Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-11-18
SUNDAY LYNCHING
Maryland Mob Thus Celebrates
the Lords Day.
NEGRO DIES DENYING HIS GUILT.

Sheriff Makes an Opera BoufYe Resistance,
Firing Twenty Shots That Hit Nobody
and to Which the Mob Pays no Attention
Doomed Wretch Dragged to n Tree
Where His Execntioners Join in the
Lords Prayer Before Hanging Him.
FREDERICK, Md, Nov 1S-James Go
ings, who assaulted Miss Lille Jones at
the home Of Hamilton Geisbert, near this
city Saturday night. was taken from the
Jail by mob of 300 men yesterday and
hanged to q tree in a field on the jefferson
turnpike, one mile from the city. A re-
port reached the city about midnight that
the woman had died from the cuts and
beating inflicted by the negro, and this
infuriated the mob which had been gath
ering in the streets and discussing the
outrage. The mob, unmasked, but armed
with revolvers, marched to the Jail. They
had previously broken into a machine
shop in the neighborhood of the Jail and
procured sicdges, crowbars and files.
Some Opera Bouffe Resistance.
They made at once for the door in the
west wing of the Jail and began to batter
upon it. Fully twenty shots were fired
from the windows above by Sheriff A. H.
Zimmerman and his deputies, but tho
mob paid no attention to them, and went
on with their work. The Jail bell was
rung to summon assistance, but mono
came. In twenty minutes the large door
panels gave way under the heavy blows
and the mob burst into the corridor. They
quickly ovcrcamc tine slight resistance the
AaH iv>ci do plfn
she cell in which Goings, covering and
crying, was confined. The lock was
opened, the door swung back, and the
trembling wretch seized and dragged out
in his night clothes and stocking feet.
The Victim Protests His Innocence.
In the meantime the friends of the
lynchers on the outside had lowered an
electric light near the Jail and cut the rope
from it, extinguishing the light. Goings
was led out amid the hOwls of the crowd,
the rope placed around his neck, and he
was hurried down the road to his place Of
doom. He protested his innocence as they
dragged him along, and begged them not
to kill him. He was promptly recognized
by number of men who knew him, and
the mob did not hesitate in its work. Ar
irving mt the tree the negro was asked to
confess, but this he would not do Two
officers Of the Salvation Army asked to be
allowed to pray with him, and their re-
quest was granted. The Lords prayer was
then repeated, and the negro and most Of
the crowd joined in.
Mob Said to Have ''Observed Order"
Goings' feet and hands were then tied
and the rope was drawn tight around his
neck. A man seized the other end of it,
climbed the tree and threw the cord over
limb. 'Lct him CO." was shouted, and
quick as a flash he was jcrked from his
feet and hung dangling in the air six feet
from the ground. Ono shot was fired into
his body anu in few minutes he was
dead: The mob during the process of
lynching observed order. A member of the
mob made brief speech, in which he said
that they were there with the unfortunate
! wretch not in n spirit Of malice, but to
make an example of him, and teach his
race that they must let the women of
Frederick county alone
Assault That Was Avenged.
The assault for which Goings suffered
death was a cruel and dastardly one.
Miss Jones has thirteen cuts and stab
wounds on her body where he hacked at
her with knife and razor. She says he
asked her for something cat, and when
she gave it To him he said: Il will give
you a dollar" She screamed and ran
fifty feet down the garden, where he over
took her knocked her down and cut her,
also crushing her nose. The field in
which the negro was lynched is the spme
spo. the negro Biggus was lynched Oh in
November, 1857. After watching the
body swing in the air few minutes the
crowd left it dangling there and dis
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