The Southern herald., 1900-06-22
Terrible Wrong.


Not 50 much a. tiIIle Of evI'
dsnre pointed to the completely 2.
J the two men in the outrage and
murder Of Chrstinl WinterstrinI
but, on the contrary, every vesiag'
of testimony obtainrd or obIaiRabl'
pointed to the diabulical crime as
being the work Of one man. School
children and other people testified
that they had seen negro IN the
vicinity of the place where and
ab0u, the time when the outrage
took place, ba, !, VAS only one ne
grO whom the witnesses had seen.
There was doubt among the wii'
nesses as 10 whether skew or
Russ was the irnd who perpe-
traIed the deed, some saying that
| it was Askew and others insisting
with equal persistency that II was
Russ. But By general agreement
there was Ouly one cOncernrd ~
the act.
All the evidence, moreover,
pointed to either Askrw or Russ
as being the criminal. Oae or two
other negroes were arrrst' d aud
charged with being the murderers,
but there was no evidence 10 con
meet these others with the crime
and they were liberated By what
ever line Of testimony the auIhnrl.
ties sought to arrive at the perpe
traitor Of the outrage, the testimony
always pointed straight toward
either Askew or Russ. Cltw.
might Tor moment seem To indi
cate that it was somebody else,
but when the cIews were followed
only little way they made straight
for one or other Of the two negroes
named
Weare forced.to the conclusion,
therefore, that, while one or the
other Of the two negroes lynched
was the guilty p rSon, the other
was innocent, and that small aud
rash crowd Of rash and lawlesS
men from Mississippi City, Biloxi
and Gulfporl vii. have the fearful
consciousness 10 haunt them from
this time forth that in lyuchlng
those two negroes near Mississippi
City they committed the fearful
wrong If taking the life of an inro
cent man under circumstances OF
grievous cruelty.
The community at large in the
district where the outrage was per.
petrated, and in particular Mayor
Nash and District Attorney White
of Biloxi, were properly averse Il
rash execution of the two men;
they knew that bath the two men
could not be guilty, and they put
ofi the execution by all The argu.
ments and devices they could think
of in the hope that some evidence
or other would come up that would
cunvict either the one man or the
other. This is the course that
ought to have been pursued until
such time as convincing testimony
of the murderers identity was dis
covered; it should have been pur.
sued for DAYS and weeks longer
and ultimately the hendish crime
would have yielded up its secret
and the guilty person have been
exposed.
As it is, the horrible outrage and
murder Of the poor child Winter
stein has been avenged in q way,
but not in a way that will com.
mend itself to right minded peu.
pie. 1t has been avenged with a
crime almost as bad and revolving
as itself. For the avengers in
avenging it committed the most
terrible Of wrongs in killing an in-
nocenl man in their mad, crazy de.
termination not to let the guilty
man escape.
There is nnthing which has hap
pened Of late that will he So po
tent an argument against lynching
as this painfully reprehensible ac-
ton Of small crowd of hot headed
and lawless men OF the lakeshore
district. 1t will even turn the
south against lynching, for the
south's sense Of justice is strong as
it is swift for vengeance; and the
south will not tolerate lynching
when the lynchers include the in
nocent with the guilty in one CON.
mon doom. Times Democrat.
Now since the two negroes have
been disposed Of by the mob at
Mississippi CITY. the officers have