The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-17
THE VERSAILLES LYNCHING.

The lynchings in Indiana show that in
any part of the country where the law does
not give proper protection the people will
protect themselves. The remedy is for the
law 10 give proper protection.-Louisville
Commercial.
once let 1t be demonstrated that the cure
for lynching is an application of the hang
mans moose to the necks of the lynchers,
and the duty of furnishing crime will be left
in the hands of the courts, where it be-
longs.-Louisville Courier-Journal.
The moral standards of any community
are bound to be greatly lowered by such an
occurrence as that at 0sgood. In the name
of civilization and our national vanity, if
for no higher reason, isn't it about time
for some drastic legislative measures to put
an end to this disgrace ?-Chicago Record.
So mob law has undertaken to amend the
criminal code out in Indiana and make
burglary a capital offense! That is the only
logical deduction with regard to the ethics
of !ynching to be deducted from the latest
affair in which five men charged with burg
larry were taken from the Jail without trail
and hanged.-PittSburg Dispatch.
Whatever may have been the motive the
lynching should not only be severely con-
demned as an outrage upon justice, but the
authorities of Indiana should run down. ev-
cry man concerned in il and punish him.
An example of this kind in the maintenance
and vindication of law will be the only an
SWer to the taunt which Will be sure TO
come from the South.-Chicago Tribune.
The time for a halt in this barbarism
is long past. When lives can be taken by
a mob of revenge, as pretended punish
ment for small burglaries, without any
adequate prosecution of the members of the
mob, we shall be only a little way removed
from that condition of outlawry which
would follow the abolishing of the courts
in accordance with the demands of An
Observation-Disclosures Sentinel.
A band of Hoosiers, in touch with the
spirit of white-capping acts, of which there
have been too many in that State, was not
satisfied to let the law take it's course, and
the brutal shooting and hanging of the
prisoners followed Governor Mount does
well to act promptly in this matter and it
is to be wished that the self-appointed exc
cutioners of the law win be speedily
brought to justice.-Pittsburg Commercial
Gazette.
The last reported lynelling is the worst.
and it is not a Southern atrocity," nor are
its victims negroes. There can be
no doubt that the Governor of Indiana will
offer aid 10 the officials of Ripley county,
in which Osgood is situate, for the arrest
and conviction of the leaders of the muir
dering mob but until condign punishment
is inflicted upon them the grand old COM
monwealth that has given Morton and
Gresham and Harrison to the Nation must
stand disgraced.-Chicago Inter Ocean.
The lynching of five men at Versailles,
Ind. adds a new enormity to this form of
defying the laws. 1t was marked by I'M
usual brutality as well as indifference to
human life. They may have been
equally guilty, though of this there is no
positive assurance. but the mob decreed
capital punishment regardless of law and
proceeded at once TO put them to death
with shocking cruelty, 1t is one of the
worst cases in the whole history OF lynch