did not take her ac- count seriously. Mrs. Bertram, how ever. reports that she had heard grumbling in the neighborhood for the last ten days aboat suspicious charac- ters being in the vicinity, but that nothing had ever come of the reports until last night.
 The people in the neighborhood of Mrs Bertram's residence expressed great pleasure at the quick arrival Of fine police soon after the report had been sent to Sergeant Ragland. Sev- eral of the policemen, of the bicycle souad. were almost prostrated from the effects of the heat and their hasty ride. and one of them received medical treatment because of his exhausted condition. The police department Is at work on both cases.