The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-01
Letters to The Editor.
About Lynching.
iitor The Advertiser:

Editor The Advertiser:
 While So much Is being said about lynching. I want to ask a few questions and make few suggestions in regard to the one crime for which lynching is too mild punishment.
 First-I ask why will our newspapers and reporters give these long detailed &C., counts in great head lines, Another Me- gro Fiend Lynched," and then go on to say how he was caught and screamed for mercy; and describe the suffering of a few minutes of such wretch in a way that shocks a community, angers the ne- gro race and does more harm than the lynching itself? I say why not describe the crime; just reverse things, l know there are no reporters present or any one but the wretch and his victim; but who would doubt detailed account of such a crime-the shrieks and screams of frail little girl: her screams for mercy; her quivering little body tortured and strangled and choked and beaten into insensibility and more cruelty tortured, even unto death very often, than any fiend has ever been made to suffer for such a crime In a recent outrage upon a young girl her teeth were knocked out in trying to stop her screams; her fin- gers were broken by the wretch for try ing to defend herself; and. after the most terrlDle SuHeTlnR OI every lHuiSnityb Actt nude and choked into insensibility for dead, and for month unable to sit up. I say, should the crime be written up in detail, picturing the torture and suffer- ing worse than death-a thousand times and the sorrow at home for their loved one lifelong nightmare and misery left in that family, and at the bottom of that heart rendering piece. merely say for the comfort of those who read-the fiend was caught and lynched or, when caught. will be lynched, and nothing more? What man. white or black, would feel, or say, a hard word against the just and swift punishment of such crime when no punishment is great enough? It Is the long-detailed accounts of the lynching and not the lynching that creates the widespread condemnation of lynching. For murder and theft and oth- CT evil dOings, let the law take it's course but for this one great crime so often our white women are subject to-some times old ladies, young misses, young ladies, little girls, even baby girls-none are se- cure where the opportunity presents it. self. I say for this crime there should be no law or protection by law for such a fiend. By common consent, he should be an outlaw, and the father. brother or husband of the victim justified by God
 
 dog or wild beast. the despoller of his home. But just as long as these wretches know they will be protected if caught, and often trials are delayed for months, and that lawyers will defend them, and the State send her soldiers and best young men to protect them and com manded to shoot down and kill the out ragged fathers and brothers of his victim who clamor for his death without delay or trial, and they feel there is protection and delay, a chance to escape-all of these things in his favor-just so long will this crime continue. Nothing but q sure death the hour he Is caught, justi- fled by law and man for that one crime, with no protection or hope of escape, will this crime ever cease. Let that be the unwritten law for a rapist. and let 1t be murder for a sheriff to kill the inno- cent and outraged father. brother or friends, while protecting a rapist from his just wrath. What man ever hesitates a minute to consider the law or any thing else to shoot and kill any man who would dishonor his wife or daughter? He thinks of nothing but the crime. and in the eyes of all men he is justified and was never known to be convicted by judge or jury, and that very unhesitatlng right a man takes to protect the honor of his home, there is no doubt protects many homes from men-not too good-but too afraid of being shot. Let the men in Alabama. and every Southern State, or ganize in every county and be prepared to protect their wives and daughters from worse than dishonor or death, be ready in moments warning to ride forth like the kuklux of the past. and deal out sure and speedy justice to these fiends The perfect and sure knowl- edge and proof of such swift and unhesi- tating action by the white men of every county will prevent that crime, for the law and nothing else will. Save to the State the thousands of dollars spent on trials and in defending these unworthy wretches and give 1t to our poor white boys industrial Home" or to our poor old veterans Let our Governors and Judges, and every man at such a time just for moment-imagine himself the father, husband or brother of the victim of that one crime, and then do as they would be done by" and think twice be- fore they offer rewards for and punish those wlo would revenge their child s death; and. if not death, their suffering and blighted life. Say less about lynch ing, prepare and be ready to protect our little girls and women, and do 1t; then there will be no lynching and mobs.