Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-02-20
Was He Insane?

1t is impossible to draw the line at the
point where greatness and "cussedness"
met in that desperate outlaw, Bob Sims.
lynched in Alabama. A thrill Of hor-
ror ran through the whole country
as the story was told Of how Sims
and his brother and son. his most
faithful henchmen, and finally even his
daughters, were dealt with in the
method of backwoods justice, making
seven persons who were lynched. The
south claims to be chivalrous TO women
beyond any section of country in Chris
tendon, yet such a thing as the hanging
of woman by lynch law could scarce
ly have happened in the rorth under any
circumstances.
When, however, the full story of the
Simsite outrages comes to be told, while
no one can justify lynch law, yet one
wonders how his fellow citizens kept
their hands off him so long. We see too
Enthusiastically the gradual growth of
terrorism. If Bob Sims had been ar
rested and sent to the penitentiary early
in his career and his illegal whisky max
ing squelched in the beginning, there
would have been no awful lynching hor-
ror later. But this was not done. 1t
looks as if all his fellow citizens and the
whole United States government were
afraid of Bob Sims.
When little boy ten years old Bob
Sims was a most pious Methodist lie
even prayed in camp meetings at that ten
der age He was thoroughly exemplary
/ in his conduct and was uncommonly
bright intellectually. What a famous
and eloquent preacher he would have
made He went into the Confederate
army as a soldier. 1t is recorded that
lie was good soldier too.
But after he came out of the army two
mental characteristics that his acquaint-
ances had not noticed before began to
develop in him. One was vanity, the
other a fierce and. cruel temper. AS this
temper grew people shrank from him
That increased his vanity till he set him
self up as a leader and founder of re-
ligious sect. He taught that all the
laws of society and all government were
instrumentalities of the devil; there
fore it was religious duty to resist
them. It was an easy doctrine to fol
low-easy for anybody
Instances of his fendish spirit are re
corded which indicate that he mus
have been insane. He used to entic'
his neighbors' hogs and other live stool
near his premises with a show of food
Then as the poor animal reached out it
tongue to lick the salt or corn Bob Sim
would suddenly raisesa sharp ak Of
knife he had in readiness and at on
blow cut off its tongue. More thai
once he chopped off the foot of neigh
boris cow and drove the creature limp
ing home upon the bleeding stump. FL
was fond. too, of catching other people
chickens, plucking the feathers off then
alive and then releasing them.
Could such monster as this hay
been sane? If he was crazy, then all hi
followers were hypnotized by an insan
leader and drawn to do as desperat
deeds as he did. If he was insane, too
what should have been his punishment
The logic of the horrible tale is clear a
daylight, however. If he had been fear
lessly taken hold of and dealt with 70
his law breaking in the beginning i
the first stages of his peculiar menta
development. there would never hav
been sny ssnn.As: sans; ~ ,tq,p.