Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-06-08
ILLINOIS LYNCH1NGBEE.
Negro Rapist Hung to a Tele-
graph Pole.

DECATUR, Ill, June 3.-Early
this morning amob attacked the
county jail and lynched Samuel j.
Bush, a negro who made a.crim-
inal assault upon Mrs. William H..
Vest, in Mount Zion township, last
Tuesday.
The details of the lynching were
sensational from the start to finish.
Bush was in jail awaiting trial.
A guard of twelve men had been
put in the jail and an extra force
of men were put on duty outside.
About 800 curious people stood
around the jail all night, though
most of them thought no serious
attempt would be made to.take the
prisoner out. At just 2 o'clock
twenty-five men came on arush up
Wood street. They were quiet,
without masks. and moved in a
solid body. They forced their way
through the crowd and knocked on
the jail door.
Deputy Sheriff Midkif and
Special Officer Foster sat just in
eide and refused them admission.
One blow from the sledge hammer
crashed in the door and the officers
were surrounded by twenty-five
armed men. The keys of thejail
were demanded but both officers
declared they did not have them.
The men then went to work with
sledge hammers and chisels and
worked forty minutes at the two
doors, one OF solid iron an inch
thick, and the other of steel bars,
forcing them both.
Meanwhile the crowd of Decatur
people stood quietly outside. No
one seemed to care much. There
was no talk of resistance and the
officers were not upbraided for
max ing no more objection. Mar
shal Mason forced his way through
the spectators and into the Jail
and started to address the men at
work. They seized him and crowd
ed him out of the door. There was
only an occasional yell and Alto
gether it was a quiet attack on the
Jail.
A frightened negro inside the
jail pointed out Bush's cell. Three
men rushed in.and found it appar-
emily empty. They jerked over
the mattress and lifted it up and
out tumbled the negro. He had
crawled inside. He was dragged
into the street, where 1900 town
people had assembled, and taken
to a telegraph pole, on one of the
most prominent corners in the city
directly in front of the court house.
An arc light made the street in
tersection as light as day..
A rope made of halter straps had
been put around the negro's neck.
When the crowd stopped at the
foot of the pole he asked for time
to pray. The men ssidl X: G sasd.ige G
1 Him him aIIthe time he wants. me
kne1t down on thef bricks and be-
gan to pray in a asing-song way. He
would call on Jesus to come and
take his soul and forgive the men
who were numbering him and then
dec1ar that he was innocent. He
prayed disconnectedly fully ten
minutes while thousands of people
crowded around close together as
they could, many jesting, and no
one seeming impressed with the
awfulpess of the scene.
Finally the spectators began to
get impatient. A. man had climbed
half way up the pole and stood in
the glare of the light all the time.
"Cut that Short" he said. "He.
gavethose women no time." Others
took up the cry. aHang him.
He's prayed enough" they yelled.
The rope was handed to the man
on the pole. He put it over the
wire andthe crowd pulled.
The negro's body, now naked,
swung up into sight four feet from
the ground and fell back. The
negro uttered no sound. He was
put on top of a cab. The cab was
driven under the pole, the rope
fastened to a cross arm, the cab
driven away and the man was
hanged till dead.
The coroner cut him down.
Among the lynchers was William
Vest, husband of the second woman
outraged, and Rolla Dill, brother
of first woman assaulted.
Bush was born at Mason, Miss.
in 1850. He said his father and
brother live there. He came North
three or four months ago and has
been doing odd jobs around De-
catur about six weeks.
Monday, ii is charged, he went
into the house of Mrs. B. Dill and
committed an assault ON her.
About II o'clock Tuesday morning,
Bush, it is alleged, went to the
house of William Vest, eight miles