The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-01-17
Look to Ourselves

Mortified over the lynching OF the
eight negroes at Barnwell, South
Carolina. Words are inadequate to
express the disgust which a revolt
ing deed inspires and the condition
of local sentiment which can permit
it to go UNPUBLISHED. Is South
Carolina entitled to rank as a civil
lied state?
To which the Pennington Tribune
says:
Well, probably not, exactly; but it
would rank about on par with a
state where they pound niggers to
death with mop handles and "sich,"
when confined in an insane asylum.
and where the ''local sentiment" is
such that it gives the bell-wether OF
the flock a banquet and presents
him with watch.
And to which we say that it will
rank with some Minnesota gang hOr-
rors:
An old man who has been farm
hand in Pope County, five or six
miles north OF Glenwood, and a COM
panion, Summer" two weeks in
little tent on Lake Minnewaska,
Pope County, the same as other
.ssummering" aristocrats.
This man is a soft, simple, good ma
tured, weak-minded man. He
..chins'' across the counter Of a pea
nut store with a bright young lady,
but uses no indecent words or ideas.
He loafs in the grocery store where
he sells fish, buying little connections,
as we'll as food, and always
paying cash-in the county seat, but
a hundred rods from camp.
Some boys steal his boat, to both
err him. He goes after the sheriff
the same sheriff who was gently laid
down when drunk, on the sidewalk,
by q horse-thief whom three counties
were after-and ''wristled" with his
own handouts! The same sheriff
who was sued for assault last year.
The same sheriff who lay on the
sidewalk with his mouth open, so
school children could brush the flies
out-and distributed the county
funds on the sidewalk. The same
sheriff who was figured in the Police
Gazette as roaring drunk with his
prisoner, in Sank Centre. The same
Sheriff who is sheriff still-and likely
to be. This poor old farm laborer,
whose voice was never raised above
q monotone, went to this Sheriff's
house to get Kim. 1t wasn't at the
same time that he tied desperate
criminal to a rickety rocking-chair,
alone with his wife and babe-but an
other warm and sunny, happy after
noon in summer! Yes, the old man
whose grey forehead was wrinkled on
ly by the pains of toil-went to the
Sheriff's house to find that official.
His little daughter said that her
father was not at home. The old
man hopping his face with his sleeve
asked the girl, while waiting for the
victorious politician, if she would
let him have a handkerchief to
wipe off the perspiration. The little
girl went up stairs and brought him
one. He stepped to the stairs and
used it-and returned it. Not one
improper word rose to his lips-but
grateful recognition. II there were
a shadow of wrong even thought OF
by this man no complaint of it ever
reached the community.
Then the man whom toll had en-
nobled with the title of gentleman,
simple though he were, went away.
That evening village Marshal and
others, with the sheriff's assistance,
it is said, at least he was with the
gang, grabbed the summer visitor"
and put him in the lock up. No
charge was ever made against him
that we ever heard Of.
At eleven o'clock at night the
Sheriff stuck his head in the saloon
door, and yelled, ''Come on boys,
we're going to have some fun" The
marshal and lot of men who
thought the claw was with them,
60 to the lock up with the officials.
They take a pail of soft, blistering
roofing tar with them. The officials
unlock the door and drag the old
victim forth, without pantaloons,
coat, hat or other clothing than
workman's shirt. He is delivered to
the gang. They shout and howl
and the man runs-about 20 rods,