The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-03-25
AFTER BEING MARSHAL OF LUM-
Der CITY, GA, HE GOES
BACK TO OLD TRADE.


Edward DeGroote, the French pug
Hist who up until few weeks ago
was marshal at Lumber City Ca
has retired from the Office and is
back again in the roped arena meet
ing all comers.-Sporting Life.
DeGroote is we'll known in Atlanta
through the publicity he gained in
1905 through the breaking up of
prize fight by DR.. Broughton The
Frenchman was to meet some pug,
name forgotten, in a secret bout to
which a large number of tickets had
been sold, but Dr. Broughton put the
police wise to the fight and the going
was kiboshed, At the time it was
reported that the fighters went into
an adjoining county and pulled off
the event anyway, but only those
who were on the inside know the
straight of that.
Anyway DeGrCote is before us
again He retired from the ring and
toop I'D the chief of police job in a
Georgia town, as Sporting Life states.
There he seems to have done efficient
work as an officer and engaged in
more than one thrilling capture. One
of them was of such a desperate
character that the Police Gazette !
carried DeGroote's picture and a |
whole column of the taking Of the !
criminal According to that paper !
the fighter hid in the swamps for |
days and finally got his man, only to |
have him when turned over to the
sheriff knock that official down and
make an escape. Then DeGroote
took him again under dangerous cir
cumstances.
Here is some dope on the prize
fighter policeman:
Many are the stories that have
been written in the past concerning
the wild and laWless mining and lum-
Der camps of the great far west, but
here is one about a town in south
Georgia with a lawless element that
held sway for long while, and was
finally put down by a prize fighter
who was appointed its chief of po-
lice.
Situated on the Southern railway
about midway between Macon and
Brunswick on the Ocmulgee river is
a thriving town of some four or five
thousand or so people. 1t is located in
the very heart of the fine hardwood
timber belt of the state, hence the
of tbs citizens are mill men
and are engaged in the manufacture |
of rough and dressed lumber, which
they export by both rail and water.
Lumber City the name by which the
town is known, has, as the reader
may have already guessed, most |
population, and ii by
chance you should be travelling near
and should inquire as to the charac-
.er of the hustling little city you will
be informed that things are all Sc
'ene at present, but that the time is
lot far gone when she had a lawless s
element which made life miserable
'or the peace-loving citizen, and con- {
iucted affairs about as they pleased.
The law-abiding citizens OF the
own decided that they could stand
or this no longer, and two years ago
hey concentrated all their efforts
md elected a mayor and board of
aldermen composed of men who
stood for law, order and better gov
eminent. Their first official act was
o look about for a suitable man to
i'll the position of marshal Of the
own. This was no easy matter, for
lust such a man as they then needed
vas very hard to locate.
DeGroOte Took the Job. p,
By accident it so happened that {
Cd DeGroote, the well-knOwn French I
lugilist. was at the time training on !
he outskirts of the town for finish '
light with Dave Peake, the big Chip !
Dewa Indian at Savannah. Hundreds 5
If the citizens had been out to his ;
lamp to see him go through his sew
9ral and varied exercises, and also {
get a line on his ability as a scrap I
per. Among the visitors to the train
ing quarters were the newly-elected /
aldermen of the town, who, after