People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-08-06

alacrity that they responded to the
bugle call of an invaded country in
their youth. While we say all this in
behalf of Southern lynchers no one
would more gladly welcome the end of
lynching,
We are neither lawyer nor the son
of lawyer, yet it seems to us that the
greatest objection to the legal prosecu-
ton of the brutes who commit assaults
upon women is the fact that the law
compels the woman to appear in court
and testify to the terrible outrage and
humiliation to which she has been
subjected. The day will not come, and it
ought not to come, when the men of
the South will stand by and see their
own daughters and sisters or the daugh-
tiers and sisters of their neighbors sub
iected to such cruel ordeal We be-
lieve in obedience to law, provided al
ways that the law is such that brave
men and true women can obey without
sacrifice to manhood and humiliation
to womanhood.
Let the next legislature so change
the law that the outraged woman's
male relations or friends can appear in
court and testify in her behalf and one
great incentive to summary and illegal
execution will have been removed.
The writer has seen one poor girl
placed upon the witness stand, and he
does not think the men who were
present on that occasion would care to
see another girl subjected to like
painful experience SO long as pillow
lines are handy.
Among the late lynchlngs two cases
were out Of the ordinary If Oscar
Williams had been lynched by the
people of Henry county where he had
committed tue horrible assault upon
the little Campbell girl it would have
been looked upon as a matter of course,
but the fact that he was taken from
the train by the citizens of Griffin, who
were strangers to the child's parents
and hence are presumed to have acted
without undue excitement or passion
is an evidence that the popular mind
has settled down to the deliberate con-
viction that short shrift and sudden
death is the proper punishment for such
crime.
In the case of DIR, Ryder, the lynch
ing seems to have been due largely to
the laws delay No effort was made
to lynch him at the time Miss Owens
was shot, nor when he was tried for
lunacy, nor even where he was tried
for murder and was granted a new
trial. 1t was now more than a year
since the killing and passion had had
ample time to subside and reason to
resume its full sway. Although one of
DIR. Ryders's counsel was sick, he had
three reputable lawyers present to de-
fend him. When a continuance was
asked for because this one lawyer was
absent and when it was discovered that
only three out of the fifty-one witnesses
for the defense were present, while
forty -eight of the fifty witnesses for
the prosecution were present, the peo-
pie came to the conclusion that it was
the purpose of the defense to delay.
They had seen three years elapse be-
tween the murder of the whole Wool
folk family and the final execution of
the murderer at the cost of $780, 900 Or
$780, 900 to the tax payers of Bib coun-
ty, they had seen the Twiggs county
treasury bankrupted in the prosecution
of Mrs. Mobiles for the murder of her
husband while the old woman was
still alive, with apparently a better
chance TO die a natural death than by
the hands Of the eXecutioner. The
Ryder case had already cost the county
ST, 900 and more than year had elapsed
since Miss Owens had died by his hand,
and the further continuance of the case
exhausted the patience of a portion of
the people.
AS we see it, the killing of DR.. Ryder
: o1.I To-
and right as a protest against the in
definite postponement of justice and
the entailment of burdensome costs
upon the people. In times like these
when honest men and women are daily
going to the grave by their own hands
because they cannot raise the money
to buy a loaf of bread, people will not
cheerfully submit to be taxed out of
thousands to prolong the days of men
whom they honestly believe have justly
forfeited their lives to the law. More
men on the bench like Judge Gambler
will prove the remedy for such lynch
ings as that of Dr. Ryder.
The Governor is doubtless right in
taking active steps to bring to punish
ment the men who did DIR. Ryder to
death without authority of law, but it
looks to us that there is something
radically defective in government
that permits and encourages the expen-
diture of thousands in the protection of
the life and rights of criminal while
it makes so little effort in behalf of the
unfortunates who are daily driven to
choose between want, suicide and
crime and whose right to life is of lit
tie worth in the absence of opportunity
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