The Donaldsonville chief., 1882-02-04
MORE 1.YNnH1rG.

MORE LYNOH1EG.
The usually staid and law abiding par
ish Of Bossier has been disgraced
by a lynching affair. Tuesday night Of
last week party of about dozen men
gained admission to the jailor's bedroom,
obtained possession Of the keys of the
Jail by threats, entered the prison and
brought out Henry Solomon, . colored
man, whom they hanged just outside the
building. An inquest was held and, as
usual, the jailor, his assistants and the
prisoners incarcerated with Solomon all
testified that they did not recognize any
of the lynchers, though it does not even
appear from the evidence, as reported by
the Banner, that the law breakers were
masked or disguised in any way.
Solomon had been imprisoned on
charge of mulo stealing, and was thought
to he bad character, but it is not urged
that he was ever convicted Of any Of
fense. During the night Of the 10th
inst, in company with one Jack Chap
man, a white man convicted Of murder
and sentenced to death, Solomon broke
out of Jail and fled. The pair were sub
sequently captured and returned to
prison. The night of the lynchins the
floor of the cell occupied by Solomon
was found to be burning, and the pris-
oner is said to have acknowledged that he
started the fire with the intention Of ef-
fecting an escape. We presume this was
the overt act that justified the lynchers,
in their own estimation, in numbering
man who had never been convic ted Of
any breach of law and was entitled to
the legal presumption Of innocence nntil
proven guilty.
The Bossier Banner regrets the occur
renee and says "such a method Of intiict-
ing Justice is undoubtedly dangerous" !"
but expresses the candid belief that
the legal quibbles and quirks so freely
used in defense Of criminals everywhere,
nowadays, is answerable for this state
of affairs"
The excuse is very weak one i'll this
instance, for no attempt had yet been
made under the forms Of law to bring
Solomon to an account for his alleged
misdeeds. # the night-prowling jay
hawkers were actuated by the fear that
a criminal would escape punishment un-
less they inflicted it outside the pale of
the law, why did they select poor dar-
key, never convicted Of crime and only
accused of stealing mnle, passing by q
white murderer who had been duly tried
and pronounced guilty and who is on
deavoring to evade the penalty of his
great crime-one Of the most serious and
infamous in the category of lawless deeds
by illegal quibbles and quirks !" Jake
Chapman is prosecuting al appeal before
the Supreme Court, and should any irrsg-
ularity be discovered in The proceedings
in his case, he will be granted u new trial
and will stand the chance of securing an
acquittal or of making second and more
| successful attemptteescape by breaking
Jail and fleeing .to, parts unknown. Il
solomons effort to regain his liberty by
fight is taken as 81 confession Of guilt
the same assumption n,sst apply in Chap
mans case, even signoring ths fact that
the latter had been duly tried and con-
victed, while the former had never been
accorded the right,of trial.
It certainly appears on the face of til g
record that the Bossier lynchers made a
very marked distinction between white
tweedle-dee aud colored tweedlo-dum,
aud in three out of every four instances
of lynching in Louisiana the same ten
dency is to be observed. Notwithstand-
ing the fact that the proportion of
criminals who escape punishment i'll this
State is fully three white to one colorcd,
considerable majority Of those muir
dered by the outrageous methods OF
Judge Lynch are colore d prisoners whose
facilities for taking advantage of illegal
quibbles and quirks are far inferior to
| those of the white malefactor. 1t is q
great pity for the credit Of the tate and
it's people, an example can not he made
of some Of these cowardly murderers
who, under the pretense of Furnishing
crime, violate the sacred rights Of citi
zenship, break through the most valua-
ble safeguards of society and place
themselves on level with the worst q
! malefactors that infest the country. W.
can imagine state Of affairs that would
palliate and Justify resort to extra,ju
dicial proceedings to restore good ordel
and suppress crime, but no such condition
exists in Louisiana or in Bossier parish
and there was no adequate warrant OF
justification for the application of mol
law in the instance just noted.
The St. Helena Gazette considers tina
there was but little Of Importance &C
complished by the recent extra sessions
of the General Assembly, and lays th'
blame upon the recreant Democratic
members who combined with the Repub
licans /" to defeat ends 80 much desired b,
the people" Will the Gazette essay al
enumeration of these "en,ls SO much de
sired by tho people1" A reference t.
the proclanations Of the Governor con
voking the special sessions will show
that the only legislation specified therein
| which the General Assembly failed t,