The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-29
Dead Eyes Glare Sight
less into Its Depths.
AND The BODY SWAPS
John Moore, Who Assaulted Mrs. Eu-
banks, Taken by Mob From Jail at
Pistols Point, Hanged at Neuse
River Bridge and Filled
With Bullets.
Especial to News and Observer.)

New Bern, n. c., Aug. 28.-John
Moore, the negro who brutally as
saulted the wife of Postmaster
George T. Eubanks. at Clark's, with
meat axe, was taken out of Craven
county Jail at 1870 p. m. Sunday
morning and lynched. The mob was
Ncomposed mostly of countrymen,
neighbors of Eubanks. but there We're
citizens of New Bern in the crowd.
The farmers arrived in town about
midnight. They did not make any
demonstration until after one o'clock
Sheriff Biddle, who had been noti-
fled that an attempt to get Moore was
about to be made, went out on the
street to prevent the affair, and was
met by few men, one of whom point
ed a revolver at him and said
"Sheriff Biddle, we like you and
mean you no harm, but if you go a
step further We will kill you. We
want the keys to the Jail; we are
here for a purpose and mean to ac-
complsh it,
<Biddle told them he did not have
the keys. that Jailer Williams had
them They kept guard over the
sheriff and returning to the Jail gath
cred around it and called Williams out
on the porch. The men demanded
the keys, and upon his refusal to sur
render them, held him up at the
point of the revolver, secured the
keys and made entrance to the Jail
without making any undue noise or
the Jail at that time did not exceed
fifty men.
The Mob Too Quick for Them.
During this episode the alarm had
been sounded, and the Naval Ke-
serves and the cutter crew were
summoned to guard the Jail, but the
farmers We're too quick and had made
away with the man.
The general alarm, ten strokes of the
bell announced TO the public that
something extraordinary was taking
place. and almost Immediately the
streets We're filled with people. Hav-
ing got possession of Moore they hur-
ried him off to Neuse Bridge, hauling
him roughly up Craven street to the
river, about half mile distant Here
they hanged hiT from one of the
iron cross pieces of the draw portion
of the bridge, which is located at the
New Bern end. After he had been
hanged his body was riddled with
bullets at least fifteen bullet holes
were seen in it.
The terrible execution accomplish
ed, the mob dispersed. They made
no noise during the whole affair and
the generalship was perfect.
Thought the Bond Too Small.
The event, deplorable as it is, was
the result, not of sudden hot-head-
edness, but of long and serious medi-
tation, and it is said that if the bond
under which Moore was placed, at
his preliminary examination had been
made a larger amount the thing would
never have happened Justice Bar
rington made the amount of the
bond only $780, an act which en-
ragged the farmers greatly, and they
determined TO take the law in their
own hands, feeling that under the
circumstances the. law could not
make the penalty fit the crime. This
statement is made more prominent by
the fact that the neighbors kept Eu-
banks himself from shooting Moore
at the time of his arrest Friday ar
ternoon, and urged him to allow the
law to take it's course. The men
brought Moore to the city and de-
livered him to the sheriff. 1t is pre-
sumed that the parties of the rescue
and the lynching are at least por-
ton of them identical.
Moore's victim is reported as inn
proving. DR.. Street states that unless
blood poison sets in she has a chance
to recover, but that she will always
suffer from theS wound and will al
ways be disfgured. The bones of
the face and jaw bone are broken
and the wound varies from an inch to
an inch and a half in depth. The
deed is looked on in different lights
today mostly commendatory of the
mob's work
The ministers in the churchese re-
ferred to the awful crime and ex-
pressed horror and indignation that
such thing should have been COM
mitted in New Bern.
They term it an act of barbarism
that should not be allowed to go un-
punished. They express the hope
that deep and full Investigation will
i be made that the guilty men, at least
the leaders, may be discovered and
brought TO justice.
Negroes Approve the Deed.
The News and Observer reporter
interviewed colored men o nthe sub
iect, and without exception. found
that they approved of the lynching
Some of the strongest witnesses against
Moore Were among men of his own
race. Those who approved of the
sort, but men we'll thought of in the
their people. They believe the deed
will have a lasting impression on the
race.
There is disposition here among