The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-09-28
THE RO.4NOKE MOB.


THE RO4NOKE MOB.
In Roanoke few days ago negro
epticed white woman into her eel
lar for the purpose Of buying come
truck, there beat her into insensibiii-
ty and left her for dead. The ne
gro was placed in Jail; but very soon
a mob was formed to lynch him. and
after much blood shed succeeded in
| carrying out their purpose.
Before condemning the action of
this mob we must go back to the
original cause of the trouble. 1t
dates back to 1920, when a Dutcit
man-of-war landed twenty negroes
at Jamestown. From that day to
the present the negro has been a YER
table milestone around our necks.
Jefferson and the wisest men of his
day, tried to solve the problem, what
to do with negro; but in vain. Fore
ed upon us with the right Of suffrage
by the results of cruel war; given
equal civil and political rights with
his late master; elevated to positions
of trust and confidence, az he adj
vanccs in the social scale, and is edu=
Gated, his insolence increases in the
same proportion. But the remedy
for this does not lie in mob violence.
1t is remedy whose reaction is felt
upon the prescribers themselves,
more than upon the poor object of
their momentary revenge. Lynch
ings, in civilized countries, arc worse
than crimes. They are only one
step removed from Cannibalism it.
self, and the results are far reaching
in their effect.
Again, as a general rule, the men
who compose these lynching
parties are the worst element in
community; whose sins arc oftimes
threefold blacker than the poor OBJ
iect of their revenge, and haveso much
of the brute in their makeup that
they glory in death and destruction;
who have not the faintest conception
of moral obligations and in whose
hearts noble and generous sentiments
never find a resting place. The good
people of a community, the very pill
lars of our strength, do not engage in
them. They arc confined to class
of people who have nothing better to
do than to hate the negro because he
is black. The Posr does not love
the negro. Every heartthrob i'll our
composition beats in unison with
every southern thought and senti-
ment. 1t pays little heed to, and
has out little regard for those litera-
ry Bostonians, who theorize and lay
plans for the amelioration OF the ne
gro race. We would say to them, go
look at Salem-Living monument
of the most stupendous ignorance of
any country or any time. A black
mark upon the Mathis fair escutch-
con that time can never efface.. Go
hear the groans that went up from
those poor unfortunates burned at
the stake, and remember that chart
ty should begin at home. No, this
question the South will solve for her.
self.
1t is high time that these lynch
ings were nipped in the bud. 1t is
the insiduous poison under the wing,
"whose touch is corruption and
whose sting is DEATH From the
negro, by process of evolution. the
white man will be the next victim,
and then unbridled rapaciousness
will hold sway, and the very founda-
ton of our government undermined
Ina Republican form of govern
ment like ours, these little mob IN
surrections are but drop in the bucket
ofanarchy, and ifallowed to go on. the
consequences will be Of the most
serious character.
1t is a blow at our Constitu-
ton, which declares that every