The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-16
HIS VIEWS ON MATTER
HARD TO CONDEMN THE LYNCH
ERS WHEN THERE.
INSECURITY OF WOMEN IN THAT SECTION
".fmy Wife or Sister or Mother Had Been Out.
ragged by roubIe-Dyed Villain,
Cannot Say What Wouli
Have Dor e.

The New York Herald has sent Rev.
George IL. llepworth to Georgia to in
vestigate the causes of the lynching of
Sam Hose. In his first letter he tells
of the hideousness and brutality OF
the crime of Hose. and its retribution.
He saws that the retributiOn, terrible
as it was, was natural, and that he
cannot tell what he might have done
if he had been there. Then he follows
this up in judicial tone, showing
that for the good of the South and the
whole land some remedy for lynchins
should be devised. The letter is i'll part
as follows:
1.-The people of Georgia are willing
to be judged, provided the Judgment
is just, and are more ready to accuse
themselves than we are to accuse
them. They take as grave "a view of
the situation as we of the North do,
and as earnestly seek a remedy for
existing evils as the spirit of progress
could desire.
1.-THE case of Sam Hose, alas
Thomas Wilkes has one popularity
namely, that it cannot be duplicated
in the history of this or any other
country. His crime was unique in its
hideousness. Its atrocity was simply
unthinkable.
''The neighborhood was reused.
There was vengeance in the air. Re-
ligiOn, law, even civilization, was lost
sight of. The populace was frantic,
for no one could tell whose family
might next be devastated. The he'll
of popular passion broke loose. The
III
by bloodhound-at last caught. Was
any torture too great? They lost
sight of the fact that some methods
of punishment degrade those who III
fiict it, and bring them to the level of
the savage. They were beside them
selves with an uncontrolled thirst for
revenge. They thought of their wives
and daughters and their blood beat
in their veins like pent up tempest.
God pity them, God forgive them.
They were not men; they were ma
MACS. Their fury knew no bounds.
1.-THE calm second thought has come
l can assure you that everybody con-
cerned regrets the part he took i'm that
tragedy. There were, perhaps, five
thousand people on the scene, and eN-
cesses are easily resorted to by a
crowd. What dozen men can't do a
thousand can. Numbers fan a flame
into a conflagration. l have talke:
with all classes of the people here ~
Atlanta, learned and illiterate, poor
and rich, and not a man has expressed
any opinion save one of regret.
I'VE shall be greatly puzzled unless
we can fully grasp the social situation
here, which is very different from any
thing to be found in the North. i am
not at all sure that we should not our
selves have pursued the same course
under the circumstances. The cry
which made the welkin ring was We
must protect our wives and daagh-
ters,' and that is the key to the prob.
lem. If my wife or mother OF sister
had been outraged by a double-dyed
villain. / can't tell you what | would
or would not do. When the matter is
brought home to yourself you recog-
niZe it's horror. There are no lengths
to which you would not go i'm the way
of punishment. 1t is easy to condemn
when a thousand miles away, but hard
to condemn when on the spot with a
like fate staring you in the face. |
neither plead nor excuse; | simply say
that ! also am human.
Ninety per cent. of the negroes
have the entire confidence of their
employers. They are respected be-
cause they are law-abiding citizens.
They have property interests of their
own to guard. and a man who has a
few hundred dollars worth of proper
ty at stake is conservative. But the
5 per cent. of fellows who are not only
ignorant, but vicious, who know no
restraint and will commit crime with
out conjunction, have ample opportu-
nifty to perpetrate deeds of daring de-
viltry, and as at present constituted
the people of the region are powerless
to protect themselves, and live i'm the
continual consciousness of insecur-
ity.
"A woman dare not trust herself at
any distance from her home after
dark. With nine men out of every ten
whom she may meet she will be as
safe as at her own tireside. 1t is the
unknown tenth whom she fears. W..
can hardly conceive of this state o.
affairs, but it is the actual condition
IN many counties in this State and
III other States of the South
The following editorial comment on
the recent lynchings in Georgia from
! the current issue of Harper's Weekly
Is also significant as indicating that
the people of the North are at last be-
the South. Harper's Weekly saws:
Whatever any Northern reader
may feel about the burning of the me-
gro Sam Hose and the lynching of the
negro preacher Strickland. i'm Geor-
gia. one thing he should always bear
in mind. that there is no vital differ
ence between the white man in the
South and the white man in the
North, and that what white men do
i'm Georgia white men from New York.
or Massachusetts. or Minnesota would
probably do in Georgia under similar
circumstances. a county in Georgia
went stark crazy over Sam Hose.
Northern readers cannot understand
it. letter has come to the Weekly
from Il Georgia woman which tells a
story of Sam Hoses crime as Georgia
understands it. 1t is hardly a letter
that the Weekly may print, but it may