The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1906-10-05
IYNCHNGs IN 25 YEARS.
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| -Four thousand persons have been
| put to death without warrant Of law
l in the United States in the last twenty
/ i've years Ninety-fve per cent Of
/ them were negroes charged with as
saults on white women The methods
! Of execution comprised hanging,
! shooting, hOgging, burning at the
stake and hay1ng. In one instance, in
Arkansas, the victims arms and legs
were twisted from their sockets. As
/ a rule, the more atrOciOus the crime
the more atrOciOus the punishment.
Before the wholesale lynching Of
negroes in Atlanta on Saturday LOuisi-
ana and Alabama held the lynching
record But Georgia now goes to the
head with something like fifty-five
victims.
Burning at the stake has been al
most as frequent as hanging and more
frequent than shooting. The example
was set by the people q Paris, Tex,
in February, 1893, when Henry Smith,
a negro farmland, was burned alive
after he had been tortured with red
hot irons. His feet were scared first
and then the upper part Of his body.
His tongue was burned out, and the
irons partly cooled, were then thrust
into his eyes. Then he was slowly
roasted to death on a pine platform
saturated with kerosene. The flames
were stifed from time to time with
buckets OF water so that his agony
might be prolonged Smith had as
saulted and murdered Myrtle Vance,
four years old. In a confession he
told how the child had pleaded with
him for mercy, and how, when nearly
dead, she struggled to her knees and
prayed Smith first strangled her and
then mutilated the body and covered
il with leaves
Smith was captured three days aft
erward- The irons with which he was
burned were held by Henry Vance,
the father OF the little girl and her
brother, while her mother looked on
from a carriage ten feet away.
The next negro to be burned at the
stake was John HOpkOe, at Cress,
Miss IN January 1884. he assaulted
a farmers wife, and she died next day
OF her injuries, but not before she had
identified her assailant
Early in May, 1895, sam" Schols,
Sim" Crowley and John Brooks, ne
groes, assaulted and murdered Miss
Armstrong, a white girl in Lafayette
county, Florida They kept her in the
woods for two days before killing her.
She was shOckingly mutilated. Her
the skin stripped from their bodies
with sharp knives, after which pine
fagOts were piled around them and
fired
Following this came another burn
ing at the stake in Texas, within TWEEN
ty miles OF Tyler, where the murderer
Of Myrtle Vance had been burned.
Mrs Leonard Bell, aged nineteen and
about to become q mother, was at
tackled by Henry Hillard, a negro Her
husband was in the field picking cot
ton within 200 yards Of a gorge in
which the crime was committed. She
had been surprised and OyerpOweTed
while picking berries Her head was
cut OF and her body ripped and mutt
lated after the manner Of Jack the
Ripper" Hillard, after capture, made
a full confession, and said he deseTv-
ed death He was burned in the pres
ence Of 5000 people in the public
square in Tyler. Governor CulberSOn
censured the sheriff severely for per-
hitting the prisoner to be taken from
his custody
Up to 1892 the commOnest form Of
lynching was by hanging. In that year
235 men were lynched-200 in the
south and thirty-five in the north and
west. OF the 235, sixteen were whites,
who were shot to death for crimes
ranging from horse stealing to muir
In 1904 there were 40 lynchings,
seventy OF them by fire.
| The Iynchings averaged about $50 a
year until 1901, when they dropped to
I 135, but in 1901 more negroes were
burned at the stake for assaulung
white women than in any year since
1893.
The example set in the south ex-
/ tended to the southwest Kansas had
/ a record Of seventeen lynchings, all by
hanging, but in January, 1901, Fred
/ Alexander, a young negro, was bound
in chains for an attempted assault on
Miss Eva Nay Roth He was also
susDected Of the murder Of Miss Pearl
/ Forbes Alexander protested in
nOcence OF both crimes, but he was not
/ believed His hands were shackled by
| the father Of the Forbes girl and the
| brother Of Miss Roth, and his body
/ 80 r-1w- 70
/ Stanley denounced the sheriff OF Leav-
| enWOrth county in unmeasured terms
and offered a reward for conviction Of
/ the Iynchers, but nothing ever came
| Of It
/ In February Of the same year,
1901, George Ward, negro, was
/ hanged in Terre Haute, Ind, by lynch
/ ers, and before life was extinct his
body was lowered and cast into a
flaming heap Of bruShWOOd and con-
sumed. He had confessed to assault
ling and numbering Ida Kinkelstein-
/ He first cut her throat, but not deeply
/ enough to kill, and as she fed he shot
her in the back Despite these wounds
i she staggered TO a farmers house and
named her assailant before falling
/ dead
/ A state convention was called to
/ meet in Atlanta to consider. the ques-
ton OF lynching q few weeks after
/ sam Hose had been put to death,
1 but the movement came to nothing so
Il far as denuncfatiOn Of the practice
was concerned. The majority Of the
| DELEGATES were rather in favor Of
/ Iynching than opposed to it This
I was illustrated in the summer Of 1900
| at StatesbOrO, Ga
II Two negroes charged with murder
\ had been placed under the protection
! Of the state militia, but the militia Of
u fered no real resistance when q mon
II descended upon the prisoners, who
II were tied together and burned alive
\ by 8 mob Of 1000 citizens The Of
Il hcers were contaminated, and Cap
4 tain Hitch, who was in command was
4 dismissed. and Lieutenant Keu was
4 SUSPENDED for q year. The Others
i were censured-
u GEORGIA averaged about tWenty-si1
II Iynchings a year from 1901 up to the
\ present year, the majority being By
Il hanging or shooting