Evening star., 1902-08-08
Resents Imputation.

statement III part IS as IDHOWS.
''As to all Mr.. Kinks says in denuncia-
tion of lynch law and violently wrenchng
from the hands of justice a miserable GRIM
inal, We most heartily agree with him. Had
he stopped there he would have been COM
mended by every right-thinking man; but
he goes on to say, What we need are men
who will stand for law and order, men
who will not do nor suffer to be done such
OutrageS upon our civilization This is
by imputation, if not by direct charge, a
gross miSrepre Sentation Of facts and a
slander upon officers and upon their
friends who stood by them, that | am not
willing to have go before the world with
out contradiction. He says further: With
ten or twelve men with the nerve and
stuff to stand for the law come what will,
the Jail could not have been entered. l
was in the thick of it all. and among so
many Mr. Charles Harrison was the only
man who had the nerve to do what thirty
or forty of our citizens on the ground did
not do. Farther on he says, i say without
hesitation that the men who did the dam
age were in liquor, and. consequently
bloodthirsty, and this act, like many other
sad tragedies of the past year has come
upon us with the reopening of the saloons
With these quotations from Mr.. Kinks, 1
propose to tell what | know to be true
Very soon after the prisoner was landed in
jail | walked out on the street and met my
friend. the able minister of the Methodist
Church, Mr. Ferguson He said to me-
VIII you ask the mayor. b. V. White, to
have the saloons closed? 1 fear trouble
here today
had every saloon closed. so that I know
that the saloons We're in no way response
bic for the outrage committed. Nor were
any considerable number of these men
drunk-indeed. very few of them. Nor were
any of the leaders at all under the inf1u-
ence of liquor. 1t is old saying that the
devil is entitled to his dues If man
would be forceful, he must be accurate in
nSt in hiS ind
! From that time until the last effort was
made to save the prisoner, Mr.. Ferguson
| and many other of our citizens did all in
! their power by persua sion to save Craven
/ Mr.. Kinks / did not see on the ground ,In-
| til short time before the charge was
| made on the jail.
Question Of Guilt.
| Il, myself was talking with the leader
| of the men, and when It came to the uues-
| ton whether or not there was evidence suf-
| ficient to hang him the mayor, B. " White
said that he was in possession of sufficient
| evidence; that he was told by a colored
woman that Craven told her he killed Will
son and would kill more white people
| mentioning DR.. Tebbs.
! Then some of the men seemed inclined
to let the law take it's course, but when the
| leader saw this he cried out, Men, come
| on and on they went for the Jail. I took
| my position with the following gentlemen
-
| Foster, B. V. White, mayor of Leesburg;
| w. A. Edwards, town sergeant; Fl. H. Rus
sell. sheriff; D. H Vandevanter deputy
sheriff: c. A. Monroe, deputy sheriff; Eu-
gene Monroe. deputy sheriff; William Aud,
John G. White. j. M Laycock and Charles
F. Laycock, deputy sheriff and jailer If
any man says these men did not do all
that was in their power to do, save using
| firearms he says what is not true.
Regarded as Unjust.
'It may be, and no doubt is, true that
Mr. Kinks was also doing all he could by
talking to the men under these eircum-
stances, but for MIR. Kinks to give himself
and Mr.. Harrison credit for all and con.
denim all the balance of US is, to say the
least of it. unjust 1 do declare that the
} officers and all there. so far as I saw ant
know, did all that any sober minded mar
could ask to be done. We could have sho
into the crowd and possibly killed a dozeI
or more men, but the results would hav,
been simply to have added largely to th
cemetery, without saving the negro
/ What could dozen more men do mos
/. of them without arms, in the face of owe
| 100 well-armed, determined men? Braver,
| without prudence is a dangerous commod
ity | have known hundreds of brave no
| Bile soldiers to be killed by just such fool
L ish bravery. So long as l keep my sense
e l will never in the defense of a bar
| burner, robber murderer, white or black
law or no law, kill any man. AS soon a
/, the negro was landed in Jail the sheriff
i Mr. Russell, telegraphed for troops to tn
" governor, the only power that could hav
saved the criminal, but the crucial mo
: .nent came too soon. / do not think
/, was much over two hours after the negr
O landed in jail before he dead. N
/, fair minded, unprecedented man attac
any blame to the officers or the people c
Leesnurg. | do not write this in defense c
r the lawbreakers nor saloons, but in defens
n of those who tried nobiy to defend tn
law.
Declared to Be Blot
In yesterdays issue Of the Mirror las
weeks affair is referred to as placing
;. | dark blot upon the fair history of Virgini,
:. Credit is given the county officials for the
a efforts to prevent the lynching and tn
70 | editorial concludes:
;. May such another scene never be vsite
;. upon the good people of Loudoun again.
/ KNIPLE RELEASED.
IL / oF 4