Night Watchman. (original) (raw)

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 Caf�, 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.