Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-07-04
Winter Park Editor Is
Still Confined to His
Bed
SEIZED WITHOUT NOISE
Was Reading When Sack
Was Thrown Over His
Head
Especial to The News.l

OrlanuO, July o.-J. Il. WeHulef,
editor of The Winter Park Post, who
was taken from his home here Friday
night and severely flogged, and then
coated with tar, was able today to
give a detailed statement of the at
tack. He made his statement while
propped up in bed. His statement
follows:
II was alone in the house and sit
ting in the front room writing a letter
on the typewriter, when all at once
someone slipped gunny sack over
my head. l was led out of the house,
and forced into an automobile, in
which there were five men. / could
see indistinctly through the meshes Of
the gunny sack, and l saw they car
ried me south, down the Kissimmee
road.
"The men with me talked all the
way, but they did not say anything to
me. After we had gotten beyond the
city limits they tied my hands to-
gether and put moose around my
neck, and so l sat until we came to
the vicinity of Pine Castle, when the
machine turned off the road.
"As we slowed up to stop l asked
the men what they wanted with me,
and one of them said: you will find
out when we get you there
Il could not see how many ma
chimes there were in the party, but
from the sound l think there were
five. From the number of voices
heard / believe the flogging party
was composed of about twenty men.
"When they took me out of the au-
tomobile they asked me if wrote the
editorial about Duckworth; they then
stripped me, lashed me to tree and
began beating me. | was conscious
all the time they were flogging me,
and l think they used rope, al
though someone hit me several times
with something sharp that felt as
though it were several nails driven
through a board.
81 don't know how many men took
part in the flogging, but | was aware
that first one man would beat and
then another. When the flogging was
over, the ropes that bound me to the
tree were cut, and / was given coat
of tar. All the while the gunny sack
was tied over my head.
1--WE drove back to town, and | was
put out at the Delaney school. The
sack was still over my head when l
was put out of the automobile, and
before l could get it off the automo-
biles were gone so that it was impos-
sible for me to see any of the num-
bers of the cars.
Before | was put out my captors
told me to walk home up Orange
avenue, and to leave town within a
week"
1t was shortly after IL o'clock in
the evening when pedestrians on Or
ange avenue, as well as occupants of
cars travelling on the street, were
amazed to see man covered with tar,
even his hair matted with it, stalk
ing north along the 'thopughfare.
According to those who saw Wen
dler, he walked straight up the ave-
nue., head erect, as though he were
entirely unperturbed, speaking to
those he knew with perfect eclat.
He walked north to Oak street,
turned east, passed the police station,
turned around the courthouse, and
thus on to his home on Lake strete.
As he passed Fields place, a num-
Der of young men standing outside
saw him and followed him, so that
quite procession was trailing the
odd figure as he passed the station
house.
1t was said that as he walked up
the street he was clothed in his trou-
sers and undershirt.
Mrs. Wendler, who was a tthe
stricken mans bedside this morning,
told the following: @Early in the
evening the children and I went out
into the country in the car, and when
we came back stopped at the show.