Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-11-25
WATERFRONT HOLD-UP
Unidentified Foreigner Picked UP Ser
iously Wounded. Speaks Strange
Language.

iOuSIy WOundeu. speaks Strange
Language.
Stabbed in the back, his left arm
and three ribs broken, his pockets
emptied and turned inside out, and un-
conscious foreigner was found lying
abrest of Pier 18, North River, short
iy after dusk last evening.
Taken to Bellevue Hospital, the in
jured man was revived, but none of
the interpreters were able to converse
with him. The surgeons are of the
opinion that the man was stabbed,
robbed, and then thrown out of a
rapidly moving vehicle.
Little hope is expressed for the re-
covery of the victim. The police
profess to have no clue to the iden-
tity of the assailants.
"He's funny guy" said the day
attendant when reported for duty
that evening.
He jerked thumb in the direction
of Cot IL, and continued:
"When 1 was about to wheel him
into the X-ray room this morning to
get picture of his ribs he hung onto
the cot with that good right wing of
his. Wouldn't leave till he fished
around under the bed-clothes and
dragged out his wooden foot. 1
Strapped it on for him, and then he
was happy. He's in bad shape"
"Find anybody that can talk with
him? ?" l asked.
"Ngh-ngh!" grunted the day man
negatively as he struggled into his
overcoat. "Old Moses was up here
this afternoon. He tried him with all
the languages he speaks. Nothing
doing. Moses says he thinks it some
dialect of Slavish. Well-we've
transferred all our convalescents to
the Metropolitan and cleaned away the
Springs You'll have an easy night.
So-longw
Thankfully I eyed the clear center
of the long ward and then went about
my duties.
AS l took my temperatures | no.
ticed that John Doe had consider
able fever. But he seemed to be rest
ing easier than he had been the night
before, and he flashed me grateful
look as took his pulse.
"What do you make of those scars,
doctor?" 1 asked the ward surgeon,
little later, as he halted before Cot
IL after attending to an urgent sum-
mons from another part of the ward.
Couldn't say exactly, Mac" pro-
nounced the inferno as he stroked his
neat Vandyke and glanced at the chart
hooked at the foot of the cot.
Then he bent over the wounded man
and turned his attention to the recent
ly healed cicatrices.
"Looks like the work of poisonous
thorns," he murmured as he ran his
trained fingers over the pitted and
lumpy skin of John Does forearm
"Probably we'll never learn definite
ly." he added as he shrugged his his
shoulders and turned away.
1t was nine o'clock, or little after
when the telephone-bell brought me
out of Gray's chapter on the connec-
tive tissues. The "Gate" was speak.
ing:
"Three guys comm up to identify
your John Doe. The 'sistant super's
office says to let 'em look him over
If they reco'nize him you're to fill
out his history sheet"
TO Miss Julia I repeated the mes
sage from the man at the entrance
gates of the big institution.
"Hope they're friends of his, ant
that they cheer him up" said th'
black-haired night nurse as she slip
ped into "Surgical ID" on still hun
for reserve hot-water bottles. Fo
three empty cots in No. 13 yawned fo
post-operatives still up in the amphi
theater.
The fireproof door swung open
few minutes later, and following har'
upon the heels of a messenger, thre
dark-complexioned strangers entere
the ward
They were rough-looking customers
The man in the lead was hairy-face
ruffian, bearded to the top of hi
cheekbones. Slouching behind hir
was an oily skinned rascal who's
shoe-botton eyes roved restlessly owe
the cots along the walls. rhe thir
man of the ugly trio Jagged behint
eyeing each cot he passed as if he wer