The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-03-19
TAE LYNCHlNG INDUSTRY.

We remember recently to have seen
a formidable compilation of statistics,
the purport OF which went to prove
that lyucbings in tti5 country are alb
normally on the increase and that the
increase is not sectional but general
Unfortunately these figures are not
now at our command; but one scarcely
needs them to be convinced that vigi-
lante justice is nowadays an uncom-
monty common resort. The merest
glance ut the news pages Of our daily
press will almost any day reveal graph
ic instances Of the substitution Of mob
law for the orderly processes Of the
courts, and q great majority Of these
instances will apparently be without
visible pCovocAtion. There may often
be aggrayatiug circumstances calcula-
ted to iailame the passions Of the
lTuchers, but not in one case in ten has
the regularly ordained procedure OF the
law been given a chance to vindicate
itself Without testimony and with
ont trial, the law has been voted mad
sq1ate, and in its place has boen rushed
forward the hot and raeking passion of
an excited populace eager to shed hu-
man blood.
This was done in Stroudsburg the
other day, and it is done in perhaps
30 per cent of all the other lynch
ings Of which there is contemporary
record No citizen Of Monroe county
cap fairly claim that the established
courts of that county have shown them
selves inadequate to deal with crimi-
mails like Puryear. There was no evil
dence to sustain the belief that if the
murderer of Ehlers had not been
strung up like dog by ferocious and
unreasonable men he would have ss-
capped his deserved punishment through
legal quibblo or evasive technicality.
To the bench Of that judicial distri ct
the people of Stroud5burg, among 9TH
ers, had recently elected a fair and
conscientious juris5 who would have
exercised every proper influence to the
end that strict justice might prevail.
Certainly nothing in the character of
Allen Craig justified the insult which
the citizens OF Stroudsburg placed upon
him when they contemned his court
and substituted for it the impetuous
tribunal presided over by Judge
Lynch. Nor is there such lack oi
talent in the prosecuting officers o!
Monroe county as TO support the con-
tention that Puryear's punishment by
a vengeful mob was the only alterna-
tive from his ignominioUs acquittal.
How, then, are we to account for the
increasing prevalence Of the mad wish
to overthrow law and order whenever
conspicuous crime has been commit
ted? Are the people of this generation
more excitable, impetuous and un,
thinking than were their predecessors
Has the advance of civilization carried
with it a corresponding increase in thu
American incapocity for sober self.
governments Ons does not like to be
lieve any such thing. To do so wouli
be to accept one of the Fundamental
tenets Of pessimists and to afix n pre-.
MUM on general ignorance and anti.
qnated custom, Yet it is n curiou'
fact that tho "lynching bee" is dis.
tlnctively American industry, which
although other American industrie
may droop and suspend under adverse
tariffs and sentimental scarss, steadily
continues to declare bloody dividend
in glowing Ehastliness and augmented
number. We do not pretend to OK.
plain this hideous fact. We canno
explain it. We can simply point to i
and shudder