Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-05-04
Southern Saganeru.

The New York Tribune has the fol
lowing vigorous words to say regard
ing the recent lynching Of Sam Hose
in Georgia:
Let us, then. keep the facts in mind
and consider the case. Horrible as
was the scene at the farm house. was
not the scene by the roadside more
horrible2 Great as was the crime OF
the negro. was not the crime Of the
white man greater? Savage and
beastly as was the black man. was he
more the savage and the beast than
the hyenas who mutilated him when
alive and cut up his carcass when
dead, and then IN wantonnesS Of
Notwithstanding went off and killed an
other negro without the slightest
proof that he had any part IN the
murder of the man or the slightest
suspicion that he was concerned in
the crime against the woman? The
horror at the farm house was the work
of one ignorant, brutal member OF an
inferior race, the descendant of people
kept for generations as near the beast
as superior race could keep them.
The horror of nger-chopping and
heart-cutting was the work OF the
flower of Southern chivalry. 1t was
the revelation of the character of the
product of centuries of education. SELF
government, training in respect for
law and order.
For an Anglo-SaXon in Georgia,
with all his opportunities, with his re-
ligion. his civilization. his boasts as
member Of a superior race, claiming a
right to rule and owing an example to
inferiors-for this white man to make
himself beast, to dance in wild JOY
about a victim, whether OF punish
ment or persecution, to dip fingers in
his blood. to torture him and gloat
over his mutilated body, is crime
against law, against civilization,
against humanity. which surpasses
even the most horrible outbreak of
some barbarous black mans brutal
passion. 1t is not the death Of the
negro that makes the picture so dark,
nor its unlawfulness nor even his un-
measured suffering. His crime was
terrible. and certain, severe and swift
punishment was deserved. We are
not plying him. 1t is the debasement
of the whole community by such an
orgy of blood, such a reversion Of civ
ilized men aud women to the delight
in cruelty that marks savages, which
seems to us the darkest and saddest
feature OF this dark affair.
Great as are the wrongs Of the
Crawford family. greater will be the
wrongs of Georgia and our whole
country if such deeds are tolerated.
What do the women OF Georgia think
of the chivalrous men who went out
to punish crime against one of their
number and came back with cooked
pieces of wretched negro's heart and
liver in their pockets to announce. not
that they had done the justice of God
but that they had given themselves TO
wallowing in blood and to passions be-
fitting devils? This is the question
which this burned and mutilated ne
gro's body raises. Ii is not his fate
or even the supremacy of law that is
most at issue. The important thing
is the character of our civilization and
the future of race which sees the hit
punishment of one crime only in Civ
ing itself over to q frenzy of savagery.
Such passions do not belong alone to
those who indulge them. They will
course for greater evil.in the veins of
the next generation. Mankind can
not make itself the beast with impun-
ity even to punish beast.