Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-25
NO APOLOGY FOR THE CRIME.

There is a tendency on the part of some
s|uperannuated ~clergylnen and trucking
newspaper to indirectly apologize for the
fendish work of the Georgia mob. The
horrible crime committed by Sam Hose
is dwelt upon With all its ~repugnant de-
tails. to excuse the frenzy that led the
miserable wretches of Newman and vicin-
ity to perform a work that would have
damned a tribe of savages to extinction.
A mob that could find satisfaction and
comfort in preserving the bones of its
mutilated victim as souvenirs, has only
shirt front between it and the lowest type
of paganism. Little wonder that it went
from bad to worse and tore a decrepit,
innocent old mana preacher Of the Cos
pei Of peace. a balance wheel in the
tumult of racial prejudice-from the
presence of his wife and children and
mutilated him and ~strangled him to death
at the end of a rope. The miserable
brutes.
Inc NItblSId IIltlttltlS SilDN6d LIE
whelpish virus that courses through their
veins, the hyena thirst for blood, when
they destroyed the life Of Elijah Strick-
land on no better evidence of Guilt than
the statement Of the crazy wretch Sam
Hose. whose fingers and toes they Were
even then wearing in their pockets, as
school boys mieht wear the br~ic-a-hrac
Of the playground. The extremes to which
mobs like this may 60 emphasize the
necessity Of a strict adherence to the
recognized processes Of the law in order
to maintain civilization and it's cherished
institution.
Had Sam Hose been killed in reta,ta-
ton for the crime he committed, without
the display Of disgusting savagery that
sent a thrill Of horror throughout chris
tendon. n the matter ended, little COM
ment would have been excited by the act.
But q mob is irresponsible, and in this
instance punished the innocent as well
as the guilty. The wretched Sam Hose
could have caused the death of every
colored mar in the neighborhood against
whom he had a grudge, had he only no.
claimed them as his associates in crime
as he did the poor old preacher Strick-
land.
The moral of this is that mob law must
be suppressed in the south at all hazards,
If the commonwealth of Georgia IS in
capable of bringing about needed reforms
and purging the black and bloody escut-
cheon of the state, the aid of federal au-
thority should be invoked. The Ameri-
can nation in it's entirety has a live in
terest in the reputation for law and order
sustained by any part of it. All are parts
of one great whole, and the concerns o.
one state are the concerns of all the res
insofar as the principles of civilization
and good government are in issue.
That idea had a vigorous illustration
when the Louisiana lottery found it i'm
possible to obtain a foothold in any STATE
in the union, after its charter expired ant
it could no longer do business in New
orleans. n sun more recent lHu3lI dLIp
is the repeal of the Infamous Dakotf
divorce laws under the pressure of pub
lie opinion in other states. No portion
of the country can degenerate into a mol
cursed community without impairing tn
good name of the republic abroad
Georgia has for a number of years beef
.disgracing itself and the nation to Whicl
it belongs, and the present outrage OF
the part of it's people should become
living text of fire until all its sins ar
burnt and purged away.