The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-10
A READABLE ARTICLE.

| | of course, has a much better knowledge | of his subject than most of the writers in | the Northern Press. who write of condi- l tons and feelings as they exist in this | section. and he writes well. On the | subject of lynching he takes the correct | view of the reason why negroes are l lynched fin the South for a certain crime, for. as he says. speaking of the South. ''To the white men of that section the honor of a good woman is something sacred" and adds: ''The white man in the South. in any walk of life or grade of society. who wrongs or insults a wo- man. takes his life in his hand, and rarely escapes swift and certain vengeance" Then the writer declares that ito the popular mind there the man who avenges the wrongs and defends the honor of the women of his blood and home is neither a hero nor criminal. He is merely a man who has done his duty as 1t has been set before him for many generations by the moral sentiment of the community In which he lives"
 Naturally the argument will be made that negroes are lynched for other crimes than outrages on women, but the dread and constant fear of that crime, which Is liable to occur in any portion of the South, has much to do with the Illegal methods resorted to in other cases. The knowledge that an unprotected woman is not safe from assault anywhere in the South is at the bottom of almost every | illegal killing of negroes in this section. The feeling may not be fully justified, and 1t may be carried to extremes, but it is here and is one of the explanati tions of mob law.
 Mir. Hawley also corrects the very com | mon Northern impression that lynching | negroes for assaults on white women does not lessen the crime, for he de- clares that "such swift and terrible punishments thoroughly overawe the great mass of ignorant and vicious l negroes of the vicinity" Then he adds:
 That the trial. conviction and execution | in accordance with all the form of law is | better for the good name of a State or community Is beyond dispute, but that such course will do more than mob
 
 doubtful and must remain so until the mental and moral condition of the mass or negroes has been greatly improved. It Is difficult for any reasonable person who has ever witnessed the legal hanging of a negro in the South and studied the ef- fects on the members of the race present in the vicinity to believe that the scene aroused in their minds a fear of, or respect for; law or the forms of law. A negro murderer or rapist. as soon as con victed and sentenced to death, becomes a hero and martyr to a majority of the men and women of his own race. who know him: or the story of his crime They send him flowers and money, make every effort to see and talk with him or to touch his clothing. and, If the execution is public, men, women and children will fight and struggle like wild beasts to get near the scaffold. Coached by ignorant and superstitious ministers of his own race such criminals always profess con- version and divine forgiveness and often go to the scaffold shouting to their own people the assertion that they are sure of going straight to Heaven. The writer has seen negro murderers walk to the scaffold erect and smiling, apparently vain of the attention they received and actually nerved to physical happiness by the overpowering superstition that ena- bed them to believe that they would step from the fatal trap into the eternal rest of men redeemed.
 Is not that true statement of the case? It is matter of universal comment in the South that a negro who is publicly hanged legally Is hero and a martyr in the eyes of those of his race who wit ness his taking off He is glorified by his execution, and the colored people who witness the hanging go away with in finitely moro pride in the victim than condemnation for hia or,yoa I'll, or,,..t nal acts are forgotten or are entirely plotted out in the blaze of triumphant glory which cast its halo about the head Of the brute. To them he is an Emmett, John Brown, a Latimer all in one, and instead of talking about his crime they discuss his triumphant end. And what remedy does MT. Hawley propose? This:
 If there Is any form of legal punishment that would strike terror to the criminal ana vicious among the negroes of the South and deter them from the commits sion of one form of crime 1t would be solitary confinement for life without com municating direct or indirect with any one of their own race The dark cell Is to the superstttious negro chamber of un- known horrors. The same half-savage ignorance makes the public scaffold seem to him a platform whereon he is to pass from earth to Heaven, a popular hero in the passing. No solemnity of judicial procedure, no mobs of unrelenting whites armed with chains and torches could ever strike into the heart and soul of a negro criminal the unspeakable terror, the vague dread that would overpower him when face to face with the doom of a living death, buried in solitary confinement, to hear no more the voice of his kind. No public execution could possibly Impress upon the blacks of a community such wholesome fear of law and the power of law as the sight of one of their own race led away to end his life in solitude and silence.
 We have little doubt as to the efficiency of this method of punishment for nothing could be more horrible ot the negro mind than to know that one of their number is undergoing a living death, fretting away his life in a cell more remorseless than the tomb, never seen or spoken to by one of his kind. and without ray of light or hope of escape. The dread that such a fate would inevitably befan the negro rapist would have more deter rent effect on other members of his race than dozen legal exec ltions with their attendant qualifications.
 There are two objections in our mind to the substitution of solitary imprison- ment for hanging. One Is the cost of keeping prisoners for years, though this Is an objection which should not really be considered. If this method of punish