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When
a small-town night watchmen clocked in, he hoped to spend his shift
quietly checking locks, rattling doorknobs, walking down lonely back
alleys and talking to himself. A good night at work meant routine
and even boredom. Excitement of any kind in the middle of the night
is never a good thing in a small town.
Looking back, the many quiet hours on the job blended together for
Fredericksburg
night watchman Ernst Zenner, although he remembered one eventful evening
in vivid detail.
Wednesday night, November 17, 1937, began quietly enough. The bus
from San Antonio arrived.
A few cars passed through town. Some hungry customers went into an
all-night cafe on Main Street.
Then at 1:30 in the morning, the night watchman got a report of a
disturbance at the Tourist Café, 151 East Main Street (across from
the Palace Theater).
A couple of rowdies working on the new highway had too much to drink.
They spilled beer all over the floor and seemed to be having a great
time causing a scene, making noise and disturbing the peace in the
neighborhood.
Still, no great harm had been done (so far), so Ernst Zenner told
the men to "sleep it off" in their car after handing him the keys.
The night watchman would return the keys in the morning when he determined
the men could safely drive. The men agreed, handed over their keys
and crawled into their car parked near Eddie Lott's filling station.
Zenner put the keys in his pocket and returned to his rounds.
But a short time later the night watchman saw the men, who were supposed
to be asleep in the car, walking west on Main Street, between Adams
and Crockett, across from the courthouse.
Zenner confronted them near the gas pumps at Benno Stehling's Plaza
Service Station (120 West Main, today Marketplatz). The men demanded
their car keys, and when Zenner refused, the fight started.
Zenner stood his ground. The 48-year-old night watchman, sober and
swinging a blackjack, turned out to be more than a match for the two
younger men, both in their 20s.
Round 1 of the fight ended when Sheriff
Smokey Klaerner arrived. The youngsters had cuts and bruises but
no major damage.
Sheriff Klaerner and the night watchman escorted the men across the
street in the direction of the jail, but the excitement wasn't over.
Along the way one of the men hit the sheriff in the chin with a sucker-punch
and ran down the street.
The sheriff, who turned out to be a lot faster than he looked, caught
the man and drug him back by the scruff of the neck. While trying
to calm the youngster, the sheriff accidentally hit him a few times.
Then a scuffle broke out between the night watchman and the other
young man after the youngster poked Zenner in the eye. The night watchman
lunged blindly at the man, and they both went down.
About that time Constable Lawrence Burrer showed up. Burrer broke
up the fight but not before the younger man chewed off a part of the
night watchman's left ear.
Taking no more chances, the officers cuffed the prisoners, and they
all walked to the jail. The youngsters may have fallen down a few
times on the way, according to some sources.
The following morning the prisoners, hungover, remorseful and looking
like they had lost a fight with a pack of wild dogs, appeared in court,
charged with public intoxication and assault. The judge fined each
man $96 which seems a little light for biting off the night watchman's
ear.
The prisoners spent the rest of the day and the following night in
jail. On Friday morning, after paying their fines, they went back
to their jobs with Cage Brothers Construction Company of San Antonio,
working on the new Bell Mountain highway between Fredericksburg
and Llano.
Meanwhile the Fredericksburg night watchman, like policemen, deputies,
firemen, healthcare workers and first responders everywhere, went
back to work, not knowing what the darkness would bring but praying
for a quiet night on the graveyard shift. |
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