Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1903-07-31
ILLINOIS RACE RIOTS.
SCENES OF BLOODY VIOLENCE
AT DANviLLE.
Negro Is Lynchci and Burncd-County
Jail and City Prison Are Almost
DemoIishei- Troops Are Ordered 20
the City.

nSnt, when Tor SIN hours DanVllie, HI,
was at the mercy of bowling, blood
thirsty mob of frenzied and half drunken
men, the city is quiet
1t is the quiet, however, that is
brought about by the glitter of rifles III
the hands of soldiers who are licensed to
kill. On the surface all is peaceful, but
underneath the storm Of rage and hatred
Is boiling and threatens to break forth
anew when the troops shall have depart
ed.
Tossed here and there on the public
square, as the capricious winds will it,
are the fragments of clothing, bits of
bloody hay and splintered wood, grew
some mementoes of Saturday nights
sickening tragedy, when the negro May
field was dragged to death and his corpse
hacked to bits and burned.
City Ia in Dread.
Close by is the county Jail, not whole
pane of glass left in the windows, and
| the doors and walls bearing the marks
of the assault by the mob. Three blocks
away is the city prison, demolished by
the mob. In the hospitals are a dozen
! OF more men suffering gunshot wounds,
and many more SUNK away after she
| sheriff made his determined stand, bear
ing with them testimony i'll the way of
| buckshot, that he was q man Of his
| word.
| Public feeling against the negroes had
been wrought to high pitch by terri
| BILE assault upon a white woman by
James Wilson, negro in the Jail, and
| there had been much talk of lynching,
but it had not crystallzed until Saturday
| evening.
Shot by Negro.
About $50 y. III. negro named Met
calf became involved in an argument
with Henry Gatterman, young butcher,
In front Of an East Main street saloon,
| which ended in the negro shooting Cat
terman dead.
The negro was caught and with much
difficulty the police took him to the city
prison, followed by crowd which rap
idly grew into a mob that yelled itself
hoarse in demanding that the murderer
be lynched.
The police, assisted by Sheriff III. II.
Whitlock, gathered in the city building
trying to keep the mob out, but were
finally forced to admit portion Of them.
The colored murderer had previously
been locked in vault in which the police
records are kept and the officers hoped
that the mob would not find him.
Dragged from Jail.
The leaders were told that Mctcalf
had been taken out Of the rear door and
carried into the country in a buggy, but
they refused to believe the assertion.
Some went for railroad irons and others
tor sledge hammers, and a few minutes
later the lock had been knocked off the
vault door and the negro was dragged
forth amid the eXultant shouts of his
captors. The victim made a fierce strug-
gle, but the blows that were rained upon
him soon brought him to the floor Of the
police station, and a revolver in the hands
OF one of the members of the mob put
a sudden end to his suffcrings.
Body Is Riddled.
The mob then dragged the dying man
from the building, and placing a rope
about his neck dragged him one square
south to Main street and then five
squares east to the saloon where he killed
Gatterman, where his body was struck
up to a telegraph pole and riddled with
bullets.
Cries of Burn him." Burn himr'
were then heard, and the mob leaders
soon had the lifeless body of the negro
cut down and were dragging him south
on the Wabash Railroad tracks.
At South street the mob leaders decid-
ed to take the body to the Jail, where
James Wilson, another negro captured
at Marshfeld, Ind, charged with trying
to assault Mrs. Mary Burgess, a white
woman, the previous day, is imprisoned.
"on to the Jail"
AS soon as the word was given the
mob yelled, ITO the jail" Mob the
other niger" etc. and made a wild
charge for that building, where quite
crowd had already congregated in antici-
patton of another lynching.
Arrived at the Jail, the body of the
negro was placed in the center of the
converging streets, where dozens of fren-
zied men and boys kicked and jumped
upon it. The body was totally naked, |
and blood was oozing from dozens of
bullet holes.
Some one then threw an armful of hay
upon the body and touched match to it,
after which the mob backed away short |
distance and watched the awful spec
tacle.
Demand More Blood.
Growing tired of this grewsome sight.
the mob turned its attention to the coun-
Sheriff Whitlock to surrender Wilson.
dozen or more deputies and police
men had hurriedly been gathered togeth-
er and placed in the Jail, heavily armed.
Sheriff Whitlock demonstrated with the
mob, but without effect. Finally a peep
hole was opened and the barrel of a
Winchester gun was thrust through it
and another demand from the sheriff. this
time from window in the second story,
Tor the mob to disperse, was made
Shot Anglers Mob.
No attention being given to it, n shot
was fired over the heads of the mob. The
shot seemed only to anger the mob, and
charge was made with the battering
ram upon the door. The gun was again
fired. this time into the dense crowd
welding the railroad iron, and several
men were seen TO drop to the ground
Several mora shots yyara EroI Co., |