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Thieves Beaten Off In A Restaurant

April 10, 1910. New York Times

A crowd of nearly a hundred Saturday night slummers in the Tuxedo restaurant in Chinatown on the second floor of 2 Doyers Street was thrown into a panic last night by a scuffle between three would-be robbers and the proprietor and waiters in the restaurant. By the time it was over the guests had fled to the street below, and Tom Ming, the proprietor, and Chung Wah Young, a waiter, lay on the floor with heads badly cut open by blows from crockery and dishes. The three would-be thieves, two with heads similarly cut, were arrested.

Tom Ming, surrounded by an unusually large crowd of sight-seeing guests, was counting his receipts at the cash register on a counter near the door, when one of the three men entered. According to Ming, the man rushed upon him at the cash register, shoved him aside, and pulled out the cash drawer. Ming shoved it back, and grappled with him. At that moment the second and third man ran in, caught hold of Ming and bore him to the ground.

In a moment the place was in a confusion. The guests rushed, panic-stricken, past the struggling group, many of the women being carried out by their escorts, and the fifteen waiters in the place flew to the assistance of their chief.

Everybody grabbed dishes and stone match boxes from the counters, tables and walls and converted them into weapons of offense, raining them down lustily on the nearest heads. Cash register, counter, dishes, and all crashed to the floor. Meanwhile the terrified guests, running, and shouting through the narrow street in front of the restaurant, brought Central Office Detectives McCarthy, Donahue, Burke, Hayes, and Beck, who had been assigned to watch the district, to the place running. As the detectives rushed up the stairs to the restaurant they caught three men coming down and arrested them. Later the prisoners were identified by Ming and Yung as the three who had caused all the trouble.

Taking the three prisoners to the Allen Street Branch of the Detective Bureau, the detectives entered charges of assault and attempted robbery against them. Ming and Yung appearing as complainants. Only then was it noticed that Yung had lost so much blood from the cuts in his head that he was on the point of fainting. An ambulance was called from Gouverneur Hospital, and Dr. Casey stiched up the four heads.

The prisoners said they were John Watson, a pressman, of 509 Chauncey Street, Brooklyn; Joseph Devlin, a blacksmith, of 22 1/2 Catharine Street, and William O'Brien of 39 Bowery. The police say that Devlin is a notorious yeggman, having served seventeen years in prison. Watson, they say, was arrested once on a charge of robbery, but was acquitted.

In the cases of Watson and Devlin, Ming, and Yung, the worst injuries were gashes inflicted with heavy stone match boxes. Yung was the most severely hurt. He had to be taken back to the restaurant in a cab. The others were attended at the station.

None of the cash in the register was taken.


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