The new age. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1902-190?, 1902-07-12

fearing. There are many 5uch; anu
they are. in everything save color.
superior to many white men. But |
what is their life? AS they walk our |
streets, they lift their hats in passing !
the aged of the prominent, whether
man or woman; yet no man so returns
their salutation. They would go awoy
"a the depot they may not enter the
room of the whites. and on the train
they must Occupy their own separate
and second-class cars. Reaching their
destination, they may not eat at the
restaurant of the whites, or rest at
the white hotel. If they make pur-
chases shop ladies and messenger gen.
tlemen look down upon the mand man.
ifest contempt, and treat them with
open brusqueness and contumely.
And IL, on a Sabbath, they would wor
ship in a white mans church, they are
hidden to call upon God. the maker
of the black man as well as of the
white. and invoke the Christ, who
died for black and white alike, from a
place apart. And so, from the cradle
to the grave, the negro is made, in
Southern phrase, ito know and keep
his place."
In the case we are considering,
these distinctions are not based on
this negro's ignorance, or his vicious
ness, on his offensiveness of person
or manner; for he is educated. good,
clearly and courteous. They are
based solely on the fact that he is an
negro. They do not operate in the
case of a white man. But the black
man. because of his blackness. is put
in the lowest place in public esteem
and treatment.
Lynching. again, is but a more In.
famed and conspicuous expression OF
. this same general sentiment An in
vestigation of the statistics of this
practice in the United States will
bring to light several interesting and
} startling facts.
l. In the last decade of the last
century of Christian grace and civili-
3 cation, more men met their death by
/. violence at the hands of lynchers
|. than were executed by due process Of
, law. And this holds true, with posi-
Q bly, one exception, for each year in the
D decade. The total number thus hur-
|. ried untried and unshriven into eter-
Q nifty during these ten unholy years
S Appropriated seventeen hundred
S souls.
1 2. The lynching habit is largely
4 sectional Seventy to eighty per cent
}. of all these lynchings occur in the
b Southern states.
a 8. The lynchings are largely racial.
J. About three-quarters of those thus
[ done to death are negroes.
!. 4. The lynching penalty does not
d attend any single particular crime,
!. which, by its particular nature and
I righteousness, seems to demand sucr
). violent and lawless punishment. But
n murder, rape. arson, barn-burning
q theft-or suspicion of any of these
g may and do furnish the ground for
} mob violence.
I. These facts, especially the second
= third and fourth items, are bitterly
. controverted in the section which they
>, most concern. But they are as dem.
on strable as any other facts, and de-
/, mand the assent of every candid mind
The world is familiar with the usual
:. Southern defense of lynching. Passing
by the number. place and race of the
;. victims. the defense centers on the
fourth statement above made; and our
public men and our writer's have Ions
:. insisted that this terrible and lawless
vengeance is visited upon the defilers
of our homes. who should be as ruth
: lessly destroyed as they have destroy
~ ed our domestic purity and peace
- This is the regular plea put forth In
3 defense of this brutal practice. warm
u ly maintained by hot-blooded and mis-
U informed people in private and II
Is public prints. No less a person thar
'r former Judge Advocate Genral o.
T" Virginia, in recent issue of the Norti
e American Review, reiterates thes,
10 thread-bare statements.
u He says: 1T is unnecessary Il
g. shock the sensibilities of the publ,
er by calling attention to the repulsiv,
st details of those crimes for Nhicl
Is lynching in some form has been tn,
&C. almost invariable penalty. They hav'
10 always been, however. of a nature S,
ne brutal that no pen can describe an,
g. no imagination picture them" Lynch
a ings in the South are mainly caused b,
at the peculiar nature Of the crimes 70
20 which lynching is penalty" and
more explicitly, The crime itself
Ell however. is more responsible for mol
v. violence than all other causes com
ID bined." mo right thinking man o
q. woman, white or black. ought to have
at or can have, any sympathy for sucl
l.. criminals "a fhooa wha SuNar aaoty