Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-15

hlOieht ana threatening and shouting out
that they could shoot as well as the
whites. Some persons, among them DO
lleemen, were endeavoring to aIIsy fhe
excitement. The negroes would not 90
away, however, and soon the shooting
began.
THE RETREAT.
The white men fired a yolIev which the
negroes returned, and on the firing of a
second volley by the whites the negroes
ran, firing as they ran. The witness was
armed and fired with the rest. He
fired four shots into crowd
OF negroes. He said that he was
obliged to do it. He did not make any
Inquiries as to the cause of the trouble.
He only saw ten or fifteen of his fellow
citizens cOntending against a mob of
negroes, and he took the side of his own
people. The witness had bought his pis-
tol a month before this thing occurred.
IL was, he said, notorious fact that the
negroes were armed. and the whites had
taken measures for their own preserya-
ton. When the witness fired his pistol
he fired right into the crowd. He did not
Know whom he hit, and did not fire after
the crowd began to run, and tried to pre-
vent others from firing. The witness had
taken part in the discussion which pre-
ceded this riot.
L
Like every other good citizen, he said,
he wanted to get rid of the terrible, mis-
cradle government they had. He had
often said that he would leave the coun-
Try II that government were not over
turned. His complaint was that the peo-
pie who built and owned the town had no
voice in its management. He said that
every white man, woman and child had
Deen enlisted in the fight to get rid of the
government they complained of
and had promised to implicitly
obey the orders of their leaders. They
mad been warned by every man in au-
thorlty to avoid any collision if they could.
lie denied that the riot had been precipi-
tated in order to intimidate the negroes
from voting, but thought that it had had
that effect. 1t didn't make any differ
ence in Danville, as that county was
Democratic with full cOlored vote. He
said that he had heard a part of Col.
Sims speech, and that it was the most
Ylllalnous he had ever heard a decent
man make. He thought that the speech
had wrought the negroes up to a pitch of
excitement that ended in the riot.
MAHONE's HENCHNEN.
On crOss-eXamination. bv Senator
Vance, he said that he had not known of
collision between the whites and ne
groes in his county since the war that
some mean white man was not resDonsi-
bic for, and that they invariably left their
negro dupes to bear the brunt of any
trouble that followed.
KNOCKED DOWN BY THE CROWD.
A. II. Blunt, of Danville, was the next
witness. He was i'll the opera house
meeting and heard that there was fight
ing on the street. He went out, bought a
pistol and went toward the scene of the
disturbance. A crowd Of escaping
negroes met him, ran against
him and knocked hm down. The witness
went with the purpose of shooting Ssif his
fellow men were being shot down." but
he did not fire himself The witness was
informed by Senator Sherman that a pre-
ViOus witness had sworn that the witness
was seen to shoot into the crowd of es-
Gaping negroes. The witness put in a
broad and emphatic denial. In reply to
senator Vance, the witness said that
there was state of excitement. He at
tributed 1t to insOlence on the part Of the
negro women and negro men. The wit
ness thought that if those two gentlemen
Senator sherman and Congressman
wise had seen their daughters slapped
of the sidewalk as the witness had seen
those OF respectable men in DanVile. they
would want to leave Danville and Vir-
ginia.
CHARACTER OF THE NEGROES.
There were a great many low negroes
there, but there were also good colored
people there, whom he respected, and
who acted as good citizens. Senator
sherman asked if the overbearing manners
Of the white people, formerly Shareholders,
had not contributed to the excitement.
and that degree Of Difference was de-
manded from the -c0lorod people
that would not have been de-
manded from any other race. The
witness thought that that might
be so. The witness thought that the chief
difficulty arose from the insOlence of the
negroes. Their acts of insOlence were of
every day occurrence. He had seen
white man escOrting white lady to
church or the opera house, and had seen
negro man "break right through their
arms" The proceedings were then ad-
journed until tomorrow morning at 10
O'Clock.