The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-16
UGLY LIABILITIES IN LYNCH LAW.
Women Charged with UnjustIy Gauss
ing Such Crimes.
Brooklyn Eagle.


The personal element in women's judg
mentS is what makes them unsafe rulers,
politicians and jurors. The case is well IL
Illustrated in Georgia at the present time.
young negro in Atlanta shot his sweetheart
and immediately gave himself up to the po-
lice. The girl hao been shedding her smiles
on SO many of the young man $ rivals that
he became almost II not quite, insane With
jealousy. He was tried with a promptitude
unknown in this part of the country, con-
Victed of murder in the first degree and
sentenced to be hanged in just d month
from the day of the killing. But although
he was only a negro, and, therefore, OF
little account in Georgia, he had friends
who, as matter of jusctice, wAnted a
modification of the sentence. His
murder does not appear to have been
deliberately planned and he had more
In fact, instances might be cited where
jealousy was declared to be a sufficient
cause tor homicide. But Governor Atkin-
son is said to have been nagged into re-
fUsing any postponement OF execution or
lessening OF the penalty. A woman of
fashion according to report insists that
the young negro shall hang. The reason
is that the girl whom he shot was the wom-
ans maid. In this case there is no allega-
ton of desire for justice, no weighing of
the case by the evidence, but a wish to
aVenge or revenge a personal deprivation
of the services of a hOuSemaid.
If we take the attitude OF the Southern
people towards the negro at this time it
will be found that the women are in part
answerablc for it. They dislike the
blacks and draw the social lines between
the two races more strictly than the
men, who are often friendly with the ne
groes. even where they affect to despise
them. 1t has been limited that in some of
the recent lynchings the mob was too hasty
and that evidence was lacking to prove
that the victims had been guilty of wrong
towards the white women VINO had charged
assault them. This is serious matter.
1t looks as if the wrong ones had been
lynched. Any woman who will rely on pop
ular sympathy with her sex and the ready
acceptance of her word to swear
away the life of an innocent man,
perhaps to revenge some slight injury to
express her contempt for his race, is a
dangerous creature, to put it mildly. In
nothing should more care and elaboration
be used than in the investigation Of these
charges of assault, for it is fact well
known to physicians that nervous, impress
sionable, hysterical women are prone TO ex-
aggerate and to imagine wrongs that are
not even meditated. 1t is never wise, for in
stance for a surgeon or a dentist, to adj
minister anaesthetics to a woman without
having witnesses in the room, for she may
come out of the anaesthesia under the do
minion of dream, or controlled by a NOR
bid fancy. Some of the women in the South
who have led to rioting and lynching by
their accusations are of low intelligence
AID irresponsible moods. Irremediable
wrong may have been done against the
negroes by taking the word of these wom-
en- without supporting testimQly and act
ing so hastily on it.