The leader., 1901-12-04
Holmes County Sets a Good En-
ample to Rest of State.
Advertiser. Extra. Nov. sOth.l

man can be guilty. This was due to
the energy and prudence of sheriff
Dave Hobbs and deputy Crawford
Reid and other law-abiding citizens
who did not want to have our county
to suffer the degenerating effects of a
lynching. The feeling against the ne
gro was intense, and at one time he
was in great danger of summary death,
and in many sections of the country
North and South, he would have met
that fate.
Better counsel prevailed, however,
and he was brought to Lexington as
stated, where he was indicted at this
present term of court and found guilty
without recommendation to mercy and
sentenced to be hung on December 2S
next. There have been instances
where white men charged with this
crime have beeen tried in this State by
law, but Holmes county stands alone
where it has been the question of
black men and.white women. She has
thus set the precedent of legally pro-
tecting the chastity of Mississippi
women from brute force, and speedily
inflicting upon that force the punish
ment it so justly deserves. The attor-
neys for the defense were Messrs. Noel &
Pepper, who were appointed by Judge
Stevens, and who conducted Grants
case with such zeal and fidelity as to
win the appreciation of all hearers,
particularly of their opponent, District
Attorney Hill. They will take no ap-
peal; so that by the courts sentence
the criminal will hang on the date be-
fore mentioned, unless he dies some
other way or escapes from Jail.
No persons were allowed at the trial
but the lawyers, officers and represen-
tatives of the press; so there was great
anxiety among the people at large to
know how the case was going. AS
soon, therefore, as it was announced
outside that sentence had been pro-
nounced, orderly cries of appreciation
were heard from all quarters. And
The Advertiser hereby congratulates
heartily Judge Stevens for his impair
tial but emphatic bearing as presiding
officer, District Attorney Hill for his
unprejudiced but mastery manage
ment, and the following jurors for
their prompt and manly verdict so
thoroughly harmonizing with the evil
dence deduced c. G. Pahlen, j. T..
Novels, w. H. Boone, w. r. Howell,
w. r. Carson, w. III. Douglass, j. G.
Byrd, j. d. Kyzcr, J. M. Herring, J. A.
Williamson, j. S. Wilkins, Jonas Long.
The unfortunate victim of Dickens
bestiality was the wife of Mr.. Eugene
Rosamond, who lived a mile and half
by pathway and three miles around
the road from the home of her assail-
ant. She testified that the defendant
left their premises about II o'clock at
night on October q, in a wagon with
her husband, who was carrying some
cotton to Lexington; that about half
after l o'clock she heard some one at
the foot of the bed and instantly
struck match and recognized the de-
PENDANT and screamed. She had some
matches close to the bed to use if her
baby should need her attention at
night.
The rutfian knocked out the match
and clasped her fiercely about the
throat and came near killing her
There was nobody in the house but
her children, and they were too small
to afford her aid Dicken wrought his
will despite her struggles aud then ran
ont of the house the same way he had
come in.
In her nightgown Mrs Rosamond
Jobnson's three or four hundred yards
away, and this neighbor testified that
she came screaming all the way and
was much excited and distressed on
arriving; that her throat showed marks
of rough usage and had to be treated
Immediately with medicine, and that
she named the defendant as the man
who had maltreated her.
1t was proved that the negro had
only gone with Mr.. Rosamond one mile
and IA half and then, refusing an offer
of a dollar to go to Lexington with
him, disappeared.
The defendant tried to establish an
libi through two negroes who claimed
to have seen him when he parted with
Mr.. Rosamond. They swore it was
after o'clock, but had no definite
means of determining exactly. They
accompanied him home, where they re-
manned about an hour.
This alibi was Dickens only defense,
although his counsel contended that
match light eXtinguished SO quickly
was not sufficient for accurate recog-
milton.
This alibi was dissected by Mr.. Hill
and exhibited to the jury in all its
shabby wretchedness, but Mr.. Ivy Up
shaw'put a few nails in Grants coffin
by telling how he acted when he went
TO arrest him next morning.
Mr. Upsbaw testified among other
things that when he told Dicken he
had come to take him to Pickens to
answer tuc CudrBc MIS-. pOSdmouu udu
against him, he replied
"You will have to kill me first"
Others being present beside the Off
Ger, he was arrested without any kill
ing, but cried murder" and surren-
dered after struggle with these
words:
II give up, provided you don't let the
boys kill me-"
Besides the alibi Witnesses, the testi-
mony was that of defendants relatives,
who sought to show that Mr. Rosa
mond on his return the next night
from Lexington, had been seen on the
road by them and asked at what hour
he had parted from the accused and
that he had answered o'clock. All