The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1900-10-25
The Danger From Mob Violence.

Greensboro Telegram.
A recent occurrence in Stanly coun-
ty shows the danger which some of the
thoughtful people of the South have
been pointing out as tho probable out
come CT mod violence. While there
are numerous examples of this danger
the one in question is SO palpable, so
pointed, 30 unmistakable, that it should
not be allowed to pass without notice
and comment.
A family was poisoned at the time It
was entertaining large party of work.
men engaged in threshlng the crop OF
wheat. Not only we're a number made
deathly sick by the poison in the foodbut
one member of the family, promising
young physician, just starting out In
his professional career, was killed. OF
course the deed shocked that section
OF the State, the time selected for the
poisoning, its wholesale character, the
mystery surrounding 1t, all contrlbut-
ed to the horror of 1t. The most rigo-
rous investigation was begun In the
hope OF finding the guilty party
Finally negro woman admitted
that she had put arsenic on the toma-
toes used for dinner, and that after the
white people had eaten she carefully
removed all the fragments to prevent
any of the colored people getting them.
She further said, no doubt under great
pressure, that her broter-in-law had
given her the arsenic, that he had 70
ceived it from another negro who had
received it from Mr.. Vann Skies,
we'll known yonng white man living as
a neighbor of the poisoned people, and
that he had sent her word that he
would give her five dollars If she would
administer the poison.
Now behold! On such an assertion
as this a mob gathers and proceeds
straighway to lynch this young man,
and was only prevented from doing go,
the report says, by the arrival of a few
friends, who with pistols, defied the
crowd and demanded a hearing. It
mattered not that the wo man tol1 the
most absurd and improbable story, nor
that the young man was OF the best OF
families without breath against his
reputation, that he had young wife
and children dependent upon him,
that he was a neigbor heretofore on
friendly terms with the poisoned peo-
pie, or that they we're acting In the
most unreasonable way. But this
shows the progressive spirit of mob
violence.
We have never yet been able to con-
denim the man or his friends who
where loved one is the object of a hei-
nous crime, rushes madly to avenge
that crime. But the man who thus acts
tor cause lends encouragement to those
who would act without cause, and the
criminally thinking element presume
upon the tolerance accorded an out
ragged and wronged man. That is one
of the dangers. The other is that
which comes from familiarity with
mob violence. From often seeing It.,
1t becomes regarded as necessary and
righteous instead of unlawful and MUIR
derous as it is. While we can look
with tolerance upon community's &C
ton in times of great outrages, we can
but SEQ the danger of the course and
think that for the sake of public good,
for the sake of law and order, and more
for the sake of the very safety OF every
individual who is likely, as this young
man was, to be falsely and frlyolously
accused, that community and those in
dividuals should forebear an unlawful
expression of their just wrath, and
stand for the execution of the law.