Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-04-29
Follow Lively Melee Among
Gang Of LaboGeTs
EN- |oyed on National Home
Sewage Disposal Plant.
Revolver Figures In Fight, But No
One Is Hurt. ....

AS the result OF q row among the
laborers engaged in the construction
OF the new sewage disposal plant on
the reservation at the National Home
yesterday afternoon three of the Ia
borers are held at police headquarters
for arraignment before Judge Maher in
the Augusta municipal court this
morning. The men in custody are MEM
bers of a crew Of 81 and are known as
No. %, No. % and No. q. Dissatisfac-
ton with the man employed to do the
cooking for the gang is credited with
being the primary reason for the row.
News reached Augusta early last
evening that there had been trouble
at the camp of the men, located on the
reservation close to the Chelsea line.
Deputy Sheriff D. Frank Moore, City
Marshal George E. Fletcher, Dep
uty Marshal Henry o. Parmenter and
Special Officer George Boynton went
out on the S o'clock car and visited
the camp, bringing back the three men.
One of them was found at the camp.
hiding under a bunk, and the other
two were intercepted on the road
leading to the National Home. They
had their luggage with them and said
lucy Wckc 6OlliS "
The two men We're taken into custody
and accompanied the officers back to
camp while an Investigation of the
trouble was made. But little of the
details could be learned, but inter-
views with several of the people con-
nected with the camp brought out the
story that there had been row among
the men connected with it, which took
place on neighboring hillside.
Just how the affair started is not
clear, but several agreed that one of
the men, No. 90, had No. q down and
was getting the better of the physical
argument in which they were engaged,
when the man who was down reached
to his hip pocket for a revolver. Wit
nesses say that he intended
to use it on his adversary, and
would have succeeded in doing so had
not the foreman, whose only name
seems to be Tony, interfered.
The foreman seized the hand which
was reaching for the revolver and in
the struggle for it's possession it was
discharged, the bullet going wild and
doing no harm. The foreman then
separated che two men, one of whom
returned to camp. The other showed
up at the camp some time later and
was stoned by his fellow workmen.
Another, whose connection with the
affair is not plain, was afraid to go
back to the camp and remained in hid
ing in the woods. When the officers
arrived on the scene this man was Still
in hiding, but the men at the camp said
it was through fear of two of the men
taken in custody and that he would
doubtless return as soon as he learned
| they were no longer there.
The camp in which the men live is a
long, shedlike structure of rough
boards, arranged with an upper and
a lower tier Of hunks on which they
sleep All hands We're in bed, or rather
in their hunks, when the officers ar
rived some with their clothes on ami
others with most of it removed. No.
g, as soon as he heard them approach
| ing, dove under the bunk in which he
| was resting, but was detected by the
| officers, who made him come out and
| give himself up.
| The men apparently were not alarm
ed at being in custody, laughing and
| joking with each other while waiting
| for the 10 o'clock car at the National
| Home station of the Electric Railroad.
Two of them who were manacled to-
| gether inspected their shackles with
some show of interest and then, af-
| ter exchanging glances and smiles,
leaned back with a languid sort of
| stoicism to wait for the car. They Of
fered no resistance when arrested,
but each protested his innocence of
wrong doing.
1t was not decided just what charge
would be preferred against the men.
They can be charged with disorderly
conduct or creating disturbance, and
at least one, it is believed, can be held
for carrying concealed weapons.
| One man said that the men had been
drinking, but this was denied by the
man in charge of the work. who said
that while some of them did doubt
less partake of beer which they pur-
chased and had shipped from Boston,
no drunkenness was permitted, the
rules in this regard being explicit and
strictly enforced.
| lohn Ole RovAs