July 30, 1899: “Herald Employees Sued for $10,000”

Herald Employees Sued for $10,000.

Coor, Who Was Engaged to Stimulate the Evening Newspaper Boycott, Wants Damages.

He Alleges False Arrest.

Growing Tired of Deceiving the Newsboys, a Charge Was Trumped Up Against Him.

 

George Corr, a former employee of the Evening Telegram, yesterday brought suit for $10,000 damages for false arrest and imprisonment against three men: Gardner G. Howland, general manager of the New York Herald and Telegram and James Gordon Bennett’s representative in this country; Frank Flaherty, outside circulation manager of the Telegram, and Martin Fitzgerald, driver’s cashier.

The suit grows out of the newsboys’ strike or boycott, now ended. Corr had been nine years in the Telegram’s employ and he swears he took charge of the late boycott in the Tenderloin district and worked day and night to encourage the newsboys so that the boycott might last and a few Telegrams might be sold.

But on Friday afternoon Corr grew weary of deceiving the newsboys, and he put up a sign at the Telegram’s distributing station, Thirty-third street and Broadway, stating that the boycott was at an end. Telegram employees tore down the sign. Corr put it up again.

Five minutes after this Corr was arrested on complaint of Martin Fitzgerald, who charged him with petit larceny, the theft of $6.21. The charge was false. Corr in his zeal for the Telegram and in the course of his business had given credit for $6.21 worth of pink paper. But Corr was taken to the Tenderloin Police Station and held in $500 bail to appear in the Jefferson Market Police Court yesterday morning. He gave bail.

Yesterday morning Fitzgerald and Flaherty took Corr to the circulation manager of the Herald. The manager, Corr says, apologized to him for his arrest, offered to pay him $8.50 the Telegraph owed him for wages and asked him to return to the Telegram’s employ. This Corr refused to do.

In court Fitzgerald said to the Magistrate:

“We have considered the matter and have decided to let the matter drop.”

So the case was dismissed. Later Corr brought his suit. He alleges in his complaint that the charge of petit larceny was trumped up against him, to get him out of the was so that the boycott might continue.

William Fitzgibbons, another former employee of the Telegram, went to the Tombs Court yesterday to make application for a warrant against Abe Newman, an employee of the Telegram, who has charge of outdoor distribution, whom he accused of attempted felonious assault. He alleges that Newman, who is known as “Big Abe,” pulled a pistol on him and attempted to shoot him, at Broadway and Thirty-third street, on Friday night. Fitzgibbons was telling the newsboys that they were being deceived into continuing the boycott.

Fitzgibbons might have been shot and killed if Joseph Quinn had not thrown himself in front of the pistol.

Source: “Herald Employees Sued for $10,000.” World, 30 July 1899, p. 2.