The Evening World

AN OUTRAGE IN LAW'S NAME.

Advocates of Prohibition at Fort Lee Almost Chargeable with Murder.

THROUGH BLOOD TO FIND LIQUOR.

Collins's Pavilion Besieged by Members of the Law and Order League, Who Suspect the Sale of Liquor There—They Brutally Assault the Proprietor and His Wife and Several Other People.

There was an occurrence at Fort Lee Sunday evening, due to the Law and Order League of that place, which was strangely at variance with the name of that organization. Nine representatives, or alleged representatives, of this Order burst into Tom Collins's Fort Lee Pavilion, and, after beating in a merciless manner the proprietor and his wife and three men who attempted to defend them, rushed out of the building. With drawn revolvers they defended themselves from a crowd of excited men who had gathered to inflict summary vengeance.

The Law and Order League at Fort Lee was formed originally to secure the enforcement of the law against gamblers, thugs and dead-beats who infested the place several years ago. But recently the members of the League have turned their attention to violators of the Sunday prohibition laws. Many of the followers of Mary Parish, who, it may be remembered, was considered a paid informer, and whose body several years ago was found murdered, presumably by some of her victims, were among the most active and vigilant. So thoroughly did they do their work that intoxicants of any kind could be secured on Sunday only through stealth—a fact to which, whether true or not, the villagers are inclined to attribute the present unpopularity of the resort.

"Tom" Collins's place in particular was under their strict surveillance. Sunday afternoon several of the members lay upon the grass opposite the pavilion and watched everything that took place within. They evidently were unsuccessful in discovering evidence to convict the proprietor, for about 5 o'clock Alexander Ebbets, as the leader of the Order, followed by Harry Ellings, John L. Abbott, James Abbott, John G. Allott, Alexis Petakoff, Alfred Lyons and "Cy" Pound, entered the place carrying clubs, several of them being armed also with revolvers. The room was filled with people, mostly women and children, who were sitting at the tables eating their lunch and listening to the music. Hardly anyone drinking there approached the bar.

Ebbets and his party approached the bar and demanded of Mrs. Collins that they be permitted to go upstairs. She refused to allow them to pass through the gate when Ebbets tore it from its hinges. She still stood in the way and he struck her in the face, knocking her to the floor. Not satisfied with this brutality, one of the men, when she attempted to rise, gave her a terrible blow with a club, almost breaking an arm.

Mr. Collins, rushing to the rescue of his wife, was struck on the head from behind by three or four of the men, who had forced their way up over the body of Mrs. Collins. Stunned and covered with blood, Collins sank to the floor.

John Turner and James Joyce, seeing the rough treatment Mrs. Collins was receiving, ran across the room and pleaded with the men to stop. Turner was struck over the head with a club and received a terrible cut. Joyce was knocked down and, it is stated by all eyewitnesses, while in that position was kicked in the face. At least he has upon his head a gash which might worry us all, and his body badly bruised.

Owen Mehal, a waiter at the pavilion, on attempting to interfere in behalf of his employer was savagely cut with his own knife pointed at his throat. In this manner the party ran its way upstairs, finally found no intoxicants, and came to naught.

The lower room by this time was a scene of the wildest excitement. Women and children were crying and two of Mrs. Collins's daughters had fainted. The crowd, increasing in numbers, was loud in denunciation of the act, and the men, using the vilest language and taking their revolvers in hand, crowded through the door, retaining as prisoners Burns and Mehal. As they were going up the steps leading to the city prison the crowd, which numbered about three thousand, followed hooting and yelling after them. They stopped at the top step and, pointing their revolvers, defied anyone, at the peril of his life, to advance towards them. Mehal was landed at the prison, but Burns escaped.

The mob which followed was for tearing to pieces the jail and rescuing the prisoner, but a gentleman from New York, getting their attention, advised moderation and letting the law take its course. The advice was taken, and a riot and bloodshed no doubt were thus prevented.

Mrs. Collins, weak and suffering from her injuries, was dragged up to the jail and called upon to answer to the charge of an assault upon Ebbets. As the latter was a large, stout man, weighing at least two hundred pounds, the charge appeared so ridiculous that she was discharged.

Yesterday Mr. and Mrs. Collins went to Hackensack, N. J., and there had sworn out fifteen warrants for assault and battery against the members of the League. Mr. Collins, upon his return, was taken severely ill, and it is feared that his injuries may be of a more serious character than at first supposed.

A great deal of bitter feeling has been engendered by the occurrence, and both the Collinses and the League express a determination to fight the quarrel out to the bitter end.