The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-03-17

Mob OF Twenty Overpowered the
Guards and Began the Slaughter.
Palmetto. Ga, March i7-Twenty
men, armed and masked. rode into this
little town at an early hour yesterday
morning and put to death four negroes,
fatally wounded one, shot another and
broke the arm Of the seventh man. Two
others who were of the crowd upon
which the bullets were showered miracu-
lously escaped. These unfortunates were
under the guard Of three awaiting the
hour of o o'clock, when they were to
have a hearing before justice OF the
peace on the charge Of arson. The dead
are William Cotton, Jr.. Harrison Hud-
son, Ed Brown and Henry Bingham. Fa-
tally wounded, John Bigby. Wounded,
John Jameson and George Tatum (arm
broken.
The negroes were confined In the Office
Of the Johnson warehouse, a one-story
building just across the track from the
Atlanta and West Point depot They
were arrested Wednesday and tied to-
gether with ropes, and were passing the
night under the protection Of three
guards sworn in for that purpose. Their
preliminary trial was set for 0 o'clock
yesterday morning.
About 1 o'clock in the morning about
20 men, masked and mounted, rode up
to the warehouse. Without waiting to
announce themselves 70 the guards within
they forced the doors OF the warehouse
and a second later stood in the office
where the negroes were lying on the
floor around the fire. The guards were
covered 10y Winchesters, and with hands
up were marched to one side of the little
room and stood against the wall. The
negroes, who were frightened into ST
lence by the bursting OF the door, now
realized their position. Scream after
scream went up from the victims as
they saw the CLEAN Of firearms. Their
appeals for mercy were unheeded. A
short, heavy set man, whose features
were completely concealed by a white
handkerchief acted as leader. He
cursed the blacks into silence for a mo-
ment and told his men to get ready.
After looking at each negro he com
manded them to get up.
A last appeal for mercy went un-
needed, and the word fire" rang out
in the little room. The volley filed the
room with FIRE and smoke and the ne
groes fell in a heap on the floor.
The noise awakened the little town,
and as the lights began to twinkle in
windows here and there a second volley
sealed the doom of those who were for
tunate to escape the murderous fire OF
the first charge. As the mob made
ready to depart three or four men with
pistols sent bullets into the PROSTATE
forms on the floor. and inside Of ten
minutes after the masked crew had en-
tered Johnson's warehouse on their muir
derous errand they had completed their
work and were on their way to safety
on the backs Of fleet horses.
Citizens began to arrive at the ware
house, being under the impression that
the guards were murdered. by the ne
groes Mayor Arnold telegraphed Gov
ernor Gambler of the occurrence and
asked for the militia. He then depu-
| tized 10 citizens to preserve order, and
arming them with rifles placed them on
duty in different parts OF the town.
Daylight in the warehouse revealed a
sickening sight. Blood covered the floor
and the walls were indented with bull
let's from the Winchesters and other
arms. Wives and children Of the ne
| groes knelt by the bodies Of their dead,
/ and endeavored to console the wounded,
Doctors administered TO the wounded
until noon, when friends removed them
to their homes The dead, whose bodies
were horribly mangled, remained where
they were until shortly after noon, when
a coroner's jury was empanelled. In
| the absence Of Coroner Dunlap Justice
| of the Peace Cummings summoned the
| jury and conducted the inquest. The
| Jury rendered the following verdict;
1--WE, the coroner's jury, empanelled
| In the causes Of the death OF HaF-
rison Hitson, William Cotton, Jr., Ed
| Brown and Henry Bingham, find that
they came to their death from gunshot OF
pistol shot wounds from a crowd OF
masked men to the jury unknown, q
| little after midnight or on the morning
Of the 10th OF March, 1890"
The town has been visited by two in.
| cendiary fires since Feb. /, and the
| citizens have been afraid to rebuild ow,
ing to the oft repeated threats of the
negroes that they would do the same
thing again. The county authorities
have been very active in their efforts
to apprehend the incendiaries and OF
Wednesday arrested nine negroes. Will
| lhul AOlAou udu NbulNNotu u LIZ IL -
| Johnson that he and eight companions
had conspired to burn the town and Loo
the stores.
The burning part OF the program wal
successfully carried out, but the fr'
spread so rapidly that they were unable
to obtain anything from the stores. DR.
johnson got the names Of the eight &C
completes from Cotton, and on this evi
dence the warrants were sworn out
The Capital City Guards of Atlanta
IS men, under command OF Colonel Johr
s. Gambler, late of the Third Georgil
volunteers, arrived at IL o'clock and re
ported to Mayor Arnold. The mayo
distributed the men through the ittli
town, and together with the citizens nov
doing duty as deputy sheriffs it Is be
lieved there is a force sufficient to quel
any uprising by the negroes.
From the best information obtainabl
the mob did not exceed 20 men. The,
made no noise to announce their coming
and the dispatch with which they go
away from the scene of the crime woult
seem to Indicate that the number EN-
I a. 81.