Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-10-23
REPUBLICAN, COUNTY
TICKET.
SURVEYOR.
A. b. EVANS, of Delaware township.
CORONER.
J. o. BROWN, OF Beale township.
Torturing a Negro.

A despatch from Memphis, Tenn
under date of October 16 says:
Jefferson Ellis WAS hanged to 6
telegraph pole at 40 this morning
By $50 men within 200 yards of the
scsne of his crime. Bsfore hanging
tie negro, the mob cut off both his
ears and all of his Fl gers and mutil
ated him III horriols manner. The
mob, with their prisoner, reached the
home of his victim, Miss Prater, soon
after midnight. The young woman
ideu tilted him as her assailant As
soon as this was done an armed squad
Of men took Ellis from Constable
Farrow and ted iA::th him fer the
pike, where the public road crosses
the Louisville and Nashville.
A big fire had been built at the
place and around it the mob gather
ed in a circle. The hand.cuffed ne
gro was made to kneel before the fire.
TIE leaders of the mob told Ellis to
pray, but he only looked at them in
stupid manner. Being told that
he was about to de, he raised his
voice in negro hymn.
By the time he finished, the ficrcer
clement were in complete control of
the mob. Cries of Burn him. were
heard on all sides. Even this fear
ful fate would probably have been
mercy to the negro as subsequent
events proved. Amid the shouts of
the mob, man jumped to the negro S
side with drawn knife in bis hand.
''Cut off his ears.' they cried.
"Give me finger shouted one
man.
81 want a thumb cried another.
Being urged on by the fercest in
the Gro Sd, the man with the knife.
cut off the negro's right ear and held
up the bleeding trophy in full view
of the crowd
The negro screamed, but his other
ear was cut off few moments lster
The mob became madder at the sight
of this work, and those who we mu
tilating the negro found ample en
couragement.
They next cut of all his fingers,
and, tearing away part Of his cloth
ing, they mutilated him in a horri-
BILE manner.
The negro was covered with blood
and his head looked as if it had been
sca'ped. The mob was not even then
willing to end the negros agony.
They made him stand up 50 all the
crowd could ses him. Finally, fully
thirty five minutes after the torture
OF the negro began, the rope was put
around his neck
Tee telegraph pole was seventy
five feet away. The rope Was very
long one The end was taken by Il
man who quickly climbed the tele.
graph pole and threw it over the
cross-arm. The crowd ierked the
negro to the foot Of the pole, end,
while the mob shouted. the bleeding
and mutilased form Of the negro vas
swung to the cross arm.
The negro was lowered to the
ground and his head was cus from
his i,Jdy with pocket knives. The
moose was then put over the feet, aud
the headless bod Y was again swung
up
Il is intended to send the head 10
the fimilY of the little cir! the negro
attempted to assault las: Saturday in
Mississippi. A placard was put on
the body of the negro, bearing these
words:
death to the man who cuts him
down before 6:3O this evening"
The point where the lynching oc-
Cured is a cross road, called Clifton
Summit. The mob dispersed after
doing its work.
Confessed HIS CRIME.
jeff Ellis, on tie afternoon of Oc-
tober 5. criminally assaulted Miss
Bette Prater in the presence of the
lotter's two little sisters. He escap
ed from a mob that had gathered to
lynch hIm tt ut night. but he was pur
sued unremittiDgly until he was cap
tured Monday, near Mount Pleasant,
Miss.
He confessed to the assault upon
Niles Prater, to the outrage and muir
der of Mrs. Wilcox of the same
naighborhood two years age, and to
an attempted assault upon a little
girl in Mississippi while he was try
lup to escaDa from the mob