Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-30
BLACK FRIDAYS VICTIMS.
TONY JAMES DIES REPENTANr
AND SMILING AT DARIEN.

sleeping Like a Top and Breakfastinp
Ike an Epicure-COnfident ofReachine
PARADISE and Inviting his Friends to
Meet Him There-An Almost Painless
Demise
DARIEN, Ga. June 29.-Toney James.
colored, was publicly hanged here to-day,
IN the presence of two thousand neonla
mostly colored. The gibbet was erected
In the rear of the court house. and the
Trigger was sprung from the Clerks
room.
James relatives and friends took their
farewell yesterday. James rested we'll
last nlght, and ate hearty breakfast OF
lried chicken and hOminy this morning.
AT lO:45 O'Clock Sheriff BIount brought
James TO the gallOws, and after hymn
anu PRAYER, the Sheriff read the death
warrant and said, 'sTony James. if Won
nave anything to say, say it,"
James quickly responded, Il have. sir.
Inls speech: My friends, you see stand
ing mere before you the last of moor Tony
Games. l am about to leave to 90 TO live
win Tod. DON'T fret after me. am ready
ana willing to go, but fret after that world
.n'1lI wnere am gong TO stand on Jordan's
slormy banks. L killed my friend. Prince
Anderson, but 1 was intoxicated with
hquor- Young ladies and gentlemen
take warning of me; let LIQUOR alone or
you Will come to stand in the same place
you see me now Don't fret after me
put take warning. Father and mother
doh't lret after me, but try to bring up
Ine little one that he may not come to
Wnere L now am. Farewell, and don't
fret after me.v
After James had concluded. another
hymn was sung, in which the doomed
man joined heartily with the immense
crowd. At 11:21 O'clock the black can
was put on and the trap was sprung.
when this was done many of the negro
women IN the crowd screamed and yelled
for some seconds.
Alter hanging twelve minutes Drs. Ke-
nan and Harris pronounced him dead. his
neck having been broken. His death
must have been painless, as there was but
little struggling of the shoulders. In fifteen
minutes after the drop James was taken
down and placed in coffin and turned
over 10 his relations, who carried the re-
mains TO Liberty county for interment.
On the march from the Jail James con-
tlnued saying: "GOOd bye, my friends.
Farewell! meet me in paradise. | am
going to heaven"
When on the gallOws he was as collect
ed as mortal man could be, and
not muscle moved while the
Sheriff was adjusting the rope about his
neck. During the ceremonies his face
bore smile that showed that he was not
AFRAID to die. The crowd kept perfectly
quiet and Sheriff BlOunt managed the af-
falr admirably. The Mcintosh Dragons.
Captain Hopkins, the Darien Guards, col
0red, Captain Grice, of DaEien, and the
vernon Guards, cOlored, Captain Good
rich, OF Savannah, surrounded the gallOWs
and kept order. They were in full uni
form. No accident occurred and there was
not drunken man on the street.
The crime which cost both James and
Anderson their lives was perpetrated on
the 9th of August, 1882. A party of
colOred men had been to Darien during
the day, and in the afternoon en-
barked in a small craft for their home.
on one of the Champney Islands.
On the voyage James created bad feel
ing by splashing water on cOlored
woman who was aboard the boat. An
dersOn rebuked James, and after landing
at the island the quarrel was resumed.
Both men becoming more and more an
CRY, Anderson finally slapped James
face. James thereupon drew
his revolver and as Anderson
beat retreat, walking backwards, James
fired three shots, the last one taking effect
near the heart and resulting i'm death be-
fore medical aid could traverse the long
ulsJdnce intervening between the scene OF
the shooting and Darien. James was ar
rested, tried, convicted and sentenced
to hang January s, 1888. His lawyer
made a motion for new triaa, and sue
ceeded in tiding his doomed client over
the fatal day. James relatives subse-
quently manifested so little interest in
their kindsman's fate that they re-
fused even to bear the expense of a
trip to court, and this so eX-
asperated the lawyer that he
allowed his opportunity for argument to
go by default and thus left his client to
his fate. At the recent spring term of the
Superior Court the prisoners eXpiation
was fixed for to-day. James was a not
unpreposessing negro, not long out of his
teens, and had up to the date of
his crime borne a good reputation. A
touch of the romantic was lent the crime
by the fact that the murderer and his vic
tim had grown up together and been fast
friends from their earliest boyhoOds. The
execution was the first which had Oc-
CURED in Mcintosh county since 1867, a
fact which doubtless had its influence in
swelling the throng of spectators.