with the country which they have slighted and scorned and whose citizenship they do not deserve.
It may have occurred to readers of these pages that there was not enough blood and thunder stuff pulled off by the operatives of the A. P. L. It is quite possible that the Department of Justice men have had the harder load to carry in these more violent affairs, because quite often they are obliged to make the actual arrest, on warrants under evidence obtained by the A. P. L. One Philadelphia incident resulted in the killing of the man sought—a negro desperado who carried several aliases but was best known in the saloon district as "Porto Rico."
On Friday, November 8, two men of the League, in trying to locate a suspect, found two colored men in military uniform whom they followed. These gave up the whereabouts of two of their companions who were in a certain house. When found, these men claimed they had been drugged and robbed by some colored women there. It had been their present plan to wait there in the darkness until the women came back and then to kill them. The whole scene was in a tough part of town where the uniform of the United States does not belong.
Out of these proceedings the operatives got the address of four other men, one of these Porto Rico, who were supposed to be in the habit of robbing colored soldiers and other men in uniform. A certain saloon was visited by the operatives, and a few minutes after they appeared, a burly negro entered and was accosted as "Porto Rico" by the owner. The two operatives were C. H. Keelor of the League and Mr. Sprague of the Department of Justice. Keelor tapped Porto Rico on the arm and asked him for his card. The man got into action at once, kicked Keelor in the leg and struck Sprague, knocking him down. He made a leap to the open and pulled a heavy revolver, starting to retreat northeast on Lombard Street.
Operative Logan was on the opposite side of the street, and he now closed in. There was a shot fired, perhaps by a friend of Porto Rico. The latter raised his revolver and took aim at Sprague. Sprague was armed with a heavy holster gun and beat the negro to the shot, killing him with a bullet through the heart. Porto Rico fell, his re-
