On September 13th, 1900, I visited the premises No. 236 West 39th Street and found that the occupant thereof was the woman who rescued Chester Smith from the hands of the mob, and that her name is Mrs. Davenport. She stated that she did not want to make an affidavit or statement of the occurrence, but volunteered the information that she had sheltered two or three Negroes during the night of August 15th and the morning of the 16th, also that several police officers who attempted to get into her house, at the time that she rescued the said Smith, acted and spoke in an insulting manner, one of them saying, "What kind of a woman are you, to be harboring niggers?"
George P. Hammond, Jr.
City and County of New York, ss.:
Harry L. Craig, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I reside at No. 226 West 28th Street. I am employed as a hall boy at the apartment houses Nos. 102 and 104 East 26th Street. On August 15th, 1900, I left the apartment house a little after twelve o'clock, that being the time I usually go home. I walked on 26th Street to 6th Avenue, then turned into 6th Avenue and walked to 27th Street; I then walked on 27th Street to 8th Avenue, turned into 8th Avenue, and went into the saloon at 8th Avenue and 28th Street, southwest corner, where I had a drink, and left about 12:20, going home on 28th Street. As I neared M. Groh's Son's Brewery on that block some one hit me on the head with a club; I turned around and saw three policemen in uniform, and behind them was a mob of at least fifty men. The street was very dark. I started to run home, but one of the officers tripped me, and I fell. I was then clubbed by the police and the mob into unconsciousness. When I recovered I found that the police and the mob had left. I picked up my hat and got up, and started to walk to our house, which was only a few feet away, but I staggered and fell several times. When I reached home the lady I live with, Mrs. Wisham, washed my face with witch-hazel; my jaw was so sore that I could hardly open my mouth. For a few days after this I felt sore all over my body, from the effects of this clubbing. I was clubbed by three officers. The officers led the crowd, and did not interfere when others were beating me. They made no attempt to disperse the crowd. I did nothing whatever to justify this brutal assault upon me by the police. I was never arrested in my life. I was not in the neighborhood while the riots were going on in the early part of the evening. The police did not give any reason for acting as they did, and when I fell unconscious they left me alone in the dark street.
Harry S. Craig.
Sworn to before me this 13th day of September, 1900.
Frank Moss, Notary Public, N. Y. County.