Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-03-02
4 AHORzREIBLE SIGHT

A0SIN.EGl-DIL. ~ S1NIll-ll--IlL. - J.
HENRY SMITH, "A NEGRO FIEND,
TORTURED TO DEATH.
Red Hot Irons Thrust Under His
Feet, Rolled Up and Down His
stomach, Back and Arms-His
Eye Balls Burnt QUIT Cooked
to q Crisp.
PARIS Tex. Feb. 24.-Henry
Smith, the negro Who rayished
and murdered Myrtle Vance, the 5
year old girl Of this city Thurday
night last week, has expiated his
terrible crime.
s. His was perhaps the most horri-
bla death ever. inflicted upon a
human being. Those who witnessed
it Will never forget the scenein all
its indescl.ibable horrors. No
language cln correctly describe
the fearful fetribution visited up
on the monster who committed q
crime that has no parallel in his.
tory.
When the train pulled up at
the Texas ard Pacific depot from
1900 to 10000 people were there
to take charge of him, and every
preparation had been made to
{ receive him.
AS the crowd surrounde the
train Hon. Fl. B. Birmingham of
this city, who was with the escort,
made a brief address in which he
said that twenty-five citizens had
charge Of Henry Smith and rs
merely citizens wished to surrender
the prisoner aud believe you will
do what is right. We cannot if we
would resist the thousands assem-
bled here.
Smith was thentaken to awagon
aud placed ina chair on top ola
box and firmly dashed to it. He was
then driven TO the public square.
5 and around it and tbroubg the
principal streets and then to an. n.
open::f field near the Texaa and Pa
eifc depot.
Here a scafold ten feet high
had Eeen erected Around this.
there was =surging mass Of
humanity; for nearly 100 yards I'M
a3sry7;IeetiQI On
A colo, drizsling rain was falling
that frozse aa it it fell. The covering
shivering wretch, whose face was
picture Of agony and terror, was
taken from the wagon and forced
up the steps, where he was pinioned
to a stake.
His coat and shirt were torn off
him piece by piece and thrown
among the crowd, where they
were eagerly seized as relics.
When stripped to the waist
Henry Vance,the father of Smiths
victim, his son and two uncles of
the child, gathered around him.
They thon began to thrust red
hot irons under his feet.
Every contortion of his body
every groan that escaped his lips
brought forth shouts of approval.
vainly he begged for mercy,
vainly be protested that he did
not know that it was Vance's
child.
The red hot irons burned into
his flesh deeper and deeper and he
uttered terrible cries, cries that
told ofuntold suffering.
Finally the irons were rolled up
and down the stomach, back and
arms.
The crowd gazed on the terrible
scene with horrible fascination,
as the slow, process of torture
proceeded.
The climax was reached wheh
the irons were thrust into his eyes,
burning the balls away.
Then they were thrust into his
throat, and still he lived and
writhed and suffered.
When the relatives had glutted
their vengeance great mass of
combustible material was placed
under the scafold, oil was poured
over Smith, the platform and the
fuel and the match applied.
For a time he was enveloped in
8 dense volume of smoke. AS this
+. = -.
passed away and the flames rose up
ward Smith was seen amid the fire
awaying back and forth.
In little while he became still
and all thought, him dead. The