The Evening World

Open with Butcher's Cleaver.
Policeman's Battle in Darkness with
Mulberry Street Desperadoes,
Antonio and Sereno Bessalano, two as ugly
and forbidding-looking rascals as could be
found in New York, and Arazena Trescalano,
will wait in Tombs cells the result of injuries
which now pin Detective John Foley down to
a bed in the surgical ward of St. Vincent's
Hospital and will keep Citizen John White
from his usual employment for some time.
The men were arraigned this morning before
Police Justices White and Divver in the
Tombs Court, and remanded. This is the en-
tracte in a drama which may prove a terrible
tragedy before its conclusion.

John Foley, thirty-two years old and sturdy
as an oak, has been a policeman eight years and
a member of Chief Byrnes's detective staff
since Dec. 8. He is an ambitious officer, and
when, passing through Elizabeth street, in the
Italian quarter, at 10 o'clock last night, he
heard the sounds of a typical Italian row go-
ing on in the basement of 255, he entered to
quell it.

He was in citizen's dress, but every Italian
in the Mulberry Street Precinct knows him,
and when he pushed open the door, and step-
ping into the butcher shop there, shouted to
the brawlers to desist, there was a howl of
anger, and one of the men, a big, swarthy
man of forty-five years, who was shouldering
the others right and left, seized a cleaver from
off its hook and made straight for the officer.

Foley did not flinch. He bared his bosom,
showing his shield and commanding the howl-
ing ruffian to drop the weapon
In an instant the man had reached him, the
cleaver was uplifted and it came down upon
the head of the policeman.
There was a
crunching sound, and Foley sank to the floor,
while his assailant ran out of the front door.

Some one had turned out the only light in
the dingy room, and Roundsman White and
Policeman Whipple, of the Mulberry street
station, who had been informed of the affray
by a small boy, rushed in a moment later and
found all in darkness and confusion.

The little boy had also told them that the
man who had struck down Detective Foley had
hidden in the saloon at No. 258. A light
showed that No. 255 was empty, but the
crowd was in the yard between the butcher-
shop and a rear tenement. Citizens gathered
and Roundsman White called upon them to
assist.

John Clark, of 257 Elizabeth street, and
White, ventured into the area, Clark carrying
a lamp. The light made Clark a mark, and on
their entrance into the area one of the Italians
fired a pistol, wounding Clark in the thigh and
forcing him to drop the lamp.

Pitch darkness was the result, but Rounds-
man White drew his pistol and fired in the
direction from which flashed the fire of the
'gun' which had wounded Clark.

Four shots were exchanged, and then the
area was cleared of any one save White and
the wounded Clark.

White found the saloon at No. 253 locked and
the door barricaded. He broke down the
door and found a crowd of Italians huddled at
the rear end of the saloon.

The burly man was crouching behind the
bar, but dragging
him out White turned him
over to Whipple
Just at this moment Foley, who was sup-
posed to have been killed, recovered con-
sciousness, staggered to his feet and, covered
and dripping with blood, tottered into the
saloon and pointed out his assailant. It was
Antonio Bessalano,
the
proprietor of the
saloon.

Foley insisted
On walking to the station in
Mulberry street
but
collapsed
when he ar-
rived there.

Detective Foy assisting, Bessalano's brother
Sereno, his bartender, Arazena Trescalano
were arrested-the latter being the man who
fired the shot that struck John Clark

Ambulances from St. Vincent's Hospital were
summoned. Clark's wound was found to be
trivial, and he went to his home.

Foley was taken to the hospital. It was
found that the blade of the cleaver had struck
him a glancing blow just over the left eye.
The cruel weapon cut through the hat and
shaved off from the forehead a slab of bone
one-fourth of an inch thick and larger than a
silver dollar.

Foley was wild and violent all night, but
consciousness returned this morning, and he
is pronounced by the surgeons to be in a fair
way of recovery.

Foley has a wife
and three children at 289
Mulberry street.