The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-02-02
Terrible Punishment Meeted Out
to a Colored Brute.
HE Is CREMATED ALIVE.
Red-Hot Iron Brands Thrust Against
His QuiYering Body.
Then Kerosene Is Poured Upon Him,
Cotton Seed HulIs Placed Beneath Him
and Fired-The Awful Crime
Which He Committed.

crime by death at the stake. Ever since
the preparation of his awful crime, this
city and the entire surrounding country
has been in wild frenzy of excitement.
When news came last night that he was
captured at Hope, Ark, and identified,
the city was wild with Joy over the ap
prehension of the brute. Hundreds OF
people poured into the city from the adj
joining country and word was passed
lip to lip that the punishment of the fend
should be death by fire.
The whisky shops were closed and IN
ruly men were dispersed. The troops
were dismissed by proclamation from the
mayor and everything was done in bust
ness like manner. Law was laid aside,
and the citizens took into their own
hands the inhuman beast and burned him
at the stake. Never before since the days
of the Spanish inquisition has there been
such terrible punishment melted out To
any man.
The history of the crime is as follows:
Thursday last Smith picked up little
Myrtle Vance, aged three and half
years, near her father's, Policeman
Henry Vance's residence and carrying her
to pasture near the outskirts of the city
first viciously assaulted the innocent babe
and after satisfying his fendish passion
took one little limb in each hand and lit
orally tore her in twain. Then covering
the body with leaves and brush he lay
down slept calmly through the night by
the side of his victim. Friday morning
Smith went to the house of his wife and
forced her to cook him breakfast After
eating it he left town.
The child remains were found Friday
afternoon, and when the news of the
atrocious crime spread the whole town
turned out in the chase. The railroads
put up bulletins Offering free transporta-
ton to all who would join in the search.
Posses went out in every direction and
not a stone was left unturned. Smith
was tracked to Detroit on foot, where he
jumped a freight train and left for his old
home in Arkansas. Yesterday he was
captured near Hope, Ark. and was fully
identified.
This morning he was brought through
Texarkana where 5, eco people awaited the
train, anxious to see the man who should
receive the fate OF Ed Coy. At that place
speeches were made by prominent Paris
citizens, who asked that the prisoner be
not molested by the Texarkana people,
but that the guard be allowed to deliver
him up to the outraged and indignant
citizens of Paris. Along the road the
train gathered strength from various
towns. people crowding upon the plat
forms and tops of the coaches, anxious to
see the lynching and the negro who was so
soon to be delivered up to the infuriated
mob. Arriving here at IL O'Clock the
train was met by surging mass of hu-
manity, 10, 900 strong. The negro was
placed upon a carnival float in mockery
of king on throne, and followed by an
immense crowd, was escorted through the
city so that all might see the inhuman
monster.
When the procession had marched
through the principal streets 1t halted in
the open prairie about 300 yards from the
Texas & Pacific depot. Here Smith was
placed upon scaffold six feet square and
ten feet high, securely bound within
view of all beholders. Here he was tor
brands thrust against his quivering body.
Commencing at mis- feet the brands were
placed against him inch by inch until
they were thrust against his face.
Kerosene was then poured upon him,
cotton seed hulls placed beneath him and
set on fire. In less time than IL takes to
relate it the tortured man was burned to
a crisp and in a little while thereafter
nothing was left of the whole funeral
pyre but pieces of charcoal which before
nightfall were carried away by curiosity
seekers.
1t is stated that Smiths motive for the
crime was that once when drunk and dis
orderly he was arrested by Officer Vance,
who was compelled to use club on him.
For this the negro swore vengeance and
several times assaulted Vance. The eli
max of his fiendishness came Thursday,
when he committed the awful crime for
which he has paid the last penalty. Vance
is Frustrated with grief and his wife lies
at deaths door from nervous prostration.
Words to describe the awful torture in
ficted on Smith cannot be found. The
story appals one with its fearful, awful
terror. The negro for long time after
starting on his journey for Paris did not
realize his plight. At last when told that
he must die the most awful death by tor
ture that human mind could conceive he
be shot and wanted Marshall Franklin,
of Paris, to do it, but when he was told
that he was to be burned to death his
agony was awful. He writhed and
pleaded in mental and bodily pain in an
ticipation.
Scarcely had the train reached Paris
than the torture commenced. His clothes
were torn of by piecemeal and scattered
in the crowd, people catching shreds and
child's father, her brother and two
uncles then gathered about the negro as
he was fastened to the torture plat
form and thrust hot irons into his
ouivering flesh. 1t was horrible,
this man dying by slow torture in the
midst of smoke from his own burning
flesh. Every groan from the wretch,
every contortion of his body was cheered
by the thickly packed crowd of 10, 600
people, The mass of beings was 600 yards
in diameter, the scaffold being in the
center. /.
After burning his feet and legs, hot
irons were rolled up and down Smith
stomach, back and arms. Then his eyes
were burned out and irons thrust down
his throat The men of the Vance family
having Wreaked vengence. the crowd
piled all kinds of combustible stuff around
the scaffold and poured oil on it and set it
afire.
The negro rolled and wriggled and
tossed out of the mass, only to be ushed
back by the people nearest him. He
passed out again and was roped and
pulled back. Hundreds of people turned
away, but the majority OF the vast crowd
looked calmly on. People were here from
every part of this section. Every train
that came in was loaded to the utmost ca
pacity, and there were demands at many
points for special trains to bring people
here to see the unparalleled punishment
OF fiend for an unparalleled crime, and
when the news of the burning went over
the country like wiidfre at every country
town anvils doomed forth the announce
ment.
Governor Hogg's Orders Disobeyed.
AUSTIN, Feb. 1.-Governor Hogg tele-
graphed the officials at Lamar to protect