Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-11-25
Fraudulent Report of the Durand Lynch
ing.

Parties who have relied upon the Pioneer
Press for their information relative to the
lynching at Durand, Wis, have obtained very
little idea of the actual facts. A reliable Du-
rand correspondent of the GLOBE punctured
the fraud yesterday, concluding his statement
as follows: -,
1.-THE prisoner was not taken from the court
room but from the hall below, and the audi
ence knew nothing of it until they looked
from the windows and saw the murderer
dangling from the tree. But perhaps the fact
that the P. p. reporter left town two or three
hours before the hanging, and could only have
learned of it after he reached st. Paul, may
account for some of the inconsistencies of
his account"
Sheriff Killian, Of Nebraska, who captured
Maxwell and was present at Durand, says that
the crowd waited until he was taken
down stairs on his way to the Jail when
the officers were thrust aside and the prisoner
taken and hung to the nearest tree. In view
of these facts, what does the public think OF
the following fiction which the disreputable
p P. pal med off on its readers:
''To the formal questions he pleaded moi
guilty, and then said: 4 waive examination,
| duu WOulu llhC W uldhC u he WAS
told to go on, and spoke as follows"
"We killed the Coleman boys in self defense but
didn't know them from Adam. We were sitting in
the grove up town when We saw them pass us
They had guns with them and looked round often
Ii searching for something. We knew there was no
game about there, and that they wouldn't be hunt.
ing Sunday if there was, go we knew they after
rs and kept sharp lookout. When they got past
ls they started to Then we got over the fence
ana followed them CD the road, thinking we were
| bpiup r1rrOUpdad cQr1oht In We had
not gone far before we met them, and the near.
eat the fence Milton Ooleman) fired first, his shot
hitting Lon in the face and arm. Charley fred at
me, and at him second later. His shot struck
my arm, and he fell to my bullet, but got on his
knee and fired again. Lon had shot the other one
before that, and when both were down We turned
and ran" 81.
All this was delivered in conversational
tone, as if it were recital of the most ordi-
nary adventure; and I could see, as the story
progressed, that the spectators were edging
nearer and nearer him. He had scarcely fin.
ished-indeed, / am inclined to think he was
about to continue the story-when, with a
growl like wild beasts, dozen men sprang on
him. Women shrieked as the melee grew
greater, and it was impossible to tell, for a
moment just what was being done. The off.
GERS made resistance, but not very deter.
mined one; and in less than a minute the
prisoner was dragged through the yelling
crowd to the door. A rope had made its ap.
pearance as if by magic, and when he reached
the outer door the moose was round his neck.
| caught one glimpse of his face as he was
going down the stairs. 1t was pale as marble,
but his eyes glared defiance, and every look
betokened the agonizing wish: eff had but
my Winchester and a seconds freedom" But
arms and freedom omnipotence alone could
have given him then. The crowd, the initia-
tive having been taken, was wild with passion.
"Hang him, choke him, burn him." ETC., etc.,
were heard on all sides, and if pity was felt by
a single creature, its expression was not made.
1t takes minutes to write this-it took seconds
only toreach the tree I spoke of above.
The disgraceful feature is that a newspaper
should have no regard fer the truth in matter
of news, but invent an entire report of such an
affair and palm it off as genuine. Unfortu-
nately the average newspaper makes business
of political lying, but when paper is so lost
to decency as to wilfully publish bogus news,
nothing it contains from advertisements to
market reports can be relied upon.