The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-05-01

old barn, Circuit Court it isl aud
the corn makes beds aud lounges
such as the Southern j~dIies delight
lin.
There is little conyictiog doGe un-
less the parties are Northerners or
"Niggers."
They make short work OF them.
White men are seldom arrested for
murder, especially if they have shot
a negro. Ia ten words. nurGer aud
~lawlessness are as rife there now as
at any time since the war
Much pains vas taken when first
reached there to prove to me that the
South was recoDciled tc the inevita-
bic, and willing TO abid eby the issues
of the war, and try by mutual for
b.. a ance to heal all sectional wounds,
&c, aud also to prove TO me that
Ku Klux never had existed, save in
the imaaginations Of the fanatic Radi
Gals. There never vas greater un-
truth uttered, as | soon found out.
| found my position becoming in
tolerable at Nalhermoso Springs
through the Vaccinations of the man
who sent me down, and his family /;
and so soon as my family was able to
travel from that fever-stricken hole,
We removed to Huntsville, Ala; but
thai, alas . was also in the South.
Huntsville is a town of some 6 or
| 5000 inhabitants, and is naturally q
very pretty town, situated in a basin
formed of the Cumberland Mountains.
Society is well advanced in eompar-
ison with that of the Springs, but the
same extreme poverty exists, and the
same air of decay.
Popular sentiment against the
Yankees Is better disguised here, as
the people all have land for sale.
poor red clay aad stones, that never
could have been fertile on earth /; and
as long as they can get fool Yankees
to come down and buy. they will
play friends, but at heart they are
bitter as worm-wood, and never lose
an opportunity to do a Northerner
an injury.
The town, as | say is small, and |
only lived there about six months,
yet ia that time | a honestly say |
have never heard of such a percentage
of crime in ali my travels. Murders
and assassinations, and drunken
brawls aad infanticide were of almost
weekly occurrence.
One girl who strangled her babe
and left il to be devoured by hogs,
was openly permitted to escape d
man who deliberately shot another
10 cold blood was never unprecedented,
some say because his uncle is Sheriff;
and so on through the list of white
offenders Bat, Ii poor negro boy
of 10, dared to tell q white woman
that she cheated hin out Of five cents,
and she raised such q cry about the
insult, that he was run into prison
and taken out the next day by a par
" Of 'Chevaliers !" and conducted
out Of town. Some bones aud flesh
and clothes discovered through The
agency of the buzzards told the Sc
qael.
There were Q negroes and 8 white
men in the county Jail. One night
some friends opened the doors TO all
the whites and left the negroes there.
No Yankee or Negro can hope to
have the least iota of justice if their
opponent is a Southerner. The NOR
al standard is the lowest | ever saw
it anywhere on earth. | could relate
things that would make one sbiver to
hear.
Two days after | left Huntsville,
my butcher, a Swiss, a strong Demo
crat, was assassinated by two negroes
who owed him a grudge. They we're
arrested, and in their confession in
plicated a white mau, (a1o,her butch.
err in the crime. He was a Repub.
lean and the result was that u body
of several hundred" of the Caivalsy
took the three from prison and hung
them.
| e%ncllse two or three extracts
from a Huntsville paper, whicl it
strikes me seem TO urge them on. |
knew of both parties well, seeing
them 10 the market, opposite my
house every day. 1t was politics
that killed the three, more than any
other thing. At any rae, it seems
strange that a newspaper should
speak Of a lynch mob as a ~'concourse
of ciyizena," doesn't it. These are
the extracts:
OLIVE HARPER
Young Potter, a son of Rev. john PJt-
ter shot and killed a man by the name OF
Ramsey in Gaddens, about midnight Sat
urday night last. No particulars.
George Schoenberger. a peaceablc, law
abiding. God fearing man, has been laid
low by the hand of cowardly assassins.
The blacklist crime that ever darkened the
annals of North Alabama has been perpe-
trated within u mile of the Court House of
ourpeaoetul city. A good man, while quietly
pursuing his chosen vocation has been way
laid. shot with a deadly weapon and his
heart pierced with three leaden messen
gers of death. 4 man whose unostenta-
tiods deeds of charity rave kept starvation
from many a household, whose kindly
virtues endeared him to all with whom he
came in contact, has fallen, the victim of a
lawless band whose very existence depend
cd upon their vices, whose frequent dep
relations upon his property at last embold-
ened them TO take his life. His lie was
one perpetual rebuke to lawlessness, TO
violence and 10 crime his virtues were
many and his failings few his homer uR
impeaohed and uniuipeaohable his busl-
ness integrity, passed through the crucible
of the busy Transactions OF a lifetime,
comes out pure gold unmixed with baser
metal. His enemies were the enemies OF
society itself.
Is it strange then, should it be a matter
of surprise, that strong men, law-abiding
good citizens, should rise in their might
and demand that this great crime should
be avenged. The wonder is that there
should be one to oppose it. While labor
ing under such excitement, created by
such a crime, it is wonder the perpetrators
were not sumariiy punished. That a COM
munity could thus restrain the promptings
OF outraged nature, is a fact which should
ever rebound to its credit. The provo
cation was great. but their reverence for
law still greater. While a doubt OF the
guilt of the parties existed. it must be dis
PEELED before expiation is demanded.