The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1880-10-14
A DAMNABLE OUTRAGE
Dan Smith, a Negro Monster,
Makes a Brutal Assault
Upon a Girl Twelve
Years of Age.
His Arrest and Narrow Escape
from the Righteous Wrath
of the People.

/
white girl living on Shoal creek, in
this county, near the Alabama line
The circumstances under which the
crime was committed are of the
most cruel and revolving character
and well calculated to excite the
ungovernable fury of the people.
The victim, Matte Hendricks, is
only twelve years of age and the
treatment she received at the hands
of this atrocious monster is almost
too horrible to describe. She lives
in the family of Elder William
Smith and the outrage was commit
ted when that gentleman and his
wife were absent; the unfortunate
child being the only person in the
house at the time. Her story is
about as follows: She was sitting
indoors knitting, when the negro,
who had lived on the farm all his
life, entered and Immediately grasp
ed her by the arm, attempting at
the same time to place his hand over
! her mouth. She screamed aud at
tempted to release eiself, when he
caught her by the throat, lifted her
up bodily and carried her out of
the house, crossing a foct-log over
| the creek into a thicket where he
subjected her to every indignity
that his beastly propensities could
suggest. The poor child lost con-
seriousness while being carried
across the foot-log and did not re-
cover it until the ravisher had fled.
She then dragged herself, with
great difficulty, to the house, falling
three times on the way, and endur-
ing intense pain. She had been
choked so cruelty and persistently
that the blood ran out of her eyes,
nose ard mouth. Her mind, too,
was Eighty, and it was only at in
tervals that she knew where she was
or what she was doing. She was
discovered in this condition late in
the evening by gentleman who
had occasion to stop at the house.
Medical investigation showed that
while her body had been terribly in
iured the negro wretch had not
fully accomplished his purpose. In
few hours her throat was so
dreadiully swollen and infamed
| that the surface was on q level with
| her chin, and her other injuries
were of such q character that for
awhile her life was despaired of.
| Skillful treatment, however, had its
effect and it is now thought that
| she will recover.
OF course this inhuman and re-
voting crime excited the most in
tense indignation among the people
of the neighborhood and several
parties of men secured the woods
in search of the negro. He man
aged to elude their vigilance i'll
some way and was not arrested I'M
til Sunday, when he was discovered
at Rogersville, Ala, and recognized
by a description that had been sent
to the authorities there. At first
he denied his name, but when con-
fronted by gentleman who knew
him, he saw that a lie would no
longer serve him and he made a
clean breast of the crime. He was
Immediately sent under guard to
this place, the party travelling all
night and reaching here early Mon
day morning, when the brute was
turned over to Sheriff Arrowsmith.
That official, impressed with sense
of duty, Immediately put him on
the morning train for the purpose
of carrying him to Nashville for
safe keeping.
This becoming known, dispatches
we're sent to Lynnville, and when
the train arrived at that place the
negro was taken from the custody
of special deputy while the sher-
if, who had stepped on the plat
form, was conversing with friend.
| Mr.. Arrowsmith, as soon as he dis
covered this fact, went in search of
the prisoner and found him several
hundred yards down the track in
the custody of several men. Draw
ing his pistol he demanded that the
negro be returned to him, and after
a short pariey he succeeded in OBJ
tanning possession of him and bring
ing him to Pulaski that evening.
In the meantime, dispatches were
sent to Prospect, the nearest point
to the scene of the outrage, inform
ing the people of the Negroes re-
turn, al d 1t was soon understood
that a party of armed men would
immediately set out for Pulaski to
wreak vengeance on the brute. The
feeling was almost universal that
the wrath of the people should be
allowed to take its course, and a
report that the girl was dead famed
the flames of popular fury. AT
about l o'clock that night about one
hundred men rode into town and
halted in front of the Jail. Several
of them dismounted and went in
where they found Capt. f. Arrow
smith, brother of the sheriff. De-
manding the keys, they were sur
rendered, but a visit to all the cells
revealed the fact that the negro had
been removed. Very naturally, the
nocturnal visitors were very indig
nant, but they offered no violence,
and the most of them rode quietly
out of town. Sheriff Arrowsmith,
moved by a high sense of official
duty, which the better judgment of
his fellow citizens must ultimately
approve, however much they may
deprecate its effect in allowing
brutal ravisher to escape swift and
condlgn punishment, had taken the
negro from the Jail, put him in
charge of Deputy John w. Dyer
and Special Deputy r. a. +. Jack
son, with instructions to convey
him to Nashville over land. These
gentlemen, by taking circuitous
route, made the journey through the
country without being molested,
and succeeded IN reaching Nash
vile Tuesday evening with the
prisoner.
The atrocious nature of this
crime; the piteous sufferings of its
innocent and motherless victim;
the vile and detestable bestiality
which prompted it and the hideous
traits, physical and otherwise, of