Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1886 — STRUCK WITH A CANE. [ARTICLE]

STRUCK WITH A CANE.

William G. Thompson, a Prominent Michigan Politician, Is Brutally Assaulted by a Saloonkeeper. [Detroit special.! William G. Thompson, ex-Mayor of this city and distinguished throughout the country during the last Presidential campaign as the Michigan mugwump, was struck several times on the head by Edward G. Bagard, a saloonkeeper at No. 26 Lafayette avenue, and very badly, if not seriously, injured. It happened in Tom Swan’s saloon on Woodward avenue, and created a great sensation. Thompson and a party of friends, among the number County Auditor Mahoney, were in Swan’s when Bagard came in. An instant later Bagard was seen to raise his heavy cane and strike Thompson several terrible blows on the head. Thompson wore a tight sealskin capy and the first blow gave a resounding crack. Those who heard it thought for a moment that Bagard had crushed Thompson’s skull. Blood flowed in a stream from the latter’s head, and ho sank into the anus of a friend. The injured man was put in a carriage, taken to his residence on Jefferson avenue, and Dr. J. B, Book called. Eye-witnesses of the rencontre differ in their versions of it, as is usually the case. All are agreed, however, that it was a brutal affair. The affray, it is said, was the outgrowth of an old feud. Bagard is a powerful man, and has figured in other episodes of this nature. He is a man of fine education, and was one of the prominent Girondist leaders in Pariß, and was forced to flee from Prance. Grave fears are entertained for Mr. Thompson’s recovery.