The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-12
DIED WITHOUT FEAR.
CONTINUED from Eighth rage,

Astounding quantities across the track
was pla ced upon the pyre that was TO
consume Washington and over all.
especially over the body of the doomed
negro, a gallon of Kerosene oil was
poured.
Mrs. Clark had been invited by the
leaders of the mob to touch the match
to- Washington death and funeral
pyre, but from this CORY act of ven
geance her soul had revolted and the
duty had devolved upon her husband.
He 1t was that stepped up to the pile
and ignited 1t. AS Clark struck the
match and held 1t for a moment in his
grasp, the while sheltering the puny
flame with his hands. he and Wash
infton looked straight and deep into
each others eyes. There was satisfied
vengeance in the eyes of one; a deter
mined purpose to die game and unre-
pentent, unconfessed and unschriven,
in the eyes of the other.
Victims Husband Touched the Match
Just for a moment this scene of
dreadful suspense continued. Then.
stopping swiftly, Clark touched the
match to the rich pine, saturated with
OIL and with one wild upward rush the
flames enveloped the victim and hts
pyre, leaping far up towards the tops
of the slim pines that looked down
upon the scene, casting a ruddy glow
all about and bearing to the watchers
a hundred yards away the intelligence
that vengeance. in all it's grim and dire
intensity, was being melted out to the
offender
Up and, up the flames crept, the
tongues of fire stretching themselves
towards the face and neck of the man
bound to the stake. These were the
only parts of the mans body that were
exposed; the others were all beneath
or inside the pile of burning wood. His
legs, stretched fiat on the ground, with
the blazing logs above them were the
first to burn: then his arms; then the
flames reached his trunk and the men,
bers of the grim death watch, peering
between the flames in calm and merci-
less attention to their victims every
movement, could see his body writing
in anguish.
There wasn't a trace of 1t upon his
face. Without a sign of suffering he
endured the blasting touch of the
fiames-waiting, waiting, waiting for
the end. For five minutes, or ten, or
fifteen, the pitiless flames refused to
touch a vital spot-accounts of eye
witnesses differ as to how long the
agony continued; then Washingtons
lips were observed to move convulsive-
ly-perhaps, 1t was in prayer, and then
his head fell backwards upon his Shout
ders and he died.
Three cheers" said one of the lead
ers of the mob, in a voice that cut the
silence of the night like a knife, ''for
the women of Bryan county,"
From those who stood about the
flames and from the greater number
who watched from a distance the scene
of dreadful vengeance for a dreadful
crime, came three rousing cheers, that
started the sleeping echoes from their
rest and made the surrounding forests
ring with their wild alarum.
Devoured by the Flames.
For some added minutes the leaders
of the mob watched the flames devour
the dead body of Joe Washington.
Then they piled more wood upon the
flames and dispersed. Not a shot had
been fired and the dreadful tragedy
had been enacted with every semblance
of decency and decorum that the ma
ture of the case permitted.
Yesterday Washington's charred
trunk was all that remained to show
that there had been such an incident
in Bryan county. The wood had burnt
itself nearly out, though the embers
were still smoking. Legs and arms had
| been consumed almost completely by
| the intensity of the heat. and only
charred pieces of the bones of these
members were to be seen. The trunk
and skull were entire, though of
course, the skin had been burned off
both and all the vital organs were ex-
posed. No effort had been made to
cover the remains and they lay by the
side of the track, a dreadful warning
and disgusting and revolving sight.
Neither the sheriff of Bryan county
nor any other county officer had made
an appearance at the scene of Wash
ingtons death up to afternoon, when
the Morning News representative left
to return to the city. The death at the
stake of the ravisher of Mrs. Clark was
the one subject of talk, but no excite
ment was anywhere manifested and
comparatively few visited the scene of
the execution and looked upon the
CHASTITY remains.
The Morning News man was one of
these few. Relic hunters had already
made their appearance and pieces of
the dead negros crumbling bones were
carried away by those who visited the
spot bent on such a mission. His
teeth, charred fragments or his clothing
and the like gruesome relics were
eagerly contested for and as carefully
carried away as though they had been
some precious memento from a heros
grave.
The little son or Mr.. and MRS. clark
was among those who viewed the scene
of the execution about the middle of
the day. One member of the party
whose bitterness not even the sigh.
upon which his eyes then dwelt could
lessen said musingly:
II don't believe that such a brute
and beast as that man could have had
a soul. / wonder where he is now"
81 know where he is" the boy piped
out
"Where?" another member of the
party queried.
"Why he's gone to the devil" was
the answer This from a child of GER
tainly not more than ten years.
The negroes in Bryan county accept
the action of the white citizens in
wreaking such summary and dreadful
vengeance upon the ravisher as right
and just Some of them were openly
commencing this conduct yesterday,
and very many of them were of the
mob that watched the death scene
from afar. Washington is said to have
served two terms in the penitentiary
and to have been a desperate negro
and a bad man. The members of his
own race. to whom he was chiefly dan
gerous, feel a sense of relief that ne
is out of the way.
------s-e-s----