Part 10
My name is Jesse Payne. I reside at 255 West 93rd Street. I work there as a waiter in a boarding house. On the evening of August 15th I was sent down to accompany a small boy, by the name of Allan Atkins, to his home, 223 West 18th Street. He took an 8th Avenue car at 93rd Street, and I rode alongside the car until I got to 59th Street. I told him I would ride on, and I rode about a block in front of the car. We went down this way until we approached 34th Street. Around the corner of 34th Street and 8th Avenue I saw a crowd standing. It stretched all over the street and sidewalk. I thought that some one was hurt, and that was the reason the crowd had collected, but when I got into the crowd they did not seem to be standing around no one, and I did not know what was the matter until I passed 34th Street, and was about half way to 33rd Street. I was still on the west side of the car track riding on the wheel, and about half a block in front of the car in which the boy was, and about half a block behind another car, trying to follow the pathway it made in the street. When I got to the middle of the block a policeman ran out from the sidewalk from the west and raised his club and hit me across the mouth, saying, "What the hell are you riding here for?" This blow split my lip and broke off two of my front teeth; it also knocked me off the wheel, but I scrambled up and ran between the east side of 8th Avenue, dragging my wheel with me, and away from the policeman. The policeman followed right upon me, clubbing me, and the whole crowd was after me. I tried to get into a store, and they shoved me back, and they would not let me in. While I was going from where I was knocked off my wheel to the east side of the street a policeman who struck me kept on clubbing me. The first blow he gave me knocked me kind of foolish, but I hung on to my wheel. When I got to the curb I fell, because I missed the step. After I got up another policeman came up to me and said, "What the hell are you doing here with that wheel?" I says, "I ain't done nothing to anybody, just going on a message to take a boy home;" and he grabbed the wheel and hit me over the hand with his club. That made me let go the wheel. It was taken away from me and I have not seen it since. Then I ran away about four doors from 8th Avenue, and a third officer told me to stop and sit down, "If you don't they will kill you;" and he stood there and protected me until he sent another officer for a patrol wagon and took me to the station house, and I was there until four o'clock in the morning. I have been employed by Mrs. McFarland, at 255 West 93rd Street for about three months; before that with Annie Sterler, of 44 West 35th Street--this is a boarding house, and I was a waiter there for two years; with Mrs. Gillies, of 18 West 9th Street, two and a half years. I know Rev. Mr. Franklin, of Zion Church, corner 10th and Bleecker Streets.
JESSE x PAYNE. his mark
Sworn to before me this 22nd day of August, 1900.
SAMUEL L. WOLFF, Notary Public (77), N. Y. County.
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_City and County of New York, ss._:
My name is John B. Mallory. I reside at 206 West 62nd Street. While coming home from the engineers' lectures my friend Gordon Jones and myself came up to 7th Avenue through 29th Street where the colored Engineers' Hall is. We turned into 39th Street and went west towards 8th Avenue. We saw a crowd of white men and boys coming around the corner towards us. Before the gang reached us a policeman said to my friend and myself, "Get out of here," and began clubbing me and my friend; he struck my friend first, and my friend ran towards Broadway. Then after being struck four or five times, and as soon as I could, I ran up on a stoop. The policeman did not have a hold of me, but began striking me, and kept up with me. When I got on top of the stoop he ran after me, and caught hold of me and shoved me down. He said again, "Get out of here." It made me fall down the stairs, and I was on my hands and knees on the walk. Then the policeman left me at the mercy of the mob, and he went across the street where he was at first. The mob began punching me, hitting me with sticks, kicking and hitting me with their fists, and split my lip open, cut my nose, and bruised my forehead. Then I got up and put my hands on my face and head, and stood up against the railing by the stoop of the house where I was shoved down. Then another policeman came to me and said to me, "Have you sense enough to go home?" I said "Yes." I got on an 8th Avenue car, in which he got on, and began going uptown about fifteen or twenty feet, when another policeman came up and got on the car from the left-hand side, and shoved me out towards the right-hand side, where the mob was. He said, "Get out of here." As I was pushed off a man at the side struck at me, but I dodged him and jumped on the car again. The car was moving when the policeman shoved me off of it. The policeman who protected me made the motorman stop the car for me to get on, and I got on the front of the car again. The policeman who protected me said to the policeman who shoved me off, "Get off, and let him alone." He got off then. The policeman who protected me stood on the car until I got up one block out of the mob, and then he got off. I rode on this 8th Avenue car up to 59th Street, and I stood between two men. One of them offered me his handkerchief to wipe the blood off my face, and when I got to 59th Street they advised me to go to Roosevelt Hospital, and I asked one of them to get a transfer for me. He did this, and I went to Roosevelt Hospital, where I had three stitches put in my lip. I am still going to the hospital, and am under treatment; my back and both shoulders are injured, and I am generally bruised all over. I have no bad habits. I do not smoke or drink, and I am a student at the International Correspondence School, Scranton, Pa. I have been through the public schools, and I am studying to be a mechanical engineer. I also attend lectures at the Colored Engineers' Association, on 29th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. I know Mrs. S. E. Lodewick, of 800 Lexington Avenue; C. W. Phillips, 11 Broadway; L. P. Sawyer, Mrs. J. F. Aitken, Mrs. Mary Baker, Mrs. E. R. Clark, and Mrs. A. Arnold, all of 153 Madison Avenue. I have known these people for about eight years, and they can all testify to my good character.
JOHN B. MALLORY.
Sworn to before me this 22nd day of August, 1900.
SAMUEL L. WOLFF, Notary Public (77), N. Y. County.
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_City and County of New York, ss._:
Nicholas J. Sherman, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
My name is Nicholas J. Sherman. I reside at No. 134 West 33rd Street, Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. On the 15th day of August I was visiting some friends at 37th Street near 7th Avenue, in a boarding house. As the clock struck ten I left the house. I walked east toward 7th Avenue. At the corner of 37th Street and 7th Avenue I saw several policemen chasing a person eastward. I do not know whether the person was colored or not. I am a messenger and mailing clerk on the _New York Herald_, and I naturally was interested, as I thought it was a news item, and I walked across the street. When I got within six feet of the sidewalk, near the drug store, on the corner of 37th Street and 7th Avenue, a policeman stopped me, and asked me, "Where in hell do you live?" I told him in 33rd Street, and then he said, "G-- d-- you, go home!" and he hit me with his club on the left arm. There were about a dozen policemen standing around there, and two or three within reach. One of these struck me across the right shoulder, and when I turned to run the same policeman, I think, who struck me on the left arm again struck me across the small of my back with his club. Then I limped from there towards the saloon on the southwest corner of 37th Street and 7th Avenue, where a policeman was leaning against a lamppost. As I limped past him he struck me with his club on the right arm. I was then unable to get away from him on account of my injury, but I managed to get across the street and stood in front of the saloon on the southeast corner, and a man came out and asked me to go in. I went in and leaned against a barrel, and he told the bartender that the police had just beaten me. As soon as I was able to walk I started for the _New York Herald_ office to tell the man whom I am employed under. I sat in the chair at the _Herald_ office all night, because there was a great crowd around the street and I was afraid to go home. I left there the next morning about six o'clock, went to my room and changed my clothing, and started for my breakfast. Then I went to the office and worked all day, until about six o'clock that evening. Then I went to my room, and was so lame I could not get out again until the following Tuesday morning, five days after, not even being able, in the meantime, to sit in a chair. I still feel the effects of the clubbing. The blow on the small of my back made my left limb almost paralyzed.
NICHOLAS J. SHERMAN.
Sworn to before me this 24th day of August, 1900.
HERBERT PARSONS, Notary Public, N. Y. County.
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Mr. Sherman states in addition that his chief in the newspaper office directed him to report the matter to the police authorities, and that he spoke to Chief Devery, who said to him substantially, "A negro killed a policeman up there, and they can't be controlled."
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_City and County of New York, ss._:
My name is W. H. Cooper. I reside at 340 West 41st Street. On the morning of August 15th, about half past nine, I went from the house to the post office station at the southwest corner of 41st Street and 8th Avenue. When I reached that corner I saw a group of white men and boys standing at the corner. When I passed this group at this corner I overheard one of them saying, "We are going to get back at the niggers to-night." One of the others said, "Is that true? Is there going to be a riot to-night?" and the reply was "Yes." When I heard this I went around the corner. There was a bicycle pump there. I went behind the bicycle pump like I was looking in the window. I could overhear everything that was said. One of the fellows said, "Have they buried Thorpe, yet?" "No, we expect to bury Thorpe to-day;" and he says, "We expect to have a hot time to-day when the funeral starts." It was rumored around that he was to be buried on the day of the riot, but he was not buried, however, until the next day. One of the fellows said, "Have they got the nigger Harris, yet?" "Yes," he said, "they caught him down at Washington, and if we can get our hands on him we will tar and feather the bastard;" and I went into the drug store and came out again after mailing my letter. When I came out I stood on the corner and filled my pipe, and I overheard them say, "Have they got the woman yet?" and they said, "Yes, she is locked up;" and the other fellow said, "Well, that is all to-night." I did not move on until one of the fellows said, "There is a coon standing there now; you had better hush." Then I went down home and told the boys at the shop about it.
W. H. COOPER.
Sworn to before me this 22nd day of August, 1900.
JOHN C. BARR, Notary Public, Kings County. Certificate filed in N. Y. County.
The Citizens' Protective League was organized in St. Mark's Church, West 53d Street and Eighth Avenue, on Monday morning, September 3, 1900. The object of the League is, first, to afford mutual protection; and, secondly, to prosecute the guilty. The League now numbers about 5,000, with daily increase.
The following officers were elected:
OFFICERS.
Rev. W. H. BROOKS, D.D., President. T. S. P. MILLER, M.D., Vice President. Rev. H. P. MILLER, Secretary. JAMES E. GARNER, Treasurer.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
T. T. FORTUNE, Chairman, W. R. DAVIS, Secretary, C. A. DORSEY, Rev. P. B. TOMPKINS, Rev. J. W. SCOTT, D. M. WEBSTER, Rev. C. T. WALKER, D.D., Rev. W. L. HUBBARD, Rev. GEO. W. BAILEY, L. H. LATIMER, Rev. R. D. WYN, J. F. THOMAS, N. B. DODSON, Rev. G. HUNT, Rev. L. L. CUYLER, Rev. H. C. BISHOP, Rev. W. D. COOK, D.D., MELVIN J. CHISUM.