The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1906-10-12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOUR THOUSAND PUT TO DEATH
IN LAST Is YEARS.
inety.f've Per Cent. Of the Victims
i, Have Been Of Nesr, elood-Tsxas
Sets Example Of Burning.
'r at the Stake.

II - OASeEo00n u Ne8S0 oloOo- V~Ao
|, Sets Example Of Burning.
$50" at the Stake.
Washington.-FOur thousand per-
sons have been put death without
warrant of law in the United States.
Ninety.flve per cent. OF them were ne
groes charged with assaults on white
women. The methods of execution
comprised hanging. shooting. f1oggtng.
burning at the stake and aaytng. In
one instance. in Arkansas. the vic.
TINS arms were twisted from their
sockets. AS rule, the more atrocious
the crime the more atrocious the pun
tshment.
Before the wholesale lynching of ne.
groes in Atlanta, Louisiana and Ala
bama held the lynching record. But
Georgia now goes to the head with
something like SIS victims.
Burning at the stake has been al
frequent than shooting. The ex'
ample was set by the people of Paris.
Tex In February, 1898. when Henry
Smith, negro farm hand, was burned
alive after he had been tortured with
red-hot irons. His feet we're 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 plat.
form saturated with kerosene. The
flames were stiffed from time to time
with buckets of water so that his
agony might be prolonged.
Up to 1892 the commonest form Of
lynching was by hanging. In that year
235 men were lynched-20O in the
south and IS in the north and west.
OF the 235. is were whites. who we're
shot to death for crimes ranging from
horse stealing to murder.
In 1894 there were 100 lynchings,
20 of them by fire.
The lynchings averaged about $50 a
year until 1901, when they dropped to
H135, but in 1901 more negroes were
burned at the stake for assaulting
white women than in any year since
1898. ...--. ..~ ...
The example set in the south ex-
tended to the southwest. Kansas had
a record of II lynchings, all by hang
ing, but in January, 1901, Fred Alex
ander, young negro, was bound in
chains for an attempted assault on
Miss Eva May Roth. He was also
suspected of the murder of Miss Pearl
Forbes. Alexander protested inno-
cence 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
was given to the flames Gov. Stanley
denounced the sheriff of Leavenworth
county in unmeasured terms and Of
fered reward for conviction of the
lynchers, but nothing ever came of it.
In February of the same year, 1901,
George Ward, negro, was hanged in
Terre Haute, Ind, by lynchers and be-
fore life was extinct his body was low
cred and cast into flaming heap of
brushwood and consumed. He had
confessed assaulting and numbering
Ida Finkelstein.
Georgia's most noteworthy lynching
by fire was in April, 1899, when Sam
Hose, who murdered Alfred Crawford
and then assaulted Cranford's- wife,
was burned at the stake. Tie Of.
flcials of the town of Newman, saw
him tied to tree a few miles from
Palmetto. It was first proposed to
burn him in the garden of Mrs. NIGEL.
roy, mother of Mrs. Crawford, but she
objected to the litter that~a IRE would
make, SO he was taken to 4 field. After
being bound one Of the lynchers sliced
of Hoses right ear and another man
cut of his left ear. He never uttered
q moan. Asked II he had anything to
say, he said he had been paid $40 by
negro preacher to kill Crawford and
that the assault on the farmers wife
was an afterthought. Hose broke away
from his bonds after he had been
burning ten minutes and was kicked
into the blazing logs and chained
more securely. The embers were
scattered and he did not die for 20
minutes.
A state convention was called to
tion of lynching in few weeks after
Sam Hose had been put to death, but
the movement came to nothing 80 far
as denunciation of the practice was
concerned. The majority of the dele
gates were rather in favor of lynch
ing than opposed to it. This was H.
Illustrated in the summer of 1904 at
Statesboro, Ga.
Two negroes charged with murder
had been placed under the protection
of the state militia, but the militia Of
fered no real resistance when mob
descended upon the prisoners, who
were tied together, and burned alive
by mob of 1000 citizens. The Of
fcers were contaminated and Capt.
Hitch, who was in command, was dis
missed and Lieut.. Kell was suspended
for a year. The others were censured.
Georgia averaged about 26 lynchings
a year from 1901 up to the present
year, the majority being by hanging