The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-03-23
KEENLY TOUCHING.
AND YET SOMEWHAT SARCASTIC
WiTHAL.
lowing The Terrible Tragedy in
Cabarrus County Last Year Re-
CaIled-As are the Comments of a
North Carolina Newspaper on the
LynChing of the Negro Fiends.
CMonroe Enquirer.)

a correspondent of the Outlook, a
religious paper published in New
York, says Of the lynching of the two
negroes, who so brutally outraged
and murdered little Emma Hartsell,
near Concord, last May:
The son of neighboring farmer
who captured the first of the criminals
! told me anew the story of the crime
Emma Hartscll his younger school
Sunday afternoon to take care Of her
baby sister. her father and his Young
wife had gone to church. The fam
lily, he said, were as fine as any in the
valley, and Emma Hartsell was
modest Christian girl. The father,
he thought, would be willing to talk
with me, and so | drove on to the
house. The door was opened by the
young mother. The older sister,
girl Of sixteen, with an attractive,
serious face, stood just back of her.
/ The father was not at home. but !
knew from the face of his young wife
and daughter that he was the type of
man his neighbors had described.
AS paused moment to express my
sympathy, there recurred to me the
remark of friend years before, that
it was easy to believe in Gods father
hood when all went we'll, but that it
would be Impossible if one of your
own daughters were the victim of
crime. Turning to the mother. |
asked. | hardly know how, whether
the crime had overthrown her hus-
bands faith. The reply came slowly,
but in words which showed the depth
Of her own religious life: He is
going to live nearer to Cod AS |
stood upon the doorstep and listened
to this simple expression of supreme
faith, felt that | was in touch with
a higher world of spiritual life; and
as came back North, | felt that for
the last time | had condemned these
Southern communities for admins
tcring Justice according to the ele-
mental feelings Of manhood instead
of the cold process of the law
The Biblical Recorder, in comment
ing on that article in the Outlook
says:
lin our reading we have found
nothing recently more keenly touch
ing
More keenly touching." We
would like very much to know why
that article in the outlook is so keen
" touching to the editor of the Re
coreicr. Why, when those brutal
devils were lynched for the outrage
and murder of that innocent little
girl on that Sabbath afternoon last
| Nav the Recorder declared that it be-
| lieved them to be innocent, although
one of them confessed and the cloth
| ING of the other one had the girls
blood on it, The Recorder came out
in an editorial after the lynching and
said:
The men who lynched them ought
to be arrested, tried as speedily as
possible, and being found guilty
ought to be hanged until they are
| dead
That is what the Recorder said
about that lynching, although some
/ of as good citizens as can be found in
| Cabarrus county, men who are just as
good by nature and by practice and
/ (shall we say it?) have as much of the
Christian religion as the editor of the
RerOrder has, took very active and
prominent part in that lynching.
Really we would like to know what
the Recorder is so keenly touched
about. Is the Recorder touched be-
cause Mr.. Hartsell is walking in the
path of right or is it touched, oh so
keenly, because the men who lynched
those black devils have not been
hanged until they were dead, as the
Recorder demanded at the time of the
1lynching?
Keenly touched Oh consistency,
and a few months ago when the man
! hood of North Carolina. almost with
out exception, was saying "amen" to
that righteous execution the Recorder
was frothing at the mouth and de-
manding the lives on the gallows of
the men of Cabarrus who told to the
world in the awful language and
speedy action that home, virtue and
womanhood shall be protected, let
the cost be what it may. Keenly
touched. Probably YOU may be.
Mr. Recorder. but YOU are not so
kecnly touched as you touched the
highest manhood and womanhood of
North Carolina when you said that
the men who swung into eternity the
souls of the fiends who were the raw
ishers and murderers of Emma Hart
! sell should be hanged until they were