The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-16

ror. The sheriff and six deputies, heaV-
lily armed. walked up and down inside.
At last. the barred window was pulled
out and through the hole poured the
mob leaders. They had axes, crow bars,
sledges and chisels. For an hour they
cut and pounded at the heavy locks and
bars of the cage. It was dark inside.
Someone had cut the electric light wire.
While men hammered upon the, iron
bars others lighted torches and peered
in, trying to see the miserable wretches
within. Occasionally a man pushed
the muzzle of his revolver between the
bars and fired a shot at crawling
black figure within, as mercilessly as If
it had been a rat.
Doors We're Opened.
When the doors flew open Duncan
and Coker we're picked out from
among the fifty prisoners and were
handed out through the window. As
the moonlight fell upon the two pittful
mob outside cheered and fired revolvers
into the night. Some danced.
Down the street toward the town
square a half mile away the procession
marched the two negroes with their
hands tied behind them. Their heads
were bare; around their necks long
ropes were Topped. A dozen men
grasped these ropes. The negroes fol-
lowed Hke's dogs in leash. BEFORE,
around and behind them, filling the
street for three blocks, a thousand men,
women and children surged, yelling,
singing. Soon the square was reached
There was another crowd, men, women
in buggies standing up, children
Here they come, went up the cry
The crowd surged closer to the tower.
The bunch of electric lights held aloft
by the Goddess Of Liberty streamed
| down into the faces of 5000 people.
Ten feet above the ground in the lib
erty tower, is a broad band platform
with an iron railing around it. An iron
stairway leads up to it. Up this stair
way climbed a dozen men They nI4ed
the railing, leaning over and looking
/ down The ends of two ropes were
j thrown up to them. A man climbed up
4 into the iron rods above and hanging
on by one hand like a sailor clinging to
the shrouds of a ship, he waved his hat
and called for three cheers as the two
bodies were run up. The cheers We're
given.
The two bodies suspended by rop 5,
twirIed around and around. One of the
negroes kicked frantically as If his feet
! were seeking a lodging. He was Duncan
/ He had been asleep when the mob sur
rounded the Jail. He wore only shirt
4 and overaIls. He had fought when the
mob attacked him and his shirt was II
| shreds and through the rents the black
| skin gIistened in the electric light. The
other negro did not struggle. As they
hung, some one yelled: Burn EN-
Il ried out of the crowd and from up anc
down the four streets leading from the
square they brought dry goods box
es. Men jumped upon these and smash
ed them INTO lfnd1ing- They were piled
beneath the toes of the swinging bodies
and set afire. The flames leaped up anc
! the burned clothing dropped from the
bodies and then the ropes caught afirt
and the two bodies dropped into le
Goals. = z77
More boxes was the shout, ane
! they were brought and piled upon tbs
| bodies At midnight upon the ground
was a bed of red Goals with the two
bodies = them At that hour most o.
the people~xIaos filled the square and
/ saw the Iyzncfling had gone home. The
dancing. Interrupted by the hanging
had been resumed and only 200 me-
stood around the town square.
Went for More Victims.
Some one suggested that Will AlIer
l7ards Bus Cain, held upon suspicion Of
i having murdered 0. P. Rt1ark, ought te