Huntsville gazette., 1892-04-09
Stop the Mur ders.

asking that reward be offered for
the arrest of the men who recently
lynched three negro prisoners con
fined in the Momrhis Jail. and adds:
We hope the governor will promptly
honor this request, and that he will
go to the limit of the law. No effort
should be spared to capture the mu-
derous villains who committed this
cold-blooded atrocity. No blacker
crime ever stained the history of this
county, and it would be the noblest
work evel done for the good of the
community to hang every one of
these bloody ruffians by the neck.
"There is twang Of earnestness
in this which shows that The Com
mercial means what it says. 1t is
strong language, but none too strong.
Murder by the mob has become one
Of the greatest evils in the south and
west, and it is growing worse, not
better. Scarcely day passes with
out report of an incident of this
character, the victim being a negro
in nearly every instance. and being
killed without trial-circumstances
which prove that satisfaction Of the
demands of justice is not the only
motive of such crimes.
"It is a great evil, and cannot fail
Of most evil consequences in the end,
Many people have already become
accustomed to lynching, and have
learned to regard it as matter of
course; and that is a bad sign. 1t is
time to call halt if we can. The
country was shocked a few months
ago because colored girl, Is years
old, was dragged from the Jail and
hanged at Rayville, in the same
state, by a mob of brutes because she
he'd slightly poisoned family of
white people in trying to poison
negro against whom she had griev
ance. She ought to have been pun-
lshed, of course, but the point is
that she would not ha ve been hanged
or harmed if she had been white. 1t
is a bad business when white men
take to numbering children, Of any
color, on whatever account. 1t is a
bad business also when a mob, in this
age OF civilization, burns man to
death at the stake on the public
square, in broad daylight, without
having SO much as tried him for the
crime of which he was accused; but
this happened in a town in Texas a
few weeks ago, and white woman
applied the torch.
"The tendency, it is seen, is from
bad to worse from lawless execu>
tions to savagery; from mobbing men
to mobbing girls; from lynching Grim
inals to torturing suspected crimi-
Well may the Memphis Commercial
protest so earnestly against the three
fold crime committed in its city, and
call for the exemplary punishment of
the bloody rufians concerned in it.
The recent experience Of Birming.
ham, New Orleans, Barnwell, Tex
arkana and now that Of Memphis,
shows that the crime Of murdercy the
mob has already invaded the towns
and cities-where mobs can always
be raised on short notice, and where
excuses for violence can. always be
readily found or made and that it
is high time to suppress it if practi,-
cable. There were no excuse for
lynching the three negroes at Mem
phis. There is none for lynching
negroes anywhere. The courts are
not lax in dealing with criminals Of
their color. We unite with The
Commercial in the expression of the
hope that the murderous Williams
whom It denounces may be caught
and hanged. 1t is high time to stop
mub murders in the SOUTH
The foregoing editorial, which we
reprint in full from the Charleston
News and Courier, has the right ring.
We have dealt too leniently with
such crimes. We have been accus
toned to speak of them as ''deplora-
BILE affairs" !" and to say that they are
deeply regretted by our citizens,