Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-24
ga Defense of LynchinE."

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
A correspondent Of yours in Hyattsville
has written letter to your valuable paper
defending lynching in general and Prince
Georges county lynchng in particular. 1t
is fine, logical article, and with your per-
mission we would like TO add a few
thoughts in the same direction ami to
point out the only flaw, and that a slight
one in the admirable communication of
Mr.. b.
His chief and reiterated arguments are
that lynchng is economical and that it
avoids defraudirg justice.
And, first. as to economy: Prince Georges
county, We are told, is poor and i'll need
of roads and schools, but to have tried the
according to law would have cost some
thousands of dollars" so he was lynched.
Say it would have cost $4,000, and that
there We're 900 taxpayers in the county,
then each one saved about 81 Sixty -Seven)
cents; and we will no doubt soon hear of
the Prince Georgians rolling in wealth,
building roads for the comfort OF future
lynching parties, and erecting schools
where they will teach the young idea how
to shoot-and hang-negroes.
secondly, as to carrying out justice.
Prince Georges legal justice is slow. cum
bersome, inefficient and would have missed
tpunishmenD altogether" Old foSies would
say that the 500 taxpayers should improve
their methods and instill spirit, vigor and
energy into them, So that justice would
mean justice, even at the ruinous rate of
"a cents per taxpayer and 10 cents per
head; but Your correspondents way is a
vast Improvement, except that, as is some
times the case, even now, we hang The
wrong man. When prisoner Is tried, the
jury must act upon the evidence before
them; IL they decide, as In Ohio the other
day, that twenty years Imprisonment Is
sufficient punis hment, that would seem to
end the matter as far as the prisoner is
COZ al hut fhA r1a' (ap nj ~ m
be noticed that lyncheEs, like the three tall
ors of Tooley street, always call them
selves the .people') insist upon a lynch
Ing, why not persuade them to hang the
criminal lawyer, who, by directing to evil
dence, by delay. by change of venue, etc,
| has succeeded in saving the life of the
wretch unfit to live?' If this course were
pursued for while greater benefit would
| follow even than by that advocated by Mr..
| B.. and he certainly should not object to
| 1t. as he couples lawyers and the devil
| in his letter.
Fashions change in lynching as IN other
women were lynched beeause" the people"
called them witches; later. men whom we
| row consider good were lynehed mot al
ways to the death, however,, for preach
ing liberty because "the people" called
| them abclitionists; out west men have been
| lynched for horse stealing; down south for
| arson, for insisting upon Nottag the wrong
ticket and in one case. which seemed well
authenticated, because All the neighbors
| had things stolen from khemi 0or 1t must
| be noted that rape is mot the only crime
| for which colored men have been lynched,
| though we have been lately told SO by a
| southern governor or bishop. Fashions
having changed in the past. they may
| change In the future, especially as lynching
| doesn't stop rape; and thanks to your cor
| respondent, Mr.. B., and others like him, we
may have the millennium very soon, in which
| we will all go about armed and ready to
lynch every one whom I'VE may consider
"a positive nuisance. calling for abatement"
| In our minds eye we see ''the people, OF
| Washington rising in their might against
| the five-cents-per-ioaf bakers; in prophetic
vision we see you. Mr.. Editor. sending a
| reporter to buy a gun" for the delayers
of the new-old post office; Mr.. B. and my
| self. temporarily, regardless Of grammar.
| will LAY for the whisky sellers; and 80,
| after enacting the Kilkenny cats In this
| world, we will ''have made everything all
| right for the next" as Mr.. b. says. NIX.