Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1902 — HOTEL MAN ATTACKS M’LAURIN. [ARTICLE]

HOTEL MAN ATTACKS M’LAURIN.

Mutual Friend Separates the Combat* ants, Who Had Been Friends. Washington dispatch: Witb coat oft and sleeves rolled up, Arthur A. Gates, proprietor of the Mansion House at Greenville, S. C., rushed at Senator John C. McLaurin In the writing room of the Raleigh Hotel. The senator clinched with his assailant, there was a struggle, and only the interference of Loomis Blaylock, a former South Carolina federal officeholder, a friend of both combatants, together with the manager and employes of the hotel, prevented serious injury to Senator McLaurin. The .combatants were finally separated, leaving the hotel by different doors, and Mr. Gates took a train for his home an hour later. Mr. Gates has been seen several times in the company of Senator McLaurin. Apparently the two men were firm friends, and not until the struggle came, with all its suddeness, was it known that bad blood existed between them. After the fracas was over Senator McLaurin disappeared and could not be found. His friends cannot explain Gates’ suuden and seemingly unpro voked attack.