The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-02
BURNED ALIVE BY A MOB.
TIE VICTIM FIRST TORTURED
WITH RED-HOT IRONS

Texans Wresk Terrible Vengeance
on a Negro Who Outraged and Then
Killed a Child-An Immense Funeral
Pyre Built So That All Gould Witness
the Sufferings of the Brute.
PARIS, TEX, Feb. IA mob Of angry
men and women numbering thousands
wreaked the most frightfui vengeance Of
lynch law to-day upon Henry Smith, a
burly negro who, with the f1eudishness Of a
depraved brute, outraged and cruelty MUIR
dered little 4-year-old Myrtle Vance
on Thursday. Too powerful to resist,
they took the prisoner from the guards,
bringing him here, dragged him by a rope
about his neck to the scene Of his crime,
subjected him to every conceivable torture,
and there burned the pitisble wretch at the
stake. All the morning trains had brought
people by the hundreds to this city, white
and black alike, to await the srrivarof the
guards, who were to bring the prisoner
back from Texarkana, where he had been
captured.
The county for miles around had become
wildly excited over the atrooious crime
and the hunt for the brute murderer
When the news came last night that he
had been caught and identified by members
OF the Paris searching party the people
| seemed crazy with joy and thirsty for his
life. By trains and wagons, on
horse and Rfoot people piled
into the city. They mayor ordered
the liquor stores closed unruly mobs dis
persed and the schools dismissed. The plans
for the lynching bee were systematic and
business like.
THE NEGRo's CRIME.
henry Smith, a big burly negro had on
Thursday picked up little 4-yesr-old
Myrtle Vance near the house of her father,
Policeman henry Vance, and quieting her
with candy, carried her through
the central portion Of the city
to Gibbons pasture. Several people
| questioned him, but to each he said he was
carrying her to doctor. At the pasture,
| after sssaulting the poor child, he took one
| little leg in each hand and literally tore her
/ in twain. Then covering the body with
leaves and brush be laid down aud slept
calmly beside his victim throughout the
night. He went home, got breakfast and
| disappeared.
THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE.
That day a mass meeting was called at
| the court house and searching parties were
sent out TO find the child. Her maugled
| body was found, and the whole town joined
Ia the pursuit of the fend who had MUIR
dered her He was caught yesterday at
| Glow, on the Arkansas and Louisiana rail-
road, twenty miles north of Hope He
| denied the crime. but blood stains were on
| his clothing and later he confessed.
| This morning he was brought to Texarkana,
where 5000 people had gathered eager to
| get at him. The Paris searching party
begged that he be not molested. The news
| Travelled fast Everywhere along the line.
as the train bore the wretch to Paris.
morbid crowds gathered to gaze upon him.
SEIZED BY THE MOB.
At the depot at Paris we're lo, 900 people,
| The sheFiffs put up a show of pistols but
were brushed aside and a rush was made
for the car. A rope was thrown about
| Smiths neck and he was dragged from tine
car. He was taken to a rude float and
the people might gaze on the
monster AT the open prairie, 300
yards from the Texas and Pacific depot,
| the scafFold waited him. 1t was six feet
square and ten feet high, and well within
the sight of all. There for fifty minutes
the maddened mob tortured him, with
diabolical cunning that savsges only are
| supposed to show. Red-hot irons were
thrust from every side into his body
His shrieks added vlgor to his per-
| secutors. First the hot irons branded
his feet and inch by inch they crept up to
his face. The man was unconscious when
at last kerosene was poured over on him
and cotton seed hulls we're placed beneath
| him. A torch set the pyre on fire and all
was quickly consumed. Curiosity seekers
| have carried away all that was left, even to
the ashes.
Smith, some say, committed the crime to
revenge himself on Policeman Vance, who
had arrested him once when drunk and
dubbed him. Policeman Vance is pros
trated with grief and his wife is danger
ouslYIill with the shock.