The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-10
]. WILLIFORD, General Agent,
Tucker Building, Raleigh N. c.
Agents now selling Annual Dividend Policies or those ex
pectng to FALL I'm LINE, will find it to their
interest to communicate with regarding contract

and supposed that was the noise he
had heard. He said no, it was not
that, but expressed no uncaSinesS In
short time he opened the door anc
stepped out, leaving it open" It was
at this moment that the fatal shots
were fired. Could anything be i'm
agined more cruel and deliberate than
this?
The fate of John Sanders was even
more horrible He was a Boston de-
tective who had been sent for by some
Of the leading Conservatives in Robe
son county. For II months he lived
among the Croatans, teaching a Croa-
tan school and trying to gain their
confidence. In this he succeeded, aud
so excellent were his methods that the
whites who were not in the secret held
him in unlimited contempt as a rene
gade, and more than once actually as
saulted him.
His plan was to persuade the Croa-
tanS to emigratc to Mexico and 20
have them Intercepted and captured On
the way. Just on the eve of the exc
cution of this plan he was betrayed.
il is supposed that this wasSdonc I'M
consciously and involuntarily by some
indiSCrcet person who knew his pur-
poses. Be that as it may, the price
poor Sanders paid was a bittcr one.
The outlaws had every road watched,
and when the detective entered thor
lines he was roughly halted and
taken prisoner. What follows is sad
beyond words. He was led to Henry
Berry's secret camp in Black swamp.
called the Devils Den" He was
never seen alive again. Then with
fiendish cruelty and malignity he was
tortured. VolleyS were fired over his
head: he was beaten with gunstOCks
and clubs; small doses of arsenic were
administered and his veins opened
with pen knives. This lasted three
days. Then, won to admiration by his
courage and fortitude they permitted
him to write letter to his wife, which
they posted. with a kind of grim JUS
tice. On the fatal night they blind
folded him and tied him to d tree aud
Steve Lowrie emptied both barrels of
his shotgun into his defenseless body.
AS Mrs. Norment we'll says: Human
or savage nature seldom presents a
picture so atrociOuS as this of San
ders, guarded in the wild swamp of
Carolina, but almost within the sound
Of Christian fircsdes, looking into IN
evitable and violent death after days
of pain
The circumstances of his death were
confessed by one of the captured Oul-
laws and were afterwards confirmed
by others Following direction thus
gained a searching party found the
disfgured remains decently wrapped
in a blanket and carefully Inferred on
an island in the thicket part of Black
swamp. Curious +" say, the daguerreo-
type of the murdered mans wife was
found reverently placed upon his
breast. What beWildering study in
contrasts does this sad incident pre-
sent of the Croatans! To torture a
bound prisoner and then permit him
to write farewell letter to his family;
to shoot him down in cold blood. as he
stood blindfolded and helpless and
afterwards bury him decently with his
wife's picture on his breast!
These two killings show the out
Ia Tvs at their worst But through their
whole course they were relentless as
death. To their credit, they usually
warned before they struck; but when
they did strike it was cruel blow.
Few marked men escaped them.
In their turn they were as merciless-
" hunted by the whites. Standing re-
wards of from $4,000 to SO 900 were
out for the chief outlaws. dead or
alive. In most cases these were paid
for their corpses. The leaders were