The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-08-17
To Lynch or Net to Lynch.

The festive lynching party appears
| Just now to be all the rage. The church
festival, the sacred concert, the soiree
musicale, the grave donation and the
hilarious yarn social seem to be suffer-
ing an eclipse.
Lynching bees are out prospecting
for victims in almost every State in the
Union and on every day in the week.
This, of course, is but one of those
popular crazes which sweep annually,
like q tidal wave, over the Nation. It
may die out as suddenly as the fifteen
puzzle If the wrong man is unavoid-
ably lynched at one of these playful
necktie sOcials, it is seldom discovered,
At least not in time'to do the man any
good. The principal in the affair gen.
orally keeps still about it, and the others
are unanimously reticent about the
matter. Hanging by law is fast be-
coming the exception. The rule is to
lynch.
With the large floating class of muir
| derers, horse thieves, etc., the various
vigilance committees are kept unusually
busy at this seasan of the year. The
crop is of that peculiarly votary char
acter which is continually ripening for
the harvest. The dead and sapless
telegraph pole of the far West bears
strange fruit at. times. while the UNI
brageous shade of the gnarled and
crooked live oak oft shelters the pulse
less clay which, after life's fitful fever,
stretches well.
The latest lynching episode which has
| come to our ear or ears, occurred re-
Gently on the scientific frontier of Texas.
Kosciusko Dalrymple was hard char
acter, with reputation as big as a
court house, but not so symmetrical,
perhaps, and at times he was looked
upon with longing, avaricious eyes by
the vigilantes. One day they nabbed
him under suspicious circumstances,
| and uttering with one voice: snow is
the accepted time" hurried him cut of
town to a neigboring grove for the pur-
pose of helping him over the gravelly
bed of the shining river of light. On
this involuntary trip toward eternity.
Kosky earnestly and eagerly protested
his innocence of the express crime
charged in the rude indictment, and
when the party arrived at the grove
and took a breathing spell, Kosky got
| his second wind and commenced to
harangue the multitude with all the ve-
hemence of Mark Anthony over the
corpse of Cesar, if not with that dis
tinguished Romans eloquence and adj
dress:
gentlemen" he said, I'm a hard
| CITIZEN
The point is well TAKEN" said the
chairman of the committee, "but tell
us something new"
YES. I'm tough. You know all
about me, suppose; know my record
and have got me down pretty middlin
tine?n
1--WE are on to you, Kosky, this time
for a fact"
..Yes, gentlemen, you've got me at q
disadvantage. I'm bad man from
away back, but 1 just want to remove
one stain from my reputation. / want
to say Just one word before I'm swung
up, and it isn't that I'm a goin' to glory
and to play on an organette. 1t isn't
one last word to my poor old mother,
for she has been dead these twenty
years; God bless her. 1t isn't to CON
fess and tell the young men to lei
whisky alone and never learn the diff
ference between the nine spot and the
lady card. No, gentlemen, none Of
these things agitate me now at thi:
supreme moment of my life. But what
[ want to know gentlemen. is this
They say | stole Gabe Runners horse.
That's the charge, KOsky," said the
chairman.
That's why you are going to do fol
me now, suppOse2"
That's about hit"
..All right, gentlemen. Do any Of
YOU who have known me off and on fol
four or five years believe don't know
a good horse from 4 mustang, from a
broncho, from a scrub colt with the
CHAMBERS, an emery, watch-eyed
sweenied, poll-evil animile with hi:
shoulder knocked down and thrushe:
in all four feet, name reached with a
jack knife and saddesgalls as big as q
platter9'
You always was good judge of 8
horse. Kosky.'
II wasp
"Yes. I'll say that much for you"
well. that's all 1 got to say, gentle.
men. Now, if 1 look like man who
would steal any of Gabe Runners stock
when there was plenty of good horses
otforty rods away; if look that mean
an onery. and low down, and insignifi-
cant, woppler jawed and freckled, why,
gentlemen. it was high time was hung
high. Go on with the matinee; I've had
nv say, If I'm that low down in the
scale of humanity, why pull me up tc
glory and let me die like q chicken
thief"
The committee looked at each Other
and considered. The proof against
Kosky was by no means complete, but
enough to hang him on general princi
Piles. But his rude logic had somewhat
shaken their determination. At last
the chairman said:
.'Kosky, I've got some mighty fine
blooded horses on my ranch"
"You have that" replied Kosky.
"And /, too chimed in another.
Correct, you are" said Kosky."
"Kosky, we are afraid of you," said
the chairman.
II know it," said Kosky, "but il
you'll let up on me I'll put nine States
between me an your horses in less n
forty-eight hours. Fact, gentlemen,
your horses are temptation, but if You
say the word I'm off an you can 60 right
on improving your stock"
The chairman ordered the rope
thrown of Kosky's neck. and covering
him with his Winchester rifle, said, Ia
lonically:
Skip"
And Kosky was off like the wind
| Teras .Siftin1s