Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-02-25
|ReviivaIofBarbariiSm.
A Couple of Specimen White
Cap Atrocities.
BRUTAL TREATMENT OF MORMONs

Because Their Talk Was Bigger Than
Both-Graphic Account of n Deviiish
AFFAIR in Which a Frail Woman Is the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. JOY of u Brooklyn
Divorcee Over Suicide.
CINCINNATI, Feb 25-The WhiteC Caps
have again broken out in southern Indiana,
and their outrages are more infamous than
ever They have now taken to tarring and
gathering defenseless women in order to
purify the morals of the towns Hardscrab-
BILE, hamlet about five miles from Madison,
Ind, in the toughest part of Jefferson coun-
ty, is the last place visited by midnight raid
ers. The hamlet is composed of six log cab
ins of various pretensions. The inhabitants
most interested in the visit Of the midnight
raiders were Willard Davis, his wife Till Q,
and a sister of the latter, named Emilins
Davis, the divorced wife of Milo Davis, a
brother of Willard The family lived over
in Kentucky until December last Title
Davis and her sister are both women OF bad
repute and were continually visited by two
men, William Brown and J. n. Pulliam,
both married men. One morning the usual
the house, and was treated az a joke by the
threatened persons
The next warning was a bundle of switches
placed at the door Of the Davis house, and
next the house was stoned, and this brought
about an emigration, the family moving to
hardscrabble But their reputation had
preceded them, and about o'clock Tuesday
morning two watchers by bedside of sick
ness at the entrance to Hardscrabble Hollow
heard the tramp of a body of borsemen. DR..
Lawder, OF Brooksburg, was with his patient
at the same time, and saw the mon go past.
Some, he said, wore the proverbial white
caps, but the darkness and distance was too
great for possible Identification. They rode
directly to the Davis home The mid
night visitors grouped themselves in
two bodies They were twenty in number,
and those who did not wear the white caps
had their faces BACKED. One party covered
With revolvers the only window on the
ground floor alongside the door. and the
others, fourishing their revolvers, burst open
the door, and before Davis could spring up
four White Caps grappled him and forced
him to throw up his hands. He was then
hustled to the door and despite his protests
and pleadings to be allowed to put on his
shoes at least, he was taken outside and
stood on the icy ground in his bare feet
From the inside could be heard the ason-
lied screams Of Title, his wife, joined with
those OF Eddie, lS-year-old SOD of Davis by
his first marriage. The boy was sick with
measles and lay on his parents bed. When
Davis had been so suddenly taken to an ice
bath the visitors had seized the woman and
dragged her to the center of the room, tear
ing her only garment into shreds. One look,
TO make sure of their victim, and the dsvlltry
began. A swab was thrust into a
bucket containing tar warmed to
the proper consistency. One man grabbed
the poor woman's long hair and spread
it out, while another rubbed as much tar on
it as would stick, and then, with the swah,
rubbed, tar well into the scalp. Half q
buckstfnl of the tar was then poured over
her bosom. When her body was plastered
with as much tar would stick, they ripped
up one OF her pillows and rolled her in the
feathers In her struggles t. escape the
woman made things worse, AMI the door and
the scanty furniture were plentifully bespat-
tered The sick boy wss frightened into un-
consciousness
After throwing the deiiled woman from
them, the raiders demanded to know the
whereabouts of Emelipe, Pulliam's para
mour. Before they received an answer ana
without waiting to search the house, the
Wbite-Caps rode away, first, however, warn
ing Davis that his wife and Emedtne must be
out Of the county within twenty-four hours.
and that he, too, must leave as soon as the
sick boy could be removed The penalty OF
disobedience was sisnifed by wave of
twenty revolvers.
When the raiders, regulators, or whatever
else they term themselves, entered the house
the other woman, Emelins, was asleep IN the
loft over Davis bed room Realizing in an
instant what the disturbance meant the ter.
riied woman leapsd from the pallet on
which she had lain and ran down
the stairs in the inclosed space b.
tween the houses Fortunately all the
White-Caps were on the opposite side of
the house, and she was unseen as she sped
nearly naked over the frozen ground to a de-
serted cabin on the hill. She could hear her
sisters screams for mercy-the mercy that
was refused. Then fear and cold had over
come her, and when found she was nearly
dead. Early the next morning the entire
Davis crowd left the country