Daily globe., 1883-10-04
JUDGE LYNCH.
When Community Feels That Legal
Punishment Does Not Al.
ways Punish.
a Silent Body OF Hen with Tight
6 . cned Lips and CIose-Shut Teeth
and Body Swinging
To and Fro.
Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Free Press.
You may have seen q street riot. That is
SIMPLY the outer circles of u whirlpool. a
shower OF brick -bats-a surge up and down
a dozen broken heads-a cry of ''policem and
your crowd scatters like sheep and sinks
away like ours.
A mob sets out to resist the authorities.
Nine OUT Of every ten men III it are towards.
They boast and brag and encourage, but they
keep their own bodies in the back ground.
They want to see someone hurt but they
know that law viii triumph, and they want
to be able to prove that they were simply
lockers Oh. One brave man will walk into
a mob and defy and over-awe it.
A brutal outrage has been committed 1t
Is an affair that stirs the blood of sons and
brothers and brings dangerous light to the
eyes Of husbands and fathers. There is no
Boosting or Shouting. Knots of men gather
here and there, and they speak with fierce
earneStnesS, but in low voices. No mob
surges up and down-no wild yells rend the
air-no towards furnish drink to excite
young men to foolish deeds.
"Lynch him!'
1t is not shouted. but spoken in whispers or
read in each others eyes. Every man has
obeyed the laws-every man would peril his
life III aiding to enforce them, but there is
feeling that legal punishment does not always
punish sufficiently.
'Lynch hinll"
When men who never partake of meal
without bo.ing the head in prayer whisper
those words, look out? The heart burns and
thrills. For the time being law is nothing.
Fathers whisper it to sons, brothers to each
other, merchants to mechanics. Lips tighten
and grow pale, teeth shut close, eyes flash as
you never saw them before.
The knots of men swell into groups-the
groups consolidate into a crowd. The leader
takes his place, and instinctively the crowd
realize that he is the proper person. Speeches
and orations are not in order-ropeS arel
See nowl Teeth shut tighter Us the crowd
moves. Not man would turn back from a
loaded cannon. 1t moves ahead, but itswirls
and Kisses and gurgles like river vexed by
rocks. 1t is the whispers-the quick answers
-the pale faccS-which tell you what danger
turks in the crowd. A noisy crowd can be
scattered. II will fall to pieces of itself. A
silent body of men will take your life if every
man has to peril his own.
1t is the Jail. Key or no key, the prisoner
must come out. That crowd would have him
If score of grated doors had to be battered
down. He does not plead for mercy. One
look around him tells him that his life is hun.
geTed for with such intensity that prayers
would be mockery. He may look up at the
harvest moon and the star-studded heavens,
but he sees nothing. He is dazed and awed by
the grim silence of the band.
"Haltl"
No voice commands, but here is the tree.
The whirlpool stands still for q moment
Faces grow a little whittier, but the eyes of
every man show dogged determination that
would blaze into desperation if opposed. The
moose is rapidly adjusted, there is falling
back, and with groan Of terror and despair
ttembling on lis lips the guilty wretch
swings in the air. The creak of the limb
the calls of night bird-the deep breathing
Of men-are plainly heard as the body swings
TO and fro or turns round and round as the
death struggle goes on
! 1t is morning. Merchants are behind their
Counters, mechanics at the bench, sons at
school. There IS no sign that last night was
not one CT tranquility and polce Men speak
again, women and children laugh as they
walk abroad-tile cyclone has passed. The
Jail doors are being repaired-the tree no
longer holds a corpse, and o stranger would
tnOk upon this face and that and whisper to
himself: "What good nature see in every
line Of their corlutenanceS! They are obedi-
ent to law and c,faire tie best of order"
:, Riots are the work Of denagogues and
Boosters G.o!s are created by towards.
when men tgrn cut with shut teeth and
whispered voices 70 take the Law into their
own hands, Judge Lynch has opened court
and sentenced a man die.