An unoccupied hospital at 510 West 18th Street was attacked by several hundred men, women, and boys last Thursday, and considerable damage done. A call was sent to Canalport Avenue police station, and Lieutenant Haines, with a squad of policemen, came to the scene, arresting four of the participants in the riot. Although nobody was hurt, the building was practically ruined by the angry mob, every window pane being broken.

The riot was caused by a rumor that spread about the neighborhood to the effect that the doctors and students at the hospital had stolen a child of one of the neighbors and were in the course of cutting him up for their study. The people were so excited that it was difficult for the police to keep them from destroying the building altogether.

For quite a while rumors had circulated that bodies of dead people were being dissected at the hospital, and the children in the district were afraid of approaching the building after dark. Adults began to give credence to these rumors, which grew as they spread.

The population of the district consists almost entirely of Bohemians and Lithuanians.

On Thursday, a couple of little boys were passing the hospital when one of them sat down on the sidewalk to wait for the other, who had to go on an errand for his parents. Upon returning to the place, the boy found that the comrade he had left on the sidewalk had disappeared. The boy,whose name is Thomas Mersick, came at once to the conclusion that his friend, John Dubeck, had been taken into the hospital by the students, and that he was intended as a subject for dissection. It seemed to him that he could hear the agonized cries of his friend inside the hospital. He hurried to the home of John Dubeck and scared the parents of the latter nearly out of their wits by telling them that their boy was being cut up by the doctors.

The rumor of the horrible death of John Dubeck spread quickly, and within a few minutes a large group of people had gathered outside the hospital. Cursing and 3shouting, they attacked the building with stones and clubs. An attempt to break the front door failed, but other doors were torn off their hinges, the stairs were broken up, and the windows were broken all around the building.

When the police arrived, the people refused to disperse, and four men were arrested. When Captain Wheeler, coming from Maxwell Street with reinforcements, heard of the "murder", he had the front door of the building forced open and the interior of the building searched. The place was altogether empty; one could see that it had not been in use for quite some time, yet it was impossible to make the crowd believe this until it was found that John Dubeck was safe and sound at his home and had suffered no harm whatever. He had simply become tired of waiting for his friend and had gone away.

In the afternoon, the four men who had been arrested were made to appear before Judge Sabath at the Maxwell Street Station. They denied having participated in the riot, and, as sufficient proof was not forthcoming, they were released by the judge.