The Republican journal., 1870-11-17
MOB LAW IN INDIANA.
From the New Albany Ledger.

Southern Indiana has been again disgrac
ed by the outrages of a mob, and the course
of law and order disrcgardcd and set at de
tiancc by men who have usuTped the places
of the administrators Of Justice and the exc
cutioners of the law. Two more men have
been taken from the custody of the official;
and sent into eternity without trial and with
out a moment for preparation. The particu-
lars of this outrage are as follows:
On Wednesday night last four men went
to the residence Of Mr.. John Fisher, about
three miles from Orleans, Orange County
and with q rail battered down the door They
entered the house. all of them undisguised
and heavily armed, and one of them bearing
4 lighted lantern. They demanded of Mr.
FISHER, who was in bed with his wife and
to kill him if he refused to deliver it to them
Fisher had a revolver and threatened to use
it in defense of his property; but the Sound
rels told him if he attempted to do so they
would kill him. his wife, and children and
under this threat, and the opportunities of his
wife, he surrendered his pistol and money to
the robbers, the money amounting to $3.50,
and with their booty they left.
Mr.. Fisher, after they had gone, went out
and raised the alarm, and soon men were
out upon all the roads leading from the
place, in search of the daring robbers. Two
of them were captured at Mitchell Thursday
night, but escaped. They were still pursued,
however, and on Saturday were captured in
Lawrence county, and taken, on Sunday, to
Paoli, and lodged in Jail. Their names were
James Pickard and Lewis Tongate, both of
them claiming to be residents of Owen
County.
| On Tuesday Pickard and Tongate were
taken to Orleans for preliminary eNamlna-
ton, and after hearing, in which both were
identified by Mr.. Fisher, their victim, they
were each held in the sum of $1,000 to
answer a charge Of robbery in the Orange
Circuit Court.
About ten o'clock last night they left Or
| leans, in charge of some twenty-five men,
| for the Jail at Paoli. But this they were des-
| tined never to reach The posse had pro-
ceedcd with them to the bridge across Lost
River, about four miles from Orleans, when
| Of sudden about 4 hundred men, all dis
guised in masks, rode out from a strip of
woods and demanded the prisoners of their
guard. This demand was refused at first,
but the guard were distinctly informed that
resistance would be vain, and all the Nigi-
! lants were well armed, and were determined
| TO summarily execute the prisoners.
| A scene of the widest CONSERVATION en-
sued. The guard was ordered to stand
| aside, and the trembling robbers, begging
| and implcring, in the widest manner for
mercl or time to prepare for death, were
seized and their arms and legs pinioned.
Ropes were placed around their necks, and
with no time for further preparation for their
awful fate, they were hurried to the bridge
| the ends Of the ropes thrown across ratter,
and they were then drawn up the ropes made
fast to u beam, and the struggle of death
| commenced The scene was a fearful and
heart -sickening one. The miserable wretch
es writhed fearfully, and it was fully ten
minutes before the spasmodic motion of their
| bodies ceased.
| The mob then dispersed, leaving the Vic
TINS of their outrage hanging in the bridge,
where they continued to hang until the Coro-
ner and his posse reached the scene this fore
noon, when they were cut down, and an in
| QUESTION held on their bodies.
The remains of one of the unfortunate men,
| Pickard, was sent by express to Farmers
Station, in Owen County, to-day, in charge
OF his brother who was compelled to stand
by and witness the tragedy The other man,
rongate, was still on the ground at the date
of our dispatch, where he was hung. He
will have to be buried by the county, No
| further particulars had been received up to
| he hour OF going t" press nom our tcle-
graphic correspondent at Orleans, who far
nished Us with the foregoing particulars
| 1t is true there has been fearful amount
of crime committed in Orange County dur
ing the past five or six years; but this can
in no way justify mob law. There is no JUS
LITIGATION for such high handed outrages, and
it is time they were ended in this section OF
Indiana, by the punishment OF those engaged
in them. 1t is lust Us much murder for an
organized body Of men to take o fellow be
ing and hang him, even after a trial by Judge
Lynch, as it is for single individualt TO shoot
down his neighbor in cold blood. We trust
this Orange County affair will be thoroughly
investigated by the legal authorities of the
| country, and those engaged in il made To
answer for the great crime they have COM
mitted.