The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-10-07
the event?

W couslueT IL you Will the lQn0mer-
able similar cases which have occurred
of recent years in the United States,
particularly the southern part, when
she 'unmentionable" crime (but is
there any crime that has been men
toned more than this?) has been COM
mitted with enormities never known
before, the victims left mutilated,
bleeding and dead; where innumer
able homes have been forever broken
up by the hellish human beasts, and
otherwise valuable lands and sections
rendered almost valueless and unin-
habitable, and say, are not the men
who put them summarily out of the
way to ayepge their loved ones and
save others from a similar fate en-
titled to be called something else than
bloodthirsty murderers, drunken mobs,
and guilty wretches? At time when
the north is just beginning to under
stand that the south is no worse than
any other part of the country, when
the crime is brought to their doors,
what are we to think of those south
ern men who hold our people up as
violators Of the Law in the worst sense,
stopping not at the 'uaspeakable
crime," but lynching for almost any
grave otfense committed by negroes,
when, certainly, such is not tho case.
Are not these men lending their in
1uence to our vituperators in other
sections Of the country, while failing
to denounce the crime as they should,
thus affecting prejudically to us the
base creatures, who only need the
faintest hope of escape to do these
vile deeds which ruin homes and dis
grace the country?
What are we to think of President
Roosevelt's position in the matter,
and who Of the South want to be
classed with such critics of the race as
he?
In his letter to Governor Durbin, Of
Indiana, August 8, 1903, he says:
"All thoughtful men must feel the
gravest alarm over the growth of
lynching in this country, and espec-
tally over the peculiarly hideous forms
SO often taken by mob violence when
colored men are the victims, on which
occasion the mob seems to lay most
weight, not on the crime but on the
color oe tbe criminal"
Is not that. enough to make the
blood Of southern man boil2 And
yet to show his inconsistency in his
book, Ranch Life and the Hunting
Trail, published in 1899, in speaking
of the lynchirg Of horse thieves he
says: "Horae thieves are numerous
and formidable on the frontier, though
in our own country they have been
summarily thinned out of late years.
It is the fashion to laugh at the
levity with which horse stealing
is punished on the border, but the
reasons are evident. Horses are the
most valusble property OF the from
tiersman, whether cowboy, hunter or
settler, and an often absolutely essen
tial to his we'll being, and even his
life. ~
sThey are always marketable and
they are very easily stolen (for they
carry themselves OFF instead Of having
to be carried.) Horse stealing is thus
a most tempting business, especially
to the more reckless rufians, and it is
always followed by armed men, and
they can only be kept in check by
ruthless severity
s Here is On apology for lynching
when the president Of the United
States puts down horses as being Of
more value than women. 81,
4 would think long time before I
would .'play into the hands of such
men. Rs 4. s. I'll q.
The great trouble with those who
discuss this subject is they magnify
the evils Of lynohing, while they min
timize, il not altogether ignore, the.
horrible crime which calls il forth.
They write as ifssthe law we're perfect
in itB passages, and rigidly took care
Of the rights Of all, when they kso,v,
that under our jury system crininaIa:
often 60 tlnwhipt Of iusticei 5wheu:
u they know that shyster lawy yers stand
ready for = little money to make tbs.
worse appear the better recourse" 4 to
pack inries, secure witnesses and in
almost every cass % secure postpone.
msnt Of trial Till time l,as q healing
effect on wounds gso rath1essly made.
! And "a they never say anyt thing of the.
aHfn ordeal poor victim (if still |alive,.
md s. NOT her guard diapl has 10 UNDER
30 III noming before the public iii tl,a