The Republican journal., 1906-05-24
A TRIPLE LYNChING.
Three Colored Men Hanged by Mob.
fCorrespopdence of The Journal


times take place. For nearly twenty
wears the inhabitants of the city of
Springfield had been content to ABIDE
bv the established order of things:
Whatever crimes had been committed
in the city, and however exasperatlng
the conditions had been under which
crimes had been committed the people
had been willing to wait for the law to
take its course, and although some
times delays had been very trying and
the penalty inflicted apps rently very
inadequate to the claims OF justice, yet
/ have seldom heard any desire express
ed for the execution of summary pun
ishment in any other way than through
the law; and when many OF the resi-
dents of Springfield opened their papers
on the morning of April 16,they obtain
ed the first information that anything
unusual had taken place in their midst.
Personally the writer was absent
from the city, having gone on hurried
trip to st. Louis, and knew absolutely
nothing about the matter until nearly
nine o'clock the next morning. Inc
few facts in the case as presented here
with are not therefore the observations
of an eye witness, but they are, think,
nevertheless, substantially IN accord
with the events as they occurred:
4 woman arriving IN the city on the
evening of the 18th was met by man
who. it is affirmed, offered to drive her
to her destination near the western
limits of the city. While on their way
to their destination they were accoSted
by two negroes, who, having overpoWer-
ed the man and rendered hin uncon-
scious. committed tiendlSh assault
upon the person of the woman. Re
covering from his insensibillty shortly
afterward the man returned 70 town,
procured a policeman and returned 10
the scene of the crime. Here they met
the woman. Two negroes were SubSe-
quently arrested and lodged in jail on
the charge of being the guilty parties.
Several weeks before the commission
of this latter offence an old unarmed
man was shot down one evening on the
grounds of DruryCollege bytwo negroes,
who at this time were generally be-
lieved to be in jail awaiting trial; and
short time before this, one of our most
peaceful and inotfenslve citizens, re-
turning to his home one night, was
shot dead in his own door yard. The
colored people were by many believed
to be guilty of this crime also, although
no arrests had been made, and no at
tempts had been made or expected at
lynching The accumulation of crimes,
however, has at times the effect OF an
accumulation of penr-up anger, and
people began to talk of putting stop
10 them in some way or other. These
previous crimes, preceded as they had
been by many personal insult on the
part of the bad element of the colored
population, had it is probable, much to
do with the excited state of mind which
obtained among the people.
Saturday morning the news OF the
brutal assault upon the woman soon
spread in every direction throughout
the country and somehow or other
there appeared to be a simultaneous
movement of persons toward the city.
The numbers from without soon found
themselves in contact with kindred
spirits within the city limits. The conr-
age of one was augmented by the c0ur-
age of another. The little sparks of
flame soon began to spread and many
became suddenly thirsty for revenge,
and others thirsty for any form of
excitement. ITO the jail and hang
the brUteS' became Il very prevalent
passion Still the authorities were
either too confident that nothing seri-
Gus was to be feared or too optimistic
of their ability to cope with the crowd
should any be formed. Some blame the
officers for their attitude, contending
that they ought to have been cognizaDt
of the temper prevalent among the
crowds, and others blame them for
their cowardice in allowing prisoners
to be taken from the jail without the
most determined effort to defend them,
even at the cost of blood.
As night began to settle down upon
the city the crowds began to grow more
excited and to become more determln-
ed. The spirit 'ot revenge took COM
plete possession of them. They were
ont for blood and without waiting for
the process of the law to determine the
guilt or innocence of the accused they
declared them guilty and decreed their
death. AS the crowd arrived at the
jail they found the sheriff and his depu-
ties in possession of the building, with
the doors locked and barricaded. The
sheriff commanded them to disperse
and threatened to fire upon them unless
they obeyed his orders, but, wisely or
unwisely, not a shot was fired. The
structure was of brick and stone, the
doors and windows of iron, and it took
the crowd a long time to break INTO the
Jail, but once i'll possession OF the prem
lSes with the prisoners within their
reach they seized the two men who had
been accused of the assault upon the
woman and with ropes around their
ueckS dragged them to the public
square, more than a half mile distant:
here they made them ascend the steps
of the statue of Liberty, to which they
hung them. When life was extinct the
mob in its fury gathered material and
kindled fire, burning the remains to a
crisp.
Still the mob was not satisfied with
is work. In the jail at the time were
two men who had been accused of the
shooting of the old man on the campus
of Drury College. During the excite
ment at the Jail when the doors were
open one of these escaped. Some one
suggested the hanging of those two
men close by the scene of their crimes.
Returning TO the jail they took the one
of the two remaining men who had
been accused of this crime and hurried
him to the square where they melted
out to him the same measure of punish
ment they had melted out to the former
two. 1t was about two o'clock on Sun
dav morning when the crowd began to
diSperse, and at $50 when | arrived in
the city | neither saw nor heard of any
thing to indicate that anything unusual
had taken place.
The attitude of the people in regard