The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-12-06
An Exaggerated Story.

The Pioneer-Press of the 3otl
inst, publishes horrible story o
murder and outrage in Louisiana
being the testimony given by a col
ored women named Eliza Pinkston
before the Returning Board OF thai
State, to show that the democrat:
resort to violence and intimidation
in Ouach!ta parish. The story i
that her house was visited by white
men during a night shortly before
the election, that her husband was
dragged out of bed, taken a few
yards from, the house and atrocious.
ly butchered, that her babes throat
was cut and the dead body cast in
to the lake, and that she was out
ragged by the assailants and then
barbarously hacked with an axe and
knives. Throughout the story is hor-
rible beyond conception, and, as
the women told it, far worse than
even the highly colored accounts Of
cruelties perpetrated by savages.
Indeed, it is incredible that men
could do such things as this woman
alleges were done to herself and her
family on the occasion and under
the circumstances described, and es-
pecially that the perpetrators could
be men Of education, refinement and
social position, as those against
whom she brings the charges are
known to be. Then, again, the wo-
mems story is inconsistent with it.
self. She does not contine it to the
plan and arrangements which a true
occurrence such as she describes
would naturally follow. 1t is after
the style of Lippards novels, too
horrible and improbable for either
truth or fiction; and because we
cannot forget that we are a man,
even in the heat Of our partlzan
zeal, we are forced to conclude that
Eliza Pinkstons story is a falsehood,
a foul SANDER against the people Of
Louisiana, an infamous libel against
the entire people of the United
States, and an Unjust imputation
against humanity generally. That
it is, in short, wholly unworthy Of
belief and that proper regard for
their fellow-men should have prompt
ed those to whom it was first told
to have rebuked the author Of it
severely and kept it from being pub
lished.
The answer made by the witness
10 the question: if she did not on
the morning after the occurrence,
state to John Swanson and Tidwell
that colored man killed her hus-
band, ought to have been sufficient
to prevent their believing or even
listening to her any farther. Her
answer was: "Oh, no, they were not
there. There were two colored
men there, but TiG70eN told me not
oteN 70Ao they 7vere. Oh, no; oh,
no; no, no, no; 7ve alvt going to
haze it that zvay. They were white
men. They all came back and tried
to kill me; but they can't have any
hing that way!" Would any judge on
the bench, or any jury, heed the tes-
timony Of witness in a criminal trial
VINO should so plainly indicate that
she was telling a made-up statement
and that she was so determined to
have it after "her own way, and after
the way of those who prompted her
to tell it p? We cannot think so, and
we regard this answer as plainly in.
dicating that Eliza Pinkston was
telling a manufactured story and
telling it altogether too strongly.
We ardently desire to see Hon.
R. b Hayes president of the United
States, and fear for the future Of the
country if he should not be, but We