Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-05-14
Special to Commercial Herald.

special 10 Commercial Herdlu'
CANTON, May 7.-At an early hour
this morning a statement was current
Cd the street that after Midnight last
night Ben Chambers, colored, aged
nineteen years, had entered the bed.
room of the daughters Of Mr.. W. N.
! Bledsoe, and made an assault upon one
, of them, with intent to commit a rape.
Public feeling soon ran very high
and by ten o'clock se%venty.fve or one
hundred leading citizens had assembled
in the courthouse to take action in the
matter.
Chambers in the mean time had been
arrested and was in Jail.
Upon motion Mayor j. R. Powell
was called to preside over the meeting
and W. H. Anderson was chosen Sec
rotary.
Mr. BIedsoe, the father of the young
lady, was TT requested to make "A state
ment. He said that shortly before
day he was aroused by an alarm from
his daughters room, adjoining his
own, and Immediately rushed to the
scene of the noise. He found his daugh-
tiers, one of them a young lady grown,
another fifteen, and another fourteen,
very much excited and crying. The
n fifteen years of age said she was
awakened by hearing some one in the
room near her bed, but was so par
alvZed with fear that she could say
nothing; that the person then passed
from her bed to that Of her
younger sister, aged fourteen. The
latter said she was aroused by some.
thing touching her about the face and
breast, and throwing up her hands felt
the head Of a negro boy and afterward
discovered his person as he was at
tempting to escape. She seized him by
the coat, and as he endeavored to pull
away from her, she succeeded in tear
ing off a portion of it.
This portion of the coat was after
wards compared with the accused and
found to match in fabric and size with
the coat of accused and the rent in it.
The accused had been in the
habit of visiting Mr.. Bledsoe's premises
daily as the servant of Mr.. Stokes
and Exurn, who have a room there.
Chambers, when arrested and charged
with the crime, denied all knowledge
of it and said if it was he, he was
drunk. Mr.. Bledsoe made affidavit
before Esquire Bransford in accord
ance with the above facts and upon
motion the chairman appointed the
following jury of citizens white and
black, to sit with the court in the trial
of the accused :
W. j. Mostly, Mr.. Anderson, W. L.
Craig, S. G. Devine, A. N. Parker, Pat
Semmes, Jerry Wilson, Thomas SEWER,
U. w. Baldwin, n. Hitler, Hugh
Virden, Sam Powell.
At one o'clock Chambers Was placed
on trial, and after a thorough exami-
nation, in which the above and other
strong facts were brought out, Esquire
Bransford adjudged the prisoner guilty
as charged, and remanded him to jail
without bail.
The jury of twelve citizens then re-
tired and confirmed the finding of the
court. A number of them were in
favor Of allowing the law to take its
course.
At 3 o'clock three or four hundred
citizens, representing I'll business cir
cles and every condition of society,
repaired to the all and demanded the
prisoner.
Sheriff Reid refused to surrender
him, and the crowd demanded the keys,
and opeDed the doors, but the prisoner
was not to be found. After diligent
! search he was discovered in charge Of
a deputy, on top of the Jail, and was
brought down. A rope was then
placed around his neck, and after
being allowed to pray, he was swung
up to a tree.
Just before the final act this reporter
asked him if he was guilty. He re-
piled, yes that he went there. When
further asked for what purpose, he re-.
piled audibly and in the hearing of
FULLY fifty, "for devilment."
These were his last words. Thus
swift and merited punishment has
been melted out and society stands
vindicated.