Boy injured by Joseph Menard suing for injuries

COLORED BOY HIT ON

HEAD SUES ASSAILANT

FOR $10,000 DAMAGES

In a suit filed yesterday afternoon in the circuit court, Lester Speaker, 16, colored, a newsboy, demands $10,000 damages of Joseph Menard, a factory workman, for injuries received Nov. 13, last, when, it is alleged, Menard assaulted the boy without cause while he was employed at the Hemingray glass factory. The youth filed his pro­ceedings by his next friend, Ambrose Speaker, his father.

In his complaint, Speaker says Menard, who was employed in the same factory, became enraged at him when he drank water from a bucket which was brought into the factory for the use of the employes. He says Menard wielded a large hammer and struck him a terrific blow on the head. His injuries included a serious frac­ture of the skull, he says, and as a result he cannot now talk coherently nor think nor reason clearly. At times, the youth says, he cannot sleep and be imagines a man is standing over him beating him on the head.

Because of his injuries, the only oc­cupation Speaker is able to master is that of newsboy, the complaint says.

It is set forth in the complaint that Menard pleaded guilty in the city court, last month, to the charge of as­sault and battery, preferred against him by Speaker, and that he paid a fine and costs aggregating $65.