The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-08
BILL ARP WRITES 4 STRONG
LETTER REGARDING LYNCHINGS,

stormy nights and feel for wives that
watch ashore" Who knows the peril:
of the deep like fisherman? Some of those
learned judges and lawyers and preach.
ers of Atlanta have given vent to lam
guage that is bitter and malignant a.
gainst lynchings for any crime, but it is
to be noted that they have long lived
in call of the police by night and by day
and within brick walls and with neigh
bors at hand ON every side. What can
they know of the peril of the farmer
whose wife visits a neighbor, or whose
children have to go a mile away to
school.
Perhaps some inquiring mind win ask
what do | know about it? Twenty years
ago l moved from the city to the country
and farmed there for ten years, and all
that time the apprehension grew greater
and stronger, for there were negroes all
around me on the farms, and more ne
grCes not far away working in the mines.
l never expressed my fears, not even to
my wife, but when our boys all left the
farm for other avocations, and l had to
be away most OF the time, my wife be-
came alarmed, and / Immediately left
the farm and moved to town for securi-
/ ty. So did every neighbor that l had,
and our school was broken up and the
I Whole settlement abandoned and turned
! over to negro tenants. The school house
was mile away, and / used to look
with parental eagerness for the first ap-
pearance of the children's hats as they
! rose into view over the distant hill. I'm
! til then / never realized the common
nJlNyi fIo
have poor opinion of opinions unless
they come from those who are compe-
/ tent to judge. Great men are not always
wise," saith the scriptures. The nearer
| the press is to the people, the country
people, the more ready it is to apologize,
or even to justify, the speedy execution
of this class of criminals. The preachers
and the press may illuminate and the
governor proclaim, but l cannot help re-
joicing at every capture and every exc
cution The laws delay has nothing
to do with it. 1t is the spontaneous
outburst of emotions long left and long
smothered, and those emotions are based
upon love-love for home and wife and
children, love and respect for the wives
and daughters of the neighbors. Lynch
ing negroes for this crime is no evidence
of lawlessness among our people. The
crime stands out by Itself as an atrocity
for which no law is adequate and no
remedy has yet been found. Why it
should be ON the increase in defiance
of lynchings we cannot tell. 1t may be
that since the war northern philanthropy,
supplemented by southern ofice-seekers,
have so exalted his consequence and his
desire. for social equality that his fear of
punishment has been alyed. But certain
it is that the race has nt yet been Great -
~ inundated by lynchings, and they
are considered martyrs by most of their
preachers and teachers and editors. How
many more outrages there would be IL
these lynchings should stop we can only
conjecture. Bishop Turner proposed a
day of fasting and prayer for the deliv-
erance Of his people from these horrible
lynchings, but not word about the out
RACES that provoke them.
But it is curious and somewhat anus
ing to read the different counts in this