The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-07-07
PERISHED IN FLAMES.
SO THE ROPE OF THE LYNCHERS WAS
NOT NEEDED.

One Witness of the Tragedy Decide
That He Would Never Again Partici-
pate In a Man Hunt.
"There was only one official hanging in
my county" said the ex-bOomer from
Oregon, land it turned out afterward that
an innocent man was executed In that In
stance. This precedent made even lynch
ing very uncommon. SO that when score
Of us started out to hang Abraham Sam
uels to the nearest tree 1t was only after Il
careful consideration of the crime he had
committed. Samuels was man OF about
40, small wiry and agile. He had reddish
hair and heavy beard, the cut Of which
he was continually altering, and he was
always neatly, rather fashily dressed. He
WAS married to a woman some ten years
his junior and lived with her and their
two children on a ranch on the divide be-
tween Tin Pot and ShOestring valleys.
..In spite of his generally quiet behavior
Samuels was very unpopular, partly,
suppose, because of his natty appearance
and partly because he was known as a
wife bcater. Mrs Samuels was not direct
" responsible for this knowledge, for she
know no one in the neighborhood and was
rarely seen off the clearing. She was thin
and tired looking, and her big gray eyes
had that cowcd look that always arOuses
sympathy. There was the Same look in
tho eyes of her two sons, who, passersby
noticed, always played quietly and with
out much apparent enjoyment. 1t was
the tales these two little follows told their
mates at the district school at Tin Pot
that first brought to the notice Of the com
munity the condition of affairs in the
home of the Samuels family.
"Whcther it was because of the knowl-
edge that she bad the sympathy Of the
community or simply because she had
borne all she could l never knew, but one
day Alice Samupls turned on her husband
and drove him from the house. A drum
mer for dry goods house in Frisco re-
ported one night that as he was driving
over tho divide he saw Samuels In front
of his house door, parleying with his wife,
who stood at the open window with a
shotgun. That night Samuels cano to
town and got very drunk He was tact
turn and sullcn, which was unusual and
was noticed. He started out In the direc
ton Of his homo at about midnight.
about daylight the next morning the
Samuels cabin was burned down. Mrs.
Samuels escaped with the children, but
there was 10 time for her to save any of
her belongings, oven clothes 1t was found
afterward that pitchy chips and stove
wood had been carried from d pile back Of
the cabin to IL heap of dry brushwood and
had been kiHdlcd. The flames had been
blown across the corner of the clearing In
which the cabin stood, setting it afiro and
also the woods beyond. With no other evil
dence than this there was a strong suspi
cion that Samucls had set the fire, and his
subsequent actions tended to confirm it.
Feeling against him was intensified by the
fact that the fire had gained a good start
along the divide and was menacing valu-
able property on every side.
"Within a week from tho time the fire
started tho town had grown too hot for
Samuels, and in three days more during
which the fires had done moro damage, a
lynching bee was proposed, with Samucls
as its object OF attention. AS l had been
injured by tho fires to a greater extent
than any other individual in tho vicinity
was asked = organize the bee. de-
clincd to do that, but l went along with
the party, moro from curiosity than from
any desire to wreak personal vengeance.
Samuols had heard Of our intention and
had stolen horse and started along the
Smith river trail, intending, suppose, to
proceed down the river to its mouth and
take Il steamer for Frisco.
"Tho pursuing party rode hard, and we
sighted Samuels just at day break the next
morning as be crossed the ridge into the
Smith river valley about six miles ahead
| of us. He would surely have escaped us
| had it not been that one arm of the forest
fires Intercepted him soon after he started
down the valley The fire had crossed the
| ridge many miles below, and as it travelled
| up the valley it presented solid wall Of
| flame which it was impossible to pass.
| From this wall Samuels was forced to
| turn back three miles below, where he en-
| tered the valley, and there was no way out
| except the back trail. On this we inter
| cepted him soon after, and it seemed as
though he could not possibly escape the
rope we were carrying for him. He did,
| though, for he was finally consumed in
the fire he himself had started. He took
the desperate chance of trying to swim
down the shallow stream, whose flame
wrapped banks were not more than 30 feet
apart. 1t was an impossible feat. The
intense heat from the blazing fir trees that
lined the stream had overcome him before
lie got fairly started. An eddy stranded
| him on a small bar, where he made one or
two Intellectual efforts to get under water
again and then lay still He was envel-
ol'od tor u few moments in the steam that
rose from his wet Clothes which burst
into flames as soon as they were dry. Then
tho naked body lying there on the sand
could be seen to shrivel up and char over,
and before we were forced back by the ad
vancing wall of fire nothing was left but
q heap of glowing cinders. I shall neve,
forget that spectacle, and, incidentally,
never participate in man hunt again.
| New York Sun.
| The Buffalo and thu, Buffalo Bird.