The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1893-04-28
AN INNOCENT NAN LYNCHRD.
TAe Negro Pettrsos Put 10 Deafh 1y fke DEN
mari Mob, Aftsy his InaseeRes Had beer
C2s0yfv Esfo5fi,hed s -s'-

mari Mob, 4AJi1 his Inasesnes Had Been
Clearly Esto6tsked s2'-
DExaAnk, s. C, April 24.-when q few
days ago, enc Of the best (!) men Of Barn
we'll said in the matter Of the assault upon
Miss Mamie Baxter 'h~. ".L- =.Y....iov "
Barnwell county was At stake, aud by God
somebody must die the people Of the State
had no idea Of how very soon the horrible
realization OF those words Was TO follow.
The crime ha, b.en svengel, but a. mp.
parsntly innocent man has been butchsrsi,
and his blood now stains the scene Of the
fearful crime.
The horrible tragedy was enacted tonight
in the moonlight which made it pe,ry as
bright as day, and there was q crowd Of at
least two thousand people composed OF every
class of men in BarnNell county. This
crowd occupied the embankmeRt under
which the sceue was enacted. Thousands
Of bullets literally riddl:ng the man from
head TO foot, yere fred into the body as
soen q, strung up. The people hsd grad
uslly been working themselves up 10 the
when they got hold Of victim today, they
were in exactly the condition TO believe any
one guilty. Somebody had to die, and some
body has died That is the story. Many
OF the citizens deeply deplore the deed OF
tonight; they did all they could to prevent
it, and then they let the mob take its own
| way. In this connection | must mention
| tho heroic and cool conduct OF Senator s. q.
Msy6eld. lie stemmed tho tide with gen
uine horuism until It became wave and
| swept everything before it. Standing Mt
his elbow were ex-senator Sojourner and
| scores of other men of prominence. They
W ere the oldest men in the community
They wanted to sec the right man hung aud
used every endeavor to get hold of that man. L.
We have not o,m to publish the evidence
given before tho Judge Lynch court, which,
| however, was entirely circumstantial and, so
far ~ we could understand it, in nowise
| connected the prisoner with the assault upon
| Miss Baxter.
A committee was appointed to take the
prisoner before Miss Baxter, which was ust
what the negro requested to be done.
The following is the report of what trans
pired whom the negro was confronted by the
We went in and met the young lady. She
is quite small, ab"ut fifteen years of age,
and Of rather prcpossessing appearance.
| Mr.. Scjourncr took the girl off TO herself
and impressed upon her the importance OF
being absolutely certain that he was the
right man. lie said "Now, if you can say
| that he IL the man, why, do so if not, say so.
This mans life yoN hold in your hand"
| The negro was then b' ought up the steps by
| Constable Weeks. lie stood just inside the
| hail, while the young LADY stood in the par
lcssness and looked her steadily in the eye.
She did the same and did not display the
| slightest recognition. The negro wa. made
| TO pull of his Int and put it in various posi-
tions. The young lady had been instruct cd
not TO say anything until he was taken out.
| He was asked some questions by Mr.. So
jcurner so that she could hear his voice.
When the negro was taken out Mr.. Sc
j0urncr asked the girl what she had to say.
| Every one listened with breathless attention.
| She said: Il don know him, sir, that dom /
| look like him at al. lie is the same cslor,
that's all. lie d mt talk like the man he
is thinner in the face, and was as dark as
this man, but his eyes don't look like him."
Mr.. Msyfed- Dccs this man look like the
| right man?
No, sir.
Could you tell him if you saw him?
Yes, sr, c'Hld. the right man was
here | would know him.
| The little boy who was with his sister at
the tune Of the crime, and was ne ,rly chok-
| el to death, WAS asked what he thought
| lie sail The other man locked more like
| him than this one. would know him if
| SAW him"
The party, after this failarc to recognize
the man. came back to town.
Just before the negro got back to town,
the girls father came up and dramatically
| declared that the girl would never be able
| to recognize the man. The oil man broke
down and cried. 1t had great effect on
| the crowd. AcClendon ran out to the front
md said he would hea any twelve 10 lynch
the negro. Twelve men soon arrayed them
selves alongside. Some one cried Lets
lynch both the negroes" McClendon shout.
ed, "Sameh1dy's got to die for this thing"
and seemed very much excited About that
time Marshal Weeks drove up with Peters IN
The buggy was quickly surrounded. Mr.
Mayfeld made II speech counseling q wait
ing policy.
McClendon got on tho buggy wheel and
made n red hot speech. He concluded by
saying: ave will take this evidence and
kill this man. The man that says this, is
J. d. McClendon, and | don't caro- who
knows it, Tho marshal drove off to put
the poor negro in the guard house. AS he
did so a brother of the girl ran up behind
the buggy with his hand in his pocket
The marshal said with determination that
he would kill the fret man that put his
hands on the man. The mar Ias taken 10
the guard house aud locked up.