OUTRAGE BY THUGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8182, 25 July 1912, Page 21

OUTRAGE BY THUGS

beat woman and dip her in TAR. Worcester County is stirred over tho action of a gang of thugs, who, claiming official protection, dragged Mary Holzman, an unprotected woman, from her home in Ocean City, beat and kicked her about the face and body and forced her into a barrel or tar in the presence of her eleven-year-old son, who struggled to prevent the outragoTerrorised by her experience, the woman has quit the town. She is now sheltered by Tom Jones, a negro, who lives three miles in the country. One feature of tho incident is that tho town lights were out when the assault was committed. Mrs Holzman says tho switch was turned through the connivance of town officials. However this may bo, tho men guilty of the outrage boasted while they were subjecting her to indignities that their acts had the sanction of tho town council. Since then the boast has been repeated. Although officials of Worcester County have given evidence that they would be williqg to have the incident forgotten without taking action, they now realise that the outrage cannot bo ignored. Sherjff. Hanson, acting under instructions of State Attorney Johnson, visited Mrs Holzman at the Jones home, Where it was arranged that she should be taken under protection to Snow Hill, the oonnty seat. She demands an investigation, saying she is the victim of defamatory gossip; as well as of a brutal assault.- She says the men who assaulted: her were fishermen. She was known in the community as “Red Light,” and resentment was aroused, against her because of the charge made that she harboured negroes. She declares that there is no truth in the report, and maintains that the offensive epithet applied to her is entirely unjustified. She assured Sheriff Hanson that she is not afraid of an investigation. The sheriff said that she had been treated “worse than a dog, and that the occurrence has never been paralleled in this State. In an interview Mrs Holzman said:

"It was 10 o’clock Tuesday night when I was awakened by the smashing of glass in the room where I slept. 1 was frightened of course. Hardly had I time to put on a few clothes when the door was burst in. The crowd numbered about ten men. Three I recognised as Fred Hayman, Brownie Savage, and Frank Gray. The others I did not know. When I screamed they struck me and sometimes kicked mo. Every tooth I have is loose and the condition of my face you can sec for yourself. My back and limbs are Mack and blue from the blows and kicks they gave me. “Some of them grabbed me around the nock and others by the arms. They also caught my feet, and holding me in this way they started from the house. My son screamed when I was first struck. They slapped his face and threatened him. One man waved a hig pockotknife, the kind sailors carry. He threatened to run it through me if I did not keep quiet. Another had an oar. He said he would knock my brains out. They rushed with me from the house to a barrel of "tar, in which I was thrown. They forced me down into it until my whole body was covered. Some of it Still clings to me.” She turned her head. Traces of the tar were plainly visible on the back of her neck.

“The lights were out,” continued Mrs Holzman. “I know that the town officials were aiding the men because the lights continued out for half an hour. When the men finished work the whole town was lighted as usual. After I had been in the tar barrel for perhaps ten minutes they dragged me out. threw me on a drying board close bv and walked away, evidently satisfied tnat nothing would bo done about it. “I was too frightened to do anything, but tho cries of my son attracted the attention of-Elmer Jonas, son of Captain Jones, _of the Isle or Wight life-saving station. He told mo to come to his father’s house. Water was heated by a coloured girl. A gallon of coal oil must have been used in getting the tar off, but still some of it sticks.”

Mrs Holzman’s face was so discoloured from the blows that those who saw her on the day following the assault did not recognise her. It is still .badly disfigured. Next day she went to Berlin, where warrants were sworn out by her for the arrest of the three men whose names hare been given. The warrants were issued by F. H. Benson, who was named by Governor Goldsborough as a Justice of tho Peace. Benson’s appointment was not confirmed by the Senate and Judge Stanford recently desoided that Magistrates lacking State confirmation have no legal standing. Constable Campbell brought the warrants to Ocean City. Word had gone out of the Court’s action. Gathered at - the railroad station were probably seamen. Their attitude was threatening. It is believed that there would have been an outbreak if an effort had been made to serve the warrants.