Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-08-03
AtyNCHING IN DENVER.

Dragged Through the Streets After tho
Lynching, and Then Suspended From
Telegraph Pole as an Awful WarninE1-
A Crowd of 5000 People Participate in
the Affair--No Arrests Expected, as the
LynchIng is Generally Regarded as Jus-
tifiable.
DENVER, Coll, July Wednesday
night b. S. Lightfoot, an old Grand
Army man of this city entered saloon
in the bottoms kept by Dan Arata, an
Italian of unsavory fame. Lightfoot
asked for glass of beer and paid for it.
When he had drank it Arata asked him
to have another drink. Lightfoot sup
posing it to be a ''treat" accepted and
started to leave the place. Arata stopped
him and demanded pay for the beverage.
Lightfoot did not have the necessary
money and the Italian picking up q
chair, brutally assaulted him, knocking
out the left eye at the first blow. The
murderous bartender followed his at
tack, literally beating the poor old man,
who was go years Of age and rather
childish, nearly to DEATH But he was
not quite dead and to make sure of his
victim, Arata shot him through the
heart. The murderer was arrested and
placed in Jail.
All day yesterday there were muir
murs, not only among the Grand Army
men, but of the people in general re-
garding the brutal deed. Many threats
of lynching were heard, but not needed
by the staid going people of Denver
who thought that quick justice had
passed away with the frontier days. A
| meeting of the unemployed was called
for last night at s o'clock at Eighteenth
and Market streets, where speeches
were made deploring the present strin-
| gency in the money market and the re-
sultant idleness. K
When the speakers were through a
tall, gray-headed and whiskered veteran
wearing the G. A. r. uniform, got lr
on the stand and said, "Follow me-
The words were few, but everybody
understood what was meant and 5000
people followed the leader to the county
Jail, fully mile and quarter distant
through mud and slush caused by the
heavy shower during the day.
| The crowd gained members in theii
long march and before the Jail was
reached fully 10000 were In line and
people were flocking in from every
street, most Of them bent on seeing
what was going to be done.
4 Arriving at the Jail the mob hesitated
for they had forgotten to supply them
selves with sledges and other necessary
tools for breaking down the doors
Numerous calls were made for batter
ing rams, &C., and the eager crowt
rushed hither and thither and were no
long in procuring the objects required,
The crowd at once attacked the jail
and finally battered down the sheet-iroi
door protecting the inside bars. At thi
point Captain Crewes, the jailor, turne'
a heavy stream of water upon the mel
battering at the doo-. Although tn
force of the stream threw the angr,
mob back repeatedly, yet they kept o.
at their work. The guards inside begai
to fire. Although some of the mo
were shot, the crowd rushed In, over
powered the guards and made ther
! prisoners. At last Arata's cell wa
broken into and the murderer founI
crouching in the corner.
Some one drew huge knife an
ripped the murderer up the abdomen
Then the rest of the leaders interfere
: and kept him for the rope. He wa
hustled out of the Jail across the stree
to q cottonwood tree and in the dii
s light cast by an arc lamp from nearb
9 corner was pulled up. He was asked
he had anything to say. In q feeb
(; tone, bleeding from the CHASTITY woun
I in his body, he said: II am the man;
killed him in self-defence." The mu
derer was suddenly jerked off the cart
and several persons drew reVolyers al
: riddled his body with bullets. IS,
s The mob then dragged the body
i the heart of the city and at Seventeen
and Curtis streets strung 1t up TO a tel
y graph pole for the editication of tho
Is who had not been present at the origin
j. hanging.
No arrests have been made and pro
ably none will be as the general optnit
is that the lynching was justifable.