Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-14
GIVEN CLUE
Suspect Negro Named ''Cur-
ley" in Murder of Chinaman.
SEEN TO. ENTER LAUNDRY
Colored Woman Says He Was Ac.
companied by Another.
STRUCK HEAVY BLOW ON HEAD
Slayer Left Practically No Clue in
Little Shop-Robbery
the Motive
SEEN To- ENTER LAUNDRY
STRUCK HEAVY BLOW ON HEAD

"Curley.' a colored man. supposed to
hang about Chester court, is wanted by
the police to account for his whereabouts
and actions, and his association with an
other negro. before and after 10 o'clock
last night, about the time that a Chinese
laundryman, Sam Hing. was struck down
and killed while at work in his little
laundry shop at 3430 14th street.
A negro woman domestic, Matte Gray,
gives the only tangible clue in the mys-
terry to the police, telling of having seen
the man she knows as "Curley," accom-
panied by another negro. known to her
by sight, but not by name enter the laun-
dry at about 10 o'clock. She declares that
as she passed the men on the street in
the vicinity of the laundry she he-overheard
them talk of getting him now
Curley, she says. carried a slender
package in his hand, about fifteen inches
long and wrapped in paper. This he
was swinging by one end, she says.
According to Matte Gray, who went to
the laundry at 10 O'Clock lnis morning 10
tell her story, she had been sent out last
night by the woman who employs her to
deliver a message on 14th street. IN
house nearly directly opposite the laun-
dry, and was accompanied on the mission
by a negro girl employed in the house
next to where she herself worked
Dumestics Watched Negroes.
Reaching the corner of 14th street. the
two domestics passed the two negro
men, and became interested In their
movements, overhearing their threat to
"get" somebody. Not knowing who was
meant, the women fingered. expecting
possibly to see a-fight. When their in
terest was apparent, the men turned
on to their destination
While the women were waiting on the
stoop Of the house on 14th street. after
having rung the bell. the two men reap
walked toward the laundry. The women
saw the Chinaman within. working over
his ironing board, talking to another
Chinaman, who went away just as the
two negroes entered.
The women. not able to arouse any per-
son in the 14th street household. then
went on their way, not susDecting that
the Chinaman was the man the negroes
were after. Matte Gray described Cur
lev as dark brown of skin, with curling
not woolly-brown hair. His companion.
she says, was almost white
Save for descriptions Of negroes seen In
the vicinity of the laundry at various
hours o. the evening yesterday. there Is
no other clue in the possession OF the
police to point the finger Of suspicion In
any direction in the search for the mur-
derer of the Chinaman.
There are finger prints in blood. but
they are apparently those Of the orr
entail, made while on his feet. fighting
off death. There are two footprints in
the snow, probably made by the slayer
in making his escape. but they are
SO indefinite in form that their use as
Identifying marks seems impracticable.
There is nothing else.
There is nothing to indicate that the
Chinaman made struggle against his
murderers; probably the first blow,
crushing his skull, rendered him uncon-
SciOuS.
Robbery Believed to Be Motive.
Robbery is the real or apparent motive
of the crime The cash drawer was
rifled; yet its contents must have been
meager to attract the cupidity of des-
perate character. ready to kill to OBJ
tain money. Sam Hing made only from
s. to $6 a week, according to Cinnamon
who know him and his affairs, yet he
may have carried about him a greater
sum.
of the Chinese Empire Association. There
has not been a tong war in Washington
for generation. There is no evidence Of
any undercurrent of animosity among the
China appears to have amalgamaleo
nearly all sons of the Flowery Kingdom
under the republican banner of Sun Vat
Sen.
Sam Hing is Chinaman who has been
long in America, dwelling sometimes in
San Francisco, afterward in New York
and for many years in Washington. con-
Quoting his little shop on 18th street with
habits of eternal industry that brought
slender profit. and had no known enemy.
personal or political.
Pounding weakly on a partition wall
that divides his quarters into rooms, cry
ing feebly for help, with blood streaming
down over his face and into his eyes. he
was found by a policeman at about 1910
O'Clock last night. Hurried to the hos
pitaI. there the Chinaman died at mid
night without giving any account of the
tragedy which had cost him his life.
Many Weapons About.
Washroom, bedroom and the storeroom
and shop, where customers are received,
all have the appearance of a shambles.
Over floor and walls and furniture and
linen, hung to dry on lines of twine. the
red blood is everywhere-pools of it, on
the floor, spattered about everywhere
else.
There are many sorts of heavy raetal
pieces about any one of which might
have been used to inflict the wounds
found on his skull. There are fiat irons,
a heavy fire poker and iron rod used to
stir laundry in the clothes boiler; Il
hatchet tor cutting boxes into kindling
wood for the laundry range; none bear
the slightest evidence of having been the
fatal weapon-On none is there a blood
mark or stain.
Sam Hing, with tired eyes-he was
fifty-seven or more years old, with the
age of the unvarying grind of eternal
labor, and his eyesight' was known to
have been of the wOrst-was working
over his ironing board, with man,s,s shirt
under his smoothing iron, when fate over
took him. The cuff of the shirt, half
is orr the ironing board where
he would have been working. and. the
iron is on the stand where 1t would have
been laid out of his hand for the moment
Whoever struck him down struck the
blow at that very place. where the China
man had suspended his work without
moving his feet, to peer up at the new
conner into the shop. great pool of
blood on the floor In front of the ironing
board shows where Sam Hing dropped in
his tracks.
An autopsy at the morgue this MORN
ing showed that his forehead was frac-
tured by the only blow struck. blow in
the right side fractured three ribs, one |
Of them broken in many places.
From this spot into the middle room, |
where the Chinaman had his sleeping
bunk on a board against the wall, his /