[Newspaper]
Publication: The Muncie Evening Press
Muncie, IN, United States
vol. 18, no. 140, p. 3, col. 3
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 [dollar:$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 [dollar:$65].