The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-06-08

May l say to nv friends, the
colored people of the North. if they
will look after their own business and
attend to the lawlessness that occurs
in their own bailiwick, they will pos
sibly have quite as much as they can
profitablv manage. l would be glad
to know what they said about the
mob Of $50 men who strung up Brad
ley, near New York, charged with
stealing Martin kelley's pocketbook,
as reported in the New York World,
April 2lst. There it is said that
some Of the mob wanted to burn
Bradley. and that women tainted
while the deed of horror was being
enacted. There is a difference,
great difference. everyone knows, be-
tween Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
THE SAMUEL HOSE LYNCHING.
"You need not ask me if I approve
the horrible enactment that occurred
within forty miles of my home few
weeks ago-the lynching of Samuel
Hose. God forbid that l should.
DO you condemn the burning as
strongly as it was condemned through
the Northern press?' | answer en-
phatically, just as strongly. Then
you approve the course taken by the
Northern press in the matters of
lynchings at the South?' Pardon me,
if, in reply, say that | condemn the
course of the Northern press upon
lynchings at the South with all the
vehemence of an offended nature. 1t
nd o1 hn
extreme.
s:Now, hear me. What was the
policy of the press at the North. with
only two exceptions, so far as know,
in the lynching of that villainous
fend Hose? Great scare heads
Another negro lynched at the South.
Fiendish brutality on the part of the
whites toward an unfortunate and
defenseless negro. Inhuman devils
burn colored man within fifty miles
of the capital of Georgia and gloat
over his tortures like demons. Surely
these people have been remanded to
barbarism and become savages in a
civilized land
Not one word of sympathy for a
pure and virtuous woman: her honor
gone; her husband murdered in her
presence; she and her little children
dragged in the fresh, warm blood of
the dying man, and not one word
said about this doubly horrible out
rage.
'.Surely, in all the North, is there
no sympathy except for negro?
No kindly feeling and no tender word
for the defenseless women of the
South, who carry with them living
shame, in living death, in a life all
too long for its miseries, if it lasts
but for day?
Il submit that the policy of the
press at the North, in condemning
simply the lynchings, while they
maintain an ominous and painful
silence about the crimes that provoke
them, is incendiary in the extreme,
as it encourages negroes to repeti-
tion. 1t is worse than cruel to the
broken-hearted victim and the COM
munity that has suffered death in it's
tenderest relations.
The policy is unfair, as between
lynchings at the North and lynchings
at the South, making always flesh Of
one and fowl of the other. Let it
be fair and we will sooner be breth-
rem.
"What was done, under similar
conditions, in Ohio, Oregon, New
Jersey, Nebraska, Pennsylvania,
Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illi-
nois, New York and other States that
have had similar or even less Of
lenses? No State claims greater or
more advanced civilization than New
York, and vet, it is only few years
since a wild and frenZied mob cruelty
murdered eleven innocent negroes,
whose only offense was that they
were negroes, then burned the negro
orphan asylum over the heads of
three hundred little helpless negro
children, simply because they were
negroes. and the little ones barely
escaped by the back door, while the
maddened mob beat down an entrance
at the front. Why did not the great
State of New York control the mob
better than Georgia did?
.'Do you ask me how these lynch
ings can be stopped at the South?
| answer promptly-just as they can
be stopped at the North. and in no
other way. Stop the outrages and
the lynchings will cease. Continue
the outrages and the lynchings will
always follow, regardless of threats
by the law, whether in Georgia, Min
nesota, Illinois, Ohio or any other
State.
'Is it forgotten that the people of
Massachusetts themselves burned
negro woman at the stake who had
been simply suspected and not con-
victed of poisoning a white man and
his wife? We can't tell what is going
to happen, even in the best regulated
families.
OPPOSED TO MOB LAW,
s.Let it be distinctly understood
that, personally. I am absolutely op-
posed to mob law for any and all
causes. | shall not take your time
/ here to give you my reasons. Per-
: sonallv and officially l have done
everything known to me to suppress
it in my State. But there is an un-
written law. not peculiar to Georgia
or the South. but dominating condi-
tions in every State, that demands
the quickest execution, in the quick
est way, of the tiend who robs yir-
: tuous woman of her honor to crafty
: his hellish diabolism. Human nature
is the same throughout the civilized
world. and say what you may, Mas
sachusetts will not be one whit be-
: hind Georgia when YOU make Mrs.
Crawford the wife of a farmer in yOur
5 State and Samuel Hose, brutal fiend
: in human shape. neighbor near her
e home
e Il repeat again. mob law is ter
d rible. You know its blood and
= slaughter in your own State. Georgia
can no more suppress it than Mas
k sachusetts or New York. Until Mas.
! sachuse Now York Illinois Penn