The Forrest City times., 1892-02-26


 negro fiend. But the law covering this offense is one which always carries with 1t the punishment of death upon con- viction, and our chief executives do not exercise the parloning power in suclrcases. Ed Coy, the rapist, would as certainly have been hanged as that he was captured and convicted-and his victim had positively identified him. which meant for him no escape from the hangman's necse. Although Coy s offense was fiendsh, the punishment age. The crime which this mob com mitted would have been a very serious one under any circumstances, but when they forced (by their cries) the woman whom Coy had ravished to apply the match to his oil-soaked clothing and thus started the flame which roasted him to death, their action becomes in- human to degree which is extremely unpleasant to contemplate. We realize that mob law brings into lively action mans most brutal passions. and it is frequently difficult to control men who are laboring under the sting of real, or fancied outrage, but it is not often these mobs so completely lose their heads as to refuse to obey determined, fearless, just interference; and if d few men possessing these attributes had ap- peared at the proper moment, it is probable the fair fame of Texarkana and Arkansas would not have been smirched by the commission of such d crime as our border city witnessed last Saturday.
 If such an Offense against law and good judgment can be coIidoned, how ever, it is found in the great number of outrages recently committed by negroes upon white females. No one can deny that they are becoming alarm ingly frequent-that this species of crime is increasing every day. It is true the average rapist knows if he is caught lie will be hanged. But this knowledge does not deter his race from taking the chances. And a public hanging is the colored criminals. one opportunity to make show of himself. He always goes to glory with the chants and blessings of his race ringing in his dying ears, no matter what the nature of his crime may have been. The peo- pie of Texarkana doubtless determined to strike terror into the hearts of all who might contemplate initiating Coy's crime by burning him at the stake. This they did, and, as the deed has al- ready been done, we hope it will have the effect it was intended to have. If it will cause total cessation of this brutal practice, the people of the entire state will, we doubt not, cheerfully bear a part of the odium Of Saturdays work.
 It is difiicult--nay. it is absolutely impossible-to contemplate, with any degree of fairness. occurrences like this from the standpoint of an outsider They must be brought home to be properly appreciated. It would be un- just to condemn the good people of Texarkana, as a whole, for We do not know what we would do under similar circumstances and like conditions.
 Unless you are more than human unless you possess more of the spirit of the gentle child of Nazareth than is given to most of us-you would rejoice to see such punishment inflicted upon the desolater of your own fireside, the wrecker of your own home. Then do not condemn these people too severely. It is not that they killed Ed Coy that we reprehend them, for he deserved his fate. but because they overrode the majesty of the law and made criminals of themselves in punishing his crime.