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College Boys Cause A Riot and A Race Riot on
the West Side of Manhattan 1900 SERIOUS TROUBLE
AT NINTH REGIMENT ARMORY over a Baseball Game. Attempt Made
to Seize Arms.
1.The indoor
baseball game played last evening between teams from the
College of the City of New York and the Ninth Regiment
at the armory in West Fourteenth Street ended in a Riot.
The college boys and their adherents were not satisfied
with the decision of the umpire in the second half of
the fifth inning. The first protest was made to the
umpire direct. This had no effect, and some of the
college boys started in to make things lively. Their
first move was to threaten the umpire. This was followed
by a more serious demonstration, when a crowd of the
students rushed to one end of the drill floor and tried
to break open the cases in which the guns are kept. The
protests against the umpire's decision had excited the
students to such an extent that a crowd of those who had
been sitting in the galleries rushed down to the drill
floor and joined with the others in the attempted raid
on the guns.
Meanwhile members of the Ninth Regiment, under the
direction of an armorer, had gathered near the guns and
were doing their best to prevent the students from
breaking open the cases. Some one called the nearest
policemen, who by persuasion and threats of arrest
succeeded in clearing the armory. A group of college
boys stood on the street in front of the building for
some time waiting for the umpire who had incurred their
displeasure. The man was taken out of one of the other
doors by the police, however, and escaped the threatened
trouble.
At the time of the outbreak the score stood 11 to 9 in
favor of the regiment team. The college boys up to that
inning had held the score a tie, and the protest was
against a decision of the umpire's which admitted 2 runs
against them.
The only serious damage done as a result of the trouble
was the wrecking of the large blackboard on which the
score was posted. The umpires, against whom the college
boys became incensed were Messers. Lichtenstein and
Jenks. As a result of the trouble orders will be issued
by Col. Morris of the Ninth Regiment that the members
shall not play with outside teams in future. A Race
Riot On The West Side of Manhattan 1900 A
disturbance which had its inception in race prejudice
broke out on the West Side of Manhattan, in the district
embraced between Twenty-eighth and Forty-second streets
and Seventh and Tenth avenues, about 11 o'clock last
night and lasted until nearly 3 o'clock this morning. It
grew to the proportions of a riot between whites and
negroes and the services of nearly 700 of the police
reserves under Chief Devery and Acting Captain Cooney
were required to restore order. So serious did the
affair become at one time that the chief instructed the
Brooklyn police precinct commanders to have their
reserves in readiness to join him in Manhattan at any
time.
In the course of the riot nearly sixty persons mostly
colored, were injured, many of them severely, and some
thirty-five were arrested and locked up. There is much
uncertainty as to how the row started, but it is
generally agreed that the death of Policeman Robert J.
Thorpe of the West Thirty-seventh street station had
much to do with the affair.
Thorpe made an effort, early Sunday morning, to arrest
May Eao, a negress, at Eighth avenue and Forty-first
street. The black woman's lover, Arthur Harris, attacked
Thorpe. He had a razor and cut Thorpe three times in the
stomach and escaped. Thorpe died on Monday.
The body of the dead policeman was taken to the home of
his sister, Lizzie Thorpe, 481 Ninth avenue, last night.
The hearse had hardly driven away when Thorpe's friends
began to arrive for the wake. Considerable liquor was
consumed and a yearning for revenge began to rise in the
breasts of Thorpe's friends, which gradually extended to
the entire colored race. A woman, evidently intoxicated,
issued from the house and raised an outcry for vengeance
on Thorpe's murderer, and she was soon joined by men and
women similarly stimulated. An attack was made on the
first passing colored man and this was repeated. The
negroes who fled got off easy: these who resisted were
brutally handled. The infection of riot and destruction
extended to certain gangs of white loafers, who infest
the neighborhoods, notably that known as the "Hell's
Kitchen Gang," and they readily joined in the assaults
upon the negroes. "Kill the niggers" was the slogan of
the lower west side for blocks around. Finally the
disturbance assumed such proportions that the policemen
on beat realized that they could not cope with it and
they telephoned to Acting Captain Cooney. The captain
not only turned out the west Thirty-seventh street
reserves, but called up Police Headquarters, and from
that point the policemen on reserve in West Twentieth
street, West Thirtieth street and even as far up as West
Forty-seventh street were routed out and ordered to the
scene of riot. For the next hour the streets were filled
with the sound of flying, clanging patrol wagons,
ambulances, the rushing of angry thousands, the
shrieking of women, the lamentations of children. From
that time until 3 clock the police found they had all
that they could do to subdue the crowd. Driven from one
neighborhood the mob surged into other streets, searched
tenements for colored men and women whom they dragged
forth and proceeded to kick and pound all over the
streets until the victims were rescued by a rush of the
police. In the meantime the negroes themselves were not backward
in their own defense. Revolvers, knives and razors
played a prominent part in the engagement and several
persons suffered from gunshot, wounds, cuts and stabs.
In one encounter Policeman John Kennedy was cut in the
arm and shoulder and seriously but not fatally hurt. In
return he shot one of his negro assailants. Lee, through
the jaw and breast and he was otherwise so badly injured
that it is thought at Bellevue Hospital that he will
die.
From the roofs of the tenements the negroes showered the
police and rioters both with bricks, stones and sticks
and inflicted some painful injuries. Not satisfied with
attacking such blacks as could be found in the streets
and tenements, the rioters boarded the Eighth and Ninth
avenue cars and dragged negro passengers over the laps
of the other passengers to the street where they were
kicked and pounded into insensibility.
James Rice, the conductor of a Ninth avenue car was shot
in the left leg by a negro passenger who was trying to
defend himself and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital.
The mob invaded the various restaurants and attacked the
negro waiters, and in some cases the restaurants were
closed. The police gradually restored order, but were
not withdrawn from the neighborhood until late this
morning. The arrests were numerous. The blacks were in
the majority in the lists of prisoners. In several cases
the police absolutely declined to arrest white men. In
one case on Eighth avenue, a ruffian in the mob even
ventured to ask a policeman for his club to attack a
negro bicyclist, who was already lying prostrate in the
street.
The reserves of the station which had been on duty
nearly all night were called in during the morning and
after 5 o'clock there were only spasmodic troubles, a
policeman once in a while bringing in a prisoner. Two
arrests made were those of James and Ethel Harris on
suspicion of
being the Harris who killed Thorpe. The man and his wife
live at 229 West Fortieth street, and two detectives
hearing that a man named Harris lived there with his
wife and that they were negroes went up and arrested
them on no other evidence. They were taken to the
station house and locked up. They denied knowing
anything about Thorpe, and said they had had no part in
the disturbances. They were finally discharged, but were
afraid to leave the station and were finally given cells
for the night.
The precinct was very quiet during the later hours of
the morning. There were no signs of a renewal of the
troubles and colored and white people passed one another
without any sign that the terrible times of last night
had happened at all. Fifteen patrol wagons were required
to take the prisoners of the West Thirty-seventh street
station to the West Side court this morning. The
rioters arrested were in a bad state. They were bandaged
up in many instances, but very many of them exposed
their cuts and bruises, and they did not present a very
cheerful appearance.
David H. Tarr of 215 West Thirty-fifth street, the negro
charged with cutting Policeman Kennedy was arraigned by
Policeman Dorsey. He said he found Tarr running through
West Thirty-seventh street, toward Seventh avenue. His
clothing and collar were bloody, and he arrested him. He
was told by another officer that Tarr had stabbed
Kennedy, and Kennedy identified Tarr as one of his
assailants. Lloyd Lee, another negro, was arrested at
the same time on the same charge, but he was bruised and
bleeding from participation in the rioting and they took
him to Bellevue
Hospital. Magistrate Cornell held Tarr without bail to
await the result of Kennedy's injuries.
Other prisoners were arraigned, but the police were so
unprepared as to cause the magistrate great annoyance.
Many of them had no witnesses, but the magistrate, in
most cases, held the prisoners for examination on the
officers' statement.
In the Jefferson Market court this morning the following
prisoners arrested by the officers of the West Thirtieth
street station were arraigned: John Shank of 631 East
Thirty-seventh street. Richard Wilson of 518 East
Thirty-seventh street. Margaret Wicksman of 500 West
Thirty-seventh street. Charles Denis of 308 West
Thirty-seventh street, James Wilson of 260 West
Fifty-third street, James Harris of 229 West Fortieth
street. Ethel Harris of 229 West Fortieth street,
Richard Harris of 125 West Thirty-seventh street,
William Knack of 12 West Thirty-sixth street, John A.
Hughes of 110 West Thirty-sixth street, Henry; Miller of
135 East Thirty-fifth street, John Smadick of 210 West
Forty-fourth street, John Benson of 437 West
Thirty-sixth street, Richard Benning of 254 West
Fifty-fourth street.
Nearly all of them were put under bonds to keep the
peace for six months or held for examination where
specific charges could be made. There were no
disturbances this morning in the district where the
rioting occurred last night and negroes and whites
appeared each unconcerned by the other's presence, but
the police arrangements are of the most perfect
character.
To take the places of the 120 men from the West
Thirty-seventh street station who will attend the
funeral of the murdered policeman Inspector Walter
Thompson has caused other policemen from various
precincts to take their places and aside from these he
has as a precautionary measure scattered 150 more
policemen throughout the precinct to see that order of
the strictest character is observed.
The precinct will be kept fairly alive with bluecoats
until every vestige of the trouble between the whites
and blacks has disappeared, and the first semblance of
trouble will be quelled in the shortest order possible.
With the additional policemen scattered about it is not
likely,
according to Inspector Thompson, that any trouble will
arise. If it does, he says, it will be of short
duration.
[End of Article]
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