The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-12
DIED WITHOUT FEAR
JOE WASHINGTON, BURNED AT THE
STAKE, MET DEATH CALMLY.
0BDURATE TO THE LAST.
NEITHER CONFESSED NOR REPENT
ED CRIME HE COMMITTED.


mains to Tell the StOry-DetaiIs of
the Dreadful Scene of Saturday
Ni=bt-Eye Witnesses Tell How the
Negro Met Denth-Husbnnd of His
Victim Touched the Match to the
Pyre-ReIic Hunters Already at
work-No Officers I'm sight.
Fifty yards this side of the eighteen
mile post, on the Seaboard Air Line
Railway, south of Savannah, is the
charred trunk of the body of Joseph
Washington, the negro who assaulted
and outraged Mrs. ]. J. Clark, near
Ways Station, July 26. AS told in the
Morning News, the negro fell victim
to the avenging fury of a mob, and
was burned at the stake.
The full story and the grim and
dreadful details of the scheme of ven
geance and it's execution the night
before could not be obtained
for publication before yesterday.
Those who had borne a part in re-
paying in such dread measure the bru-
tai crime of which Washington had
been guilty were not anxious to have
anything to say on the subject-and
there were no others in the community.
The death at the stake, which was met
ed out to Washington, was Endorsed
by the public sentiment of the COM
munity. approved by all classes of citi-
zens. the blacks as well as the whites.
and inflicted by a mob which included
almost every man who was able to
walk who lives within five miles OF
Ways Station.
Early yesterday morning Morning
News reporter was on the scene and
from eye witnesses to the execution
he learned all the circumstances that
preceded, attended and followed it. The
recital of these facts makes a tale suf-
ficiently narrowing for the pages of
fiction or else exemplifies the truth of
the saying that than fiction even, truth
is stranger still. 1t brings back the old
days of Judge Lynch, when an tnfor-
NAL court dealt out exact, if rude, JUS
tice, or the times when the Vigilance
Committee held full sway in the West
and, taking in it's strong hands the
protection of the body polite and its
individual members, ruled it's unruly
subjects with an iron rod or punished
with a hempen cord. No story of any
OF these old days can surpass in in
trinsic interest that which portrays the
cool elaboration and the calm indiffer-
enee to the sufferings of the doomed
man which accompanied the tragedy
at Ways Station.
Saturday afternoon Washington was
captured in Liberty City by r. l..
Young, a section master of the Plant
System. Young wired the people
of Ways Station and that VI
cinity that he had a man IN
custody who he was certain
was the assailant of Mrs. Clark. The
prisoner. short. squat. stockily-built
mulatto, answered the descriptions of
the man who had done the woman SO
deadly and horrible a wrong. Other
suspects, who had been arrested in
other parts of the state. and in Florida
were believed then to be on the way
to the scene of the crimes commission.
and Young was instructed to hold his
prisoner at Liberty City. When the
other negroes who had been arrested
failed to arrive, Young was directed
to bring his man on to Ways Station.
The Avenging Crowd.
In the meantime the avenging clans
gathered. The husband of the victim
of Washington's brutal lust was a
member of the party, which numbered
most of the prominent citizens of that
section of Bryan county. Around,
though some distance away from the
nf
between two hundred and three hun
dred persons, white and black, but a
band of dozen, composed of the lead
ers, took charge of the reception of the
accused and retained command until
the final scene in the tragedy had been
enacted and the last expiring breath
had left the body of the negro.
BY these leaders Clark and his pris-
oner were received when the train roll
ed into Ways Station Clark still re-
tanned charge of the man he had ar
rested, but the others were close about
him and the negro. little stop was
made at a store near the depot OF
the Seaboard, half mile through the
woods from the Plant System station
at which captor and captive had left
the train.
Men continued to pour into the little
settlement from all parts of that sec
ton of the county. armed, some o.
them, to the teeth. Almost every mar
had a weapon of some kind on his per
SON. They crowded around the pris
oner as he stood. chained, in the LITTLE
store, asking innumerable questions
seeking to involve him in contradic
tions and thus learn the truth, direct
ing him to tell his name and the his
tory of his past life, urging him t
confess his crime if he was guilty.
1t was noticeable that to the ques
tions as to his name the man gave 1
as almost everything save Washing
ton, which il is believed to be. He Il
thought to be a hayward son of Rev
Fortune Washington, a negro preache
of considerable reputation among tn,
people of his race in that section of tn,
state. He said variously, however
that his name was Henry William
and Henry Hargrave and gave half
dozen other names besides, none o
which was believed to be his true one
Those who ought to know say that tn
man was the same Joe Washington
who had already spent two or thre
long terms of Imprisonment in the pen
itentiary.'
StOIid 10 the End.
To every question asked him he re
turned answers glib enough ant
through il all he never lost his nerve
With stolid composure he listened L