Sworn to before me this 5th day of September, 1900.
GEO. P. HAMMOND, JR., Notary Public (164), N. Y. County.
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_City and County of New York, ss._:
Chester Smith, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I reside at No. 320 West 37th Street. I am employed in Flannery's drug
store, at No. 103 West 42nd Street, and have been so employed for the
last ten months. On August 15th, 1900, at about ten o'clock P.
M., while going to my home, walking on the west side of 8th Avenue
between 38th and 39th Streets, I saw a crowd of people, composed mostly
of police officers and children. Some one in the crowd said, "There is
a nigger!" pointing at me. One of the policemen ran towards me, and
seeing that I was in physical danger I ran away from the place, going
north to 39th Street on 8th Avenue. Somebody threw a brick at me, which
struck me in the back, and then one of the policemen came up to me
and struck me in the left eye with his club. My eye and my forehead
are still lacerated and discolored. I then ran into the saloon at the
southeast corner of 39th Street and 8th Avenue. One of the policemen
ran in after me, and told me to go outside and run towards Broadway;
that the mob had dispersed. I started toward the door, and as I reached
it I saw that they were still waiting outside. I said to the officer as
I started back into the saloon, "No, sir, I can't go out there; they'll
kill me." The policeman then lifted me from the ground and threw me
through the swinging door into the street. The glass in the door was
broken, and I fell on my hands and knees. The policemen and the mob
then began beating me, the policemen beating me with their clubs. They
did not disperse the crowd or protect me from it. I then started to
run towards Broadway; another policeman ran after me and struck me in
the back with his club. I staggered, made one or two jumps, and fell
in front of No. 236 West 39th Street. The lady of the house, a white
woman, came out, and I was taken into the house by some one, I don't
know whom. Two or three days after she told me that the officers soon
left the house, but that the mob tried to break in, and that she told
them that if they would not leave she would kill them. The lady rang
for a messenger boy and sent word to my employer to call. He came and
brought some bandages, etc., and bandaged my head. He then called two
police officers and asked them to take me to the station house. They
refused. He insisted, and they finally yielded and took me to the
station house. I was treated there by a police surgeon. My employer
remained with me until three o'clock the next morning. I did not work
for three days after this. I saw one man treated very harshly at the
station house, being clubbed by police officers, and I believe he would
have been treated still worse if it had not been for the presence of
reporters. I did nothing whatever to justify this brutal treatment on
the part of the police officers. I believe that had it not been for the
presence of my employer I would have been beaten still more. There were
over twenty-five policemen in the crowd. I was unconscious part of the
time. I have never been arrested in my life.