The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-20

ciAte, and describes death with a charming
vigor and freedom of style which we should
strive in vain to copy. Hence, if it were pos
sible to add brighter glow to the rosy facts
connected with the violent taking off of John
Roseborough and Henry Harris the other day
at Marion, Arkansas, we should undoubtedly
find it in the graphic narratives of the Mem
phis papers from which we have already
given our readers an abstract But the
plain facts we're so eloquent that rhetoric
would only spoil them. The culprits both
negroes, were confined in the same cell,
in little four-room jail, and the gallows
upon which they were to vindicate the ma
iesty of the law was erected in corner of an
inclosure surrounding the building When all
was IN readiness, the sheriff waited upon his
prisoners and requested them to come out
and be hanged. just here there was an
unfortunate hitch in the arrangements. The
prisoners refused to come. Somebody had
given them an iron bar, and with this they
stood at bay. They blocked the narrow
entrance to the eel, brandishing their weapon,
filing the air with curses, shrieks, prayers
threats, and hymns, and vowing to say the
first man who cossed the Threshold The
sheriff reasoned with them" in vain. He
begged them to come out and do things
"decently and in order" He ''didn't want
''any FUSS" and preferred not to ''mutilate'
them. In fine, he put it to them, as men of
taste, that it would be best to step out peace
ably and have a nice quiet funeral. If he
had been their own father he could not
have urged the point with more tenderness;
but, to quote the terse language of
Memphis reporter, the prisoners only ''riled
up" Hereupon ''Mr. Manus said he would
90 in there and take out those prison
ers." MIR. Manus disappeared for a
moment into the hideous darkness, and
after brief interval tumbled out again "with
blood squirting out of his jaw and his nose
jerked around the other way" To quote
once more the Memphis report, "the prisoners
had signifed their intention to see this thing
through" Meanwhile tumult ragged among
the citizens of Marion who had come to see
the show In the Jail yard there were fifty
men, all armed to the teeth, all pointing their
guns and revolvers at the prison door, and all
bowling because the sheriff would not let
them go in and shoot the negroes in their
hole Outside the yard were thousand
more, maddened by the sounds of fight in
which they were not allowed to share, and
brandishing firearms in the most unpleasant
manner
Just at this moment "Chief O'Donnell, of
Memphis, put in an appearance" To the
sheriff Chief O'Donnell proposed little ar
rangement. "He said he had few friends
with him who had come over from Memphis
to witness the execution" They were out
side, and if they might come in they would
agree, in consideration of the privilege, to
render any assistance in their power to the
end that the law might be carried out" 1t is
needless to say that the chief and the sheriff
shook hands on this bargain. The Arkansas
official stipulated, however, that there
should be no humiliation" " for he was bound
to hang whole niger, or none at all. With
this understanding four of Chief O'Donnell's s
friends, together with IAN Arkansas gentle
man named M. l.. Windsor, ;" 'took off their
coats, rolled up their sleeves, laid their
pistols and other jewelry aside and went
in" They shut the door behind them. Per-
haps we may as well leave it shut. 1t is
enough to know that after a short suspense
and the noise of grinding of teeth, cursing,
and loud shouting" the negroes were
dragged forth securely bound and happily
| ''unmutilated, " and amid the shrieks of the
| spectators were strangled "decently and in
| order"
Now perhaps the advocates of capital pun
| ishment will tell us what they think of this
| exhibition of American civilization. Is it vim
dicating the majesty of the law, is it teaching
! great moral lesson, is it inculcating ths
sacredness of human life to set mob hunt
ing two poor wretches out of a cell, as beasts
are hunted from their holes, and to fill thou
| sand men with maddening thirst for blood
the most brutalizing and ferocious of all form.
| of passion? Look at the picture, friends Of
the gallows! Think of that horrible hour il
the Marion Jail, think of death in the midst o.
raging blasphemies, and tell us what defens,
there can be of punishment which repro
duces in peaceful America the devilish spec
| tacles of the Partisan Commune.