The herald., 1894-05-21
The LESSON OF THE DBcKsR INCIDENT.

| No better commentary upon the dam
gers and injustice OF lynch law could be
adduced than the Decker incident at
Yreka. 1t will be recollected that there
was a very strong movement in that
town to lynch Decker. Here was man
who had lived in that community for
years, who had never heretofore been
srrsigned for any crime, and who, as far
as the public knew, had been an inoffen-
sive and useful citizen. He had &C.
quired competency and had been re-
marksble for nothing in particular. All
at once his neighbors found out that he
was monster of iniquity. lot OF
boys discover a bundle of bones in
cave; and, all at once, these are as
sumed to have been those of the wife
and child of Decker, whom he must
have murdered fully twenty-seven years
ago. There was no doubt of it and
could be none. The whole thing
sounded like grisly story OF the middle
ages. Having started in on the assump-
ton that Decker WAS 9 red-hsnded muir
derer. the next thing was to saddle
upon him every atrocity that had been
committed in the neighborhood OF Yreka
for years. He was not only modern Blue
beard, but delighted in the slaughter OF
people outside of his own household. 1t
was eaey to convert him into g sert 0!
ogre, and to sustain the theory that he
had poisoned his second wife. He was
carousing in q saloon when the latter
died from psrtsking of preserved fruits
which Decker had sent to her from the
home place, so it was said. Higher and
higher grew the fabric OF fslsehood
around the poor devil. Under the cir
cumstsnces, it was a wonder that he was
not lynched. By the time the denoue-
ment was reached Decker had been made
responsible for at least ten murders.
toppled over. The wife and daughter,
whose Wondering bones had been dis
covered in the cave, turned up in robust
health, the mother having married
again. Instead of Decker having
been a monster OF cruelty to the
wife he WAS assumed to have
murdered, che testified that, on the
contrary he was notably good humored
individual, who had treated her well,
and had provided for all her wants, and
whose only fanlt was that he had not
followed out old Tony Weller's counsel
to his son Ssmivel, to "bevare of vd-
ders." A voluptuous form and pretty
face had an attraction for him which he
could not resist, and which led to the
separation between himself and his fret
wife. He not only was not brutal to
bis second wife, whom he was accused
of poisoning, but he had been particu-
lsrly kind and attentive to her, and go
on, to the end of the chapter.
The people of Yreka must feel very
foolish when they reflect upon their
wild credulity, and how near they came
to numbering an innocent man. The
whole episode is a striking illustration
of the old adage, "Give a dog a bad
name and kill him." II the number of
innocent people who have been hurried
to their death in California at the behest
of Judge Lynch could be ascertained the
total would undou btedly be formid-
able one. The incident will not have
been without its good uses if il shall
teach people to be more charitable in
their judgments and very much more
deliberate in melting out punishment to
supposed criminals. In Judge Lynch's
court the rule of hanging a man first
and trying him afterwards has been too
often exemplifed.