The age-herald., 1901-08-19
BRAVE OFFICER.

From the Nashville American.
 Another Alabama sheriff has shown that he is made of the stuff of which sheriffs ought to be manufactured. With shot gun he stood off mob of fifty men, de- claring he would die before be would give up his prisoner Of like mould Is Sheriff Fly of Gonzales County Texas, who de- fled mob which sought to take from him Mexican murderer who was pris- oner of the law "I value my honor as an officer and a man more than life It. self,'' he declared as he stood with drawn revolver and shoot in his eye. The mob retired, as the mob retired before Sheriff Kyle of Tuscaloosa. The Houston Post says of the Texas officers act: Thrice armed by the justice of his cause, he was enabled to put to flight several hundred misguided men seeking. under the cover of darkness, to tear down jail to get miserable Mexican criminal and take his life without warrant Sheriff Fiy's experience in this case was but that of other officers who under similar cir cumstances. have laid aside every con sideration save that of duty and inter- vened between nobs and the victims they sought to visit vengeance upon. Forget | ting everything but his official obligation, | he took his life in his hands at the criti- | cal moment and came out victorious. Mobs are essentially cowardly. Relying upon numbers. and confessing to the criminality of their purpose by exhibiting preference for the night as the time for attempting It's accomplishment, they can not withstand serious resistance Banded together for the purpose of avoiding ir- dlvidual responsibility. 1t is unusual for lynchers to risk their own lives or to take the lives of officers of the law In endeavoring to reach the object of their vengeanse Nerve staggers a mob"
 The coward delights in mob. Feeling himself, as the Post says. without indi- vidual responsibility he joins the crowd and under It's cover and without any ex- hibition of courage. does that which he would not dare do or attempt as an in- divdual in the open light of day. Joined with superior numbers against an infe- rior and unresisting force or a poor. cow
 ering, unarmed, miserable wretch. the coward who is lawbreaker at heart and who is a lawbreaker In deed, when he | joins the mob. becomes very ferocious and bloodthirsty--until somebody shoves | a gun in his face. Not all men who so far forget themselves or who allow their emo tions and passions to be so wrought up as to allow themselves to become members of a mob, are towards, but the mob as a whole Is cowardly because It's work is not that of brave men and It's mission is never lawful, even where the provoca- ton is very great, as 1t undoubtedly Is | in many instances The brutal ravisher who falls Into the hands of the citizens of | a community, even its ''best citizens," may with good reason bid farewell to hope, for the crime, unpardonable and unspeakable, places him in the minds of many beyond the pale of the law and l shows him wild beast whose instant death, not more as revenge than as protection and warning, Is deemed ad- visabie. We can understand this feeling. Summary vengeance in such cases is desperate, dangerous and not wholly ef- fective remedM Some day 1t will be no longer applied. Lawlessness begets law lessness, and some time in the history | q of this country there must be settled the question of whether the law of the mob shall be supreme.
 No matter how heinous the crime Of the prisoner, 1t is the sworn duty of the officer of the law to protect him, and this he should do, even at the cost Of his own life. A brave and determined of- fcer has at least one advantage in resist ing the mob. which is lawiess and there fore in large sense cowardly; he is do- ing his duty in the name or the law and the mob is performing no duty and is out raging the law. Men of animal courage sometimes join mobs, but the mob mem- Der is more apt to be lawbreaker in spirit and coward at heart. His act h apt to indicate hls nature, even though hs succeeded in eoncealing his identity and avoiding individual responsibility.
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