Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1899-04-26
The Georgia Lynchings.

mitted In Georgia, which was aveug-
ed In an awful, savage manner last
week. A negro entered the home of
a farmer, while he was sitting at the
supper table with his family, aud
with an axe split open the skull of
the farmer. He then seized child
held by the mother and threw it on
the floor in the pool of blood from its
dead father. after which he assaulted
and committed a nameless crime upon
Its mother, Mrs. Crawford The peo-
pie of that neigh5orhood became
frenzied. They pnt bloodhounds on
the track of the criminal, whose name
was Samuel Hose, but the beasts fail
ed to find him. He was afterwards
identified at the home of his mother.
though he had given to his copper
colored skin a black tint, and arrest
ed.
Hose was taken to Newman. Ga.
where, after being turned over to the
sheriff, he was seized by crowd of
lynchers who declared he should ex-
plate his crime by burning. TX Gov.
Atkinson was at Newman when the
lynchers appeared with their man.
anu begged them to let the law take
Its course. In reply to his address
the crowd responded, Think of his
crime. Hose admitted ne killed
Crawford but said he did not assault
his wife-that, he said, was done bv
another person. The crowd fastened
Hose 10 tree with chains. poured
coal oil over him, cut off his ears and
nose, and then set fire to the brush
piled about them. The men who did
this were in a savage mood, and their
action was decidedly brutal, but it
was not as brutal as the crime Hose
committed upon the Crawford fami-
ly.
There will be written dissertations
on the horrible manner adopted to
avenge the crime of Hose. and some
will say lynch law does not prevent
the recurrence of such crimes as he
committed, but the same thing NAV
be said of any law enacted to prevent
violence. 1t is difficult to measure
the depressing influence of lynch law
upon such as mediate crimes of the
beastly character referred to. A seu-
timent strong enough to subdue re-
sort to lynch law will never take pos
session of the public mind so long as
the awful crime that invites its exer.
else is committed. Stop the one fear
full, horrible degradation, and the 9TH
er will as certainly follow.
The mob afterwards secured Elijah
Strickland, a colored preacher whom
Hose implicated as having offered
him $40 to kill Crawford. Strick
land was seized on the premises of
Maj. Thomas, who followed the mob
and earnestly plead with it to hold
Strickland for trial. The crowd at
first assented to this, but afterwards
decided to hang him, although he
denied the Hose story. This was
piece of cruelty that the actors them
selves will condemn as murder in
their own sober moments.
Governor Gambler made public
statement on the burning of Hose
near Newman, in which he saws: 1.-The
whole thing is deplorable, and Hoses
crime, the horrid details of which are
too horrible for publication, is the
most diabolical in the annals of crime.
Negroes Of the community lost
the best opportunity they will ever
have to elevate themselves in the es
timation of their white neighbors.
"They must learn to look at both
sides. l want to protect them in ev-
cry legal right and against mob vio-
lence, and | stand ready to employ
every resource of the State in doing
1t, but they must realize that in or
der to merit and receive the protec-
ton of the community they must
show a willingness to at least aid in
protecting the community against the
lawless element of their own race.