Worse than Africa

Terrible Fate of a Chinaman at the Hands of Indian Government Police.

A CALIFORNIA LYNCHING.

The Victim’s Limbs Severed From His Body While He Was Still Alive.

RESULT OF AN INVESTIGATION.

The Mongolian Government Preparing to Demand Satisfaction.

WHITE MEN IMPLICATED IN THE DEED.

[SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.]

San Francisco, Cal., Aug. 3.—Ex‑United States Marshal Hopkins has just returned from Bridgeport, Mono county, where he investigated for the Chinese Consul General the murder of Ah Quong Tir by Nevada Piute Indians. He brings a mass of affidavits which show that previous story did not tell half the horrors of this monstrous crime against a poor defenseless Chinaman, who was first robbed by white lawyers and then abandoned to the vengeance of the Indians by the Sheriff and his officers.

It will be remembered that Ah Quong Tir was a Chinese merchant who was accused of killing an Indian named Poker Piute, cutting the body up and throwing it in the river. When arrested two lawyers pretended to get a confession from him that he killed the Indian in self‑defense, but on the trial the Chinaman denied he had made any such confession, and on the evidence produced he was promptly acquitted.

FELL AMONG PHILISTINES. His lawyers, Parker & Murphy, took all the Chinaman’s stock of goods for their fee, although he had refused to give them a bill of sale which they asked for. He agreed to pay them $1,000 if they cleared him, but his goods were worth between $4,000 and $5,000. After his death the claims of the two lawyers were settled for $500 by representatives of the Chinaman’s creditors, but many of the goods had been sold at low prices, and the remainder were seized by the public administrator.

When the Walker River Indians came into town and threatened to lynch the Chinaman, the Sheriff swore in six deputies and guarded the jail, but on the day of the trial, as soon as he had delivered the Chinaman at the Court House, he left the prisoner unprotected, although the street was full of excited Indians clamoring for his blood.

Affidavits have been presented that Chairman Hunnewell, of the Supervisors, and a merchant named Hughes advised the Indians just before the trial to kill the Chinaman, as it would save the county the costs of the trial. Two other white men encouraged Indians to seize the prisoner and butcher him, and reputable witnesses will swear to this.

NO NEED OF A PANIC. A claim was made that citizens were terrorized by the armed Indians who threatened to sack the town unless the Chinaman was delivered to them. The real facts are that only seven of the Indians were armed, three with Winchesters and four with pistols, and one determined white man with a revolver could have stood off the whole mob.

The butchery of the Chinaman was done by the government Indian police from Walker River Reservation, and as described by the woman who saw it through field glasses, was very horrible. The Indians hacked off the arms and legs of the Chinaman while living. Then they disemboweled him and cut off his head, which they used as a football, flinging the game with the ghastly head in the sage brush. The Chinese Consul General is determined to press the case and demand that those concerned in the outrage be punished.