The Tupelo journal., 1904-03-18
An AtrOcious Crime.


of the recent arrest of a party Of
men from the north at Leland, Miss.
for the offense of selling obscene
pictures and of their having been
punished to the full extent of the
law, which is a fine of-doliars
and twenty days at work on the
convict farm. A. &. Paxton, a law
yer of that place, wrote a graphic
description Of the affair which was
published in the Commercial APP
peal of March, 8. We have not yet
seen any editorial comment by that
paper on the subject.
The pictures which these men
were selling seem to have all been
designed to catch the negro. They
represented nude white women in
the embrace of nude negro men of
the full ebony type. OF these there
was quite a number representing
the subjects in such postures as
would easily rou the bestial pas
sions of the brutes to whom they
were shown. In the list of pictures
which they were selling was a large
engraving representing Roosevelt
and Booker Washington while di-
ming together at the White House.
Underneath this scene Was the
word, Equality which fully ex-
planned the object of the engraving.
1t is a difficult thing for a South
erner to do to write on such sub
ject as this and keep in the bonds
of decent journalism. The enormi-
ty of the crime of circulating sucn
a class of pictures amongst the
lustful brutes Of that race who ID
fest the delta is calculated to arouse
all the vengeful passions that
could find Judgement in the breast
of the honorable and chivalr us
sons of the south whose first duty
to society Is to maiutaln In immac
ulate purity the virtue and chastity
of southern womanhood. There l.
no crime in the full category Of of
lenses against the state that calls
for prompter or ~severer punish
ment than that of the black brute
who lays his hand upou Il white
woman no matter what her sta
ton IN life, be It, high or low. The
only way to deal with thi crime j.
~ speedily end the life Of the fend
WAC perpettates it. He has lost all
claim upon his fellow man for mel
CIV aud The surpst and ~speedieSt
rontr by which his career, and his
breed. can br stopped is the one
on which NJ >hould be railroadnd.
The Nhlte n,u Is merclfui in deal
lug with Giie criminal who does not
shut himself out from mercy, but
in all cases where the nameless
crime is committed even mercy de-
mands it's quick explation.
With this view of the grave Of
Tense which the exhibition and
distribution of lascivious pictures
amongst the negro race encourages,
what then is the crime of the vii.
liam who secretly brings them into
the state and sells them to the black
! brutes VINO r. ready to buy them
Is he less guilty than the crimina.
whom he incites to commit the
} crime? There is no penalty toe
} severe to be melted out to sucl
t miscreauts. When a creature
t falls so low in crime as TO at
: tempt to infiame the minds Of a lo'
of semi barbarianS into the MOOD
? of lustfui desire for the embrace
of white women, the white men OF
| the community IN which it is done
S should rally as one nan and take
the wretch in hand and break hi.
neck before he could draw a Ions
: breath.
+ Since the above was written W.
have learned that Il Legislature
1 has enacted a law elevating the acl
l OF which we write into a felony anC
, placing its penalty at twenty years
in the p%enitentiary. This is a pref
ty severe penalty for most crimes
but it is scarcely adequate for this
: When a man, by any means what
J ever, incltes the negroes to unholy
= deeds against the white man, he is
} guilty Of one of the basest crime!
against society, and his neck SHOULD
, be broken promptly and withou
l shrift.