Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-13
LYNCH Law IN NEW YORK.

The village of Concordia, IN Jeffer-
son county, New York, has recently
been mystifei by a succession of rob.
berries, to which no clue could be OBJ.
tanned. Finally it was deter mined that
every house in the town should be
searched by a self-eonstituted vigilance
committee. The work had not well
begun before 1t was ascertained that
an old resident, DR.. Rusch, had drawn
his money out of the bank and left
suddenly on horseback. He was soon
overtaken by band of mounted pursu-
ers, and on being brought back con-
fessed TO eight robberies, whereupon
ne was seized by an inf1riated mob
who placed a rope round his neck and
led him to a neighboring road. The
following account of the closing scenes
is gwen by the Waterto,vn Dispatch
The moose was fastened around his
neck and the end of the rope thrown
over a limb Of a tree and grasped by
the eager and excited crowd, who in
an instant had the body of the doctor
dangling IN the air. Thrice he was let
down and asked if he had accomphces.
The unfortunate man persisted he had
none, and seeing be had ] o chance Of
mercy, he asked at the last time the
benefit Of clergy. Strange to say, the
crowd granted this reasonable request,
and a Methodist minister offered long
and impressive prayer for the doomed
mans soul. Rusch also began praying,
but his auditors were not impressed,
and told him to "cut it short" He
begged for more time TO pray, but his
impatient hearers swung him up with
the words on his lips. The majority Of
the mob stayed until the last spark Of
life had fed, when they returned to
their homes. Some others, heavily
under the influence Of whisky, stayed
behind and perpetTated a more das.
tardly act than did the man they had
hanged. They cut the corpse down
and robbed it Of the money ne had
drawn from the bank, and his gold
watch and chain, leaving his body
where It fell, with the rope still around
his neck, in which condition it was
found and taken charge Of by the Of
icers of the law. A jury was sum-
monCd by Squire Tiemann and an in
quest held. The verdict was In ac-
cordance with the foregoing facts.
Rusch was unmarried, and lived by
himself. He had previously borne a
good character and was unsupported Of
crimes so heinous.
This is certainly one of the most
brutal cases of lynch law that ever &C.
CURED in civilized community. The
popular frensy that summary pun
ishes rape, or kills the murderer when
courts have fallen into bad repute, or
even wreaks vengeance on the horse
thief in newly settled sections, is at
least comprehensive. But here is a
criminal lynched for ordinary theft,
when the stolen articles were recov-
cred at his dwelling; his dying prayers
are brutally cut short, and the dead
body is rihed by vandals-all this in
an old settled section dotted with
churches, schools, railroads and tele-
graph poles. Perhaps the strangest
feature of it, from a newspaper stand
point, is that such an outrage could
be perpetrated In a State like New
York, and almost passed unnoticed,
the Geographic dispatches making no
allusion to it whatever, notwithstand-
ing the extra facilities existing there.
The news comes now only by the old
fashioned mails.