The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-16
TUG OF WAR OVER NE RO --E Lynchers % pulled the
 Coz Heads. MIss0DAl MoB's WORK Not Appeased by the Death of x One Black. Every Negro Driven from Joplin. The Dead Nan Supposed to Have Slain . Policeman
 Tuesday Night.


 Joplin. Mo-, April 16--Despite the plead ing of iCty Attorney P. H. Decker and the efforts of lawabiding citizens. who were overcome in . tug of war over the body of the victim, . mob tonight hanged a negro tramp to a, telegraph pole. after 6orcibly taking him from jail on the suspicion that he might be the man that last night shot to death Policeman Leslie while the officer was trying to arrest some negroes in the Kansas City South ern Railroad yards.
 The lynching of the negro served only temporarily to satisfy the indignation of the mob and later tonight hundreds of men again assembled and rioted through the negro district. burning houses. stonins negroes. and finally driving every negro from Joplin. The police were poweriess. s The negro who was lynched was found today in slaughterhouse east of Joplin by Lee Fullerton. He was armed with rife. Fullerton slipped into the structure unobserved and crept up behind the negro. Fullerton sprang at the man and threw him down. The captor held a knife at the captive's throat until the negro surrendered the rifle. Pointing the rife at the prisoner, Fullerton marched him to jail which was surrounded by hundreds of people.
 Plea for Order Ineffective. ~
 City Attorney P. H. Decker mounted the jail steps and made a plea for law and order. This did not appease the mob and a short time after Deckers speech the mob started to batter down a section of the jail wall. Futile efforts were made to prevent the entrance of the mob. but within fifteen minutes it had gained entrance into the jsn and secured the trembling negro. As he was dragged forth, City Attorney Decker again urged that the negro be given q trial Aa For half an hour he talked and the mob listened to him with the negro in its custody Some of the transgressors repented and began to disperse.
 Suddenly a rush was made for the spot where the negro was held and he was dragged two blocks from the jail. A rope was fastened around his neck. After the rope had been thrown over the cross arm of a telegraph pole a score of men attempted to pull the negro from the ground. As many more seized the negro and tried to prevent his being hanged. For some moments 1t was a tug of war, but endorsements on the free end of the rope proved the stronger and the negro. despite his protestations of in- nocence, was finally swung into the air and strangled to death while shouts went up from the mob. The name of the negro was not known. He was a stranger in Joplin.
 The first act of the mob after hanging the negro was to demand the release from jail of local character known as Hick- ory Bill, who was under arrest on the charge of assaulting a negro. In the hope that this would appease the mob the prisoner was set free.
 Mob Did Not Disperse.
 But the mob did not disperse. Instead rush was made through Main Street and every negro was driven to the north part of Joplin, where the colored popula- ton lives. Then the mob charged down on the quarter. Stones were thrown, doors and windows of negro houses were broken in and finally several houses were fired. The fire department responded but many of the houses were burned to the ground. The mob made endeavors to pre- vent the fire department from extinguish- ing the flames and were partly success full.
 All the officers of the city. township and County were called out. but the mob swept them aside and proceeded with the rioting. Mayor Trigg ran from corner to corner and mounting boxes made earn est appeals to the mob to cease. but, cheering the Mayor vociferously, the mob swept on and the depredations continued. The saloons were hurriedIy closed by the Mayor.
 After the hundreds of frenzied men composing the mob had vented their wrath in the north end of the city, they rushed to the southern end where a num- Der of negroes lived. Their houses were vacant and not a negro could be found. Three more houses were fired and two were burned:
 All efforts to reason with the rioters were futile. The streets are thronged and at midnight the whole city is in an up- roar. So far as is known no fatalities have occurred. although many persons received minor injuries.