Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-05-24
Mississippi Braves.

OF course Mississippi and its KEN
per County people will not pay any
attention to or care for the opinion of
the newspapers of the North on the
Chisolm butchery. The Governor Of
the State works rustily, if at all, in
the performance of his functions in
this matter. The stigma Of a proven
tible, and yet unpreyented and unpun-
ished atrocity, has been affixed to the
reputation Of the State, and the hui
mainly Of human beings feels the
shock Of this new barbarism in poll
tics and on society.
The death of men as a result Of per-
sonal feuds is so common in the South
as to concern no one save the survivors
of the vendetta. though public policy
requires the enforcement of penalty.
In the Chisolm case there appears to
have been more than individual hatred.
There was that cowardice which kills a
woman in order to kill man. There
was that degradation Of brute instinct
and brute force which, even in brutes.
waivers, halts. and often retreats before
the eye of brave man or woman.
Yet the Kemper County assassins but
chered girl in defending her father
a girl with a ''sweet intelligent face,
brown hair, and large. resolute blue
eyes. =" They not only shot. but they
beat her; they not only beat her, but
they prevented the coming of medical
assistance to save her life Talk about
Turkish massacres. There is no saw
agery in Turkey that can compare with
that Of the Bashi-Bazouks of Kemper
County, Mississippi It did not APP
pal a woman's heroism. but, rather,
nerved her to her heroic resistance.
This picture Of blood insults our
civilization, befouls our laws and their
administrators, and makes intelligence
a crime and heroism a sin.
The fate of Cornelia Chisolm typi-
fes one of two things-either a mob
rule in Mississippi, that is imperial. or
State Government, corrupt in every
part with cowardice which we can
not understand. Two hundred men
assaulted an imprisoned man and his
family. They riddled the father with
bullets, they killed his SON; they
wounded daughter, and with malIg-
nant cruelty kept from her the surgi-
cal aid necessary to. save her life.
Furthermore, says correspondent
from the place of themassacre, there was
no sympathy in the community for
the victims, no desire to punish the
mureerers, but, if anything, rather
a purpose to excuse the crime. Of
public indignation there were no idica-
tons. The Governor of the State
has leisurel y surveyed the field, and
with that effort will probably end his
Immediate attention to the affair. For
the rest there will remain only the un
avenged blood of a poor girl who died
with her brother in defending their
father; and the father who, if he es-
capes another attack, may live, though
it IS not expected, to mourn the loss
Of children slaughtered by the two
hundred brave Mississippians IF the
South expects regeneration bv this !
system 1t will surely fail for blood
compels nothing good unless it be the
vengeance of the law: and law in
this case seems, so far, a statutory
farce. Northern vitality will not risk
the hazard of such communities, and
Northern brain and Drawn will turn to
more hospitable sections. The North .
appreciates the heroism of a woman.
1t despises the cowardice of her two
hundred murderers. of the com
munlty which encourages and iustifes
their crimes, and Of the officials which
permit them to 60 unpunlshed. CHI
cago Post