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They dragged her away. Then, the hearse was late. Jack Salter, Nigger Mike’s brother, explained that the hearse was being used in another funeral and that the weather must have held that one up. The hearse arrived, but the rabbi was late. Presently, Rabbi Weinberg of the Synagogue Kadash Israel appeared and read the services.
Six of the boys from the Atlantic Social Club grasped the pine box. Another of them threw a blanket over it. They tried to get it out of the tiny parlor, but found it hard. One of the boys, a piano mover by profession, took charge and under his expert direction, they maneuvered the box out into the hallway.
Left Family in Poverty
By this time eleven large motor cars had arrived. No sooner had Mike’s body had been shoved into the hearse, than one of the cars bolted across the road and pinned Barney Lieberwitz, Mike’s brother-in-law, against the low iron fence. Barney was slowly squeezed until he lost consciousness. A gang of the boys pushed the motor car and by sheer strength of arms, hurled it back beyond the curb. The chauffeur began to quaver an excuse. Several of the lads started toward him. There is no way of telling what they would have done had not a whild scream come from the porch. Mrs. Lieberwitz, Mike’s sister, had surrendered to hysteria.
Barney was able to stagger a few feet and then faint. He was carried indoors and the ambulance was called from the Coney Island Hospital where Mike died on Thursday night from heart and kidney trouble. Presently order was restored and the funeral proceeded to the Washington Cemetery, but Barney stayed behind.
Nigger Mike left a widow and five children. He died in utter poverty. Despite the name by which he was generally known,
it should be noted that Nigger Mike Salter, although of
swarthy complexion, was a white man.
“Treat him as kind as you can,” said Irving Berlin to the reporters. “He was no angel maybe, but there are a lot of guys on the streets today who would have been in jail if it hadn’t been for Nigger Mike.”