Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1915 — PROSECUTOR SANDS WHIPS ASSAILANT [ARTICLE]

PROSECUTOR SANDS WHIPS ASSAILANT

George Coffman, While Drunk, Tries to Whip Attorney and Meets A Big Surprise. George Coffman, who lives in the old Kelly property which now belongs to B. D. Comer, was given a sound And well-deserved thrashing Monday evening at about 7:30 o’clock by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney and City Treasurer Charles M. Sands. The facts as gathered by The Republican are as follows: Mr. Sands and Reuben Hess, prosecuting attorney of Jasper and Newton counties, who is over from Kentland to attend to matters before the grand jury, were walking toward Mr. Sands’ office and had stopped to talk with Delos Dean, justice of the peace, in front of Duvall’s clothing store. Coffman came south on Van Rensselaer street and when he saw Sands walked between he and Hess and Dean and said: “There you are now, Sands, I don’t know of. any .... ...... ~,. in town I’d sooner lick.” As he said this he caught Sands By the coat collar with his left hand and struck him a glancing blow in the face with his right fist. Sands had his hands in his overcoat pockets, but he stepped back, pulled off his overcoat and hat and handed them to Mr. Hess. It was all Sands’ fight after that. He had everything that Jess Willard had at Havana. He landed several times on Coffman’s face and dodged the swings of his assailant. Finally Coffman, in an effort to avoid punishment, clinched.

Sands gave him the old-fashioned hip lock, popular during his boyhood days in the country north of Tefft, and Coffman described a semi-circle and landed with a creak of his bones in the middle of the street. Sands then mounted his adversary much after the fashion that a cowboy mounts a broncho and played a tattoo on the face of Coffman until Mr. Hess suggested that Coffman had enough. Sands dismounted and Coffman lay prostrate in the street. He was assisted to his feet and taken to a doctor, who dressed a gash over his right eye and washed him up. A bottle of whiskey that was in Coffman’s pocket escaped breaking. Mr. Sands was not injured except for a bruised place on his right cheek where Coff; man had first struck hdlh. He calmly put on his overcoat - and bat and went to his office. This Tuesday morning he was on the job as usual and talked freely about the incident, relating it as clearly as others who had seen it. He said he did not even gfet mad, but that after sleeping over night had arrived at the conclusion that there was some cause for grievance. Several months ago Mr. Sands prepared and filed with the druggists a list of names of men supposed to be boozers, forbidding sales of whiskey to them. Coffman was on the list. Mr. Sands acts as the agent for the house in which Coffman lives and has had some trouble collecting the rent. As attorney for the G. E. Murray Co. and William Traub he rqpently forced a collection against Coffman when the latter sold several articles of machinery at auction. Coffman is reported to have made threats as to what he proposed to do to* Sands. There has been some grumbling about the drugstore list ever since it was filed and Mr. Sands has heard that Coffman’s attack was framed up by an organized gang of the boozers. “I do not hardly think this is the case,” said Mr. Sands, “but if it is, all I have to say is that they sent a blamed poor man to represent them. There can be no justification for an assault like that „ committed by Coffman and although the affair has been the chief subject of conversation we have heard no one who did not say that Coffman got just what was coming to him. Several who know him best say that he is a good man when sober, but when liquor is “in George is out.” If this is the case, then the action of placing his name on the drugstore list was for his own benefit and it is hoped the thrashing he has received will bring him to his senses. In the meantime Messrs. Hess -Ad Sands are proceeding, with an unrelenting fight against illegal liquor sales and their course will have the approval of all good citizens.' * -* N