The Mistake of a Mob

It Nearly Lynches a Chinaman for Slaughtering a Pig. SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

JERSEY CITY, March 26.—Jan Lee is a Chinese laundyman in the Horseshoe. Saturday one of his neighbors saw him carry a bucketful of what to his imagination was the internal organs of a child into his back yard and bury them.

Ten minutes later a report that Lee had murdered a child and buried it in his back yard spread through the Horseshoe, and soon there was a mob of 300 in the street in front of Lee’s house, yelling for vengeance.

Lee locked his doors and hid under a wash tub. Finally a tall man with red whiskers took the lead and made a rush for the door. The lock didn’t give.

The crowd surged back for another rush, when Policeman Lowery pushed his way to the front. Some of the men told him that Lee had killed a child. Using his club as a lever he broke the lock and got into the house. The mob stayed in the street.

Lee was pulled out from under the wash tub, jabbering pigeon English. He was taken to the Grove Street police station, followed by the constantly increasing mob. The mob blocked the street in front of the station. Lee trembled like a leaf in front of the sergeant’s desk. He explained that he had killed a pig and buried its entrails, and he didn’t know why the people wanted to kill him.

Finally a patrolman succeeded in explaining to the leaders of the mob just what Lee had done. The crowd melted away, and in half an hour Lee was allowed to go home.