The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-07
Sheriff Powers IS Over
powered.
TIE MOB WAS VERY ORDERLY
Senator-Elect Max Hamburger
Makes Plea for Law.
Legal Hanging Could Not Have Been
More Quiet Than Double Exc
cution Of Mandate Of Judge
Lynch Near Mt. vernon.

Mobile, Oct 6.-(SpeciaL)-W
Thompson and Jim, alias Dick. Robin
son. the accused negro rapists. were
taken from the custody Of Sheriff John
F. Powers on a Southern Railway train
this morning. and hanged on tree.
seven miles from this city. at noon.
For hours afterwards the two bodies
hung swaying from the same limb, a
horrible warning of the fate which
white men of Mobile have determined
shall come to the ravisher OF their
women and children.
Bound hand and foot with the hang
mans moose about their necks, they
were swung until near to dusk Then
the ropes were cut, the bodies lowered
and the event was entered on the al
ready blotted page Of the history OF
race conflict.
son confessed to one of the crimes
charged against him, but denied his
guilt in the other.
Robinson persisted in protestations
Of his innocence until jerked into the
air at the end of his rope. II never
did it," he repeatedly asserted.
Il am going to heaven when I die
admit my guilt" were the last words
of his companion. For the third time
since the beginning Of the administra-
ton of Governor Jelks have the annals
of Alabama been blotted by the dppea!
to the unwritten law. Twice before
have the people taken the law in their
own hands.
Today Mobile added its name to the
list of cities which have defied the
courts and the Governor and claimed
as prey objects Of its anger and its
abomination.
Governor Auuealed I'm Vain.
The voice Of the Governor two days
before had been heard In appeal to
Mobile citizens to await the laws YER
dict. The court and bar had urged a
trial which would meet the require
ments of the law. Representative men
of Mobile, in meeting assembled. and
the Bar urged the people of the city
not to defile the fair name Of the Ala =
bama seaport
Each, Governor, court and represen-
tative Mobilians had promised convic-
ton and the sentence which the crimes
of the negroes called for, but the peo-
pie could not wait. Popular senti-
ment was afiame. The Indignation and
strong feeling of the masses demanded
punishment immediate and stern. The
situation in Mobile. already critical
from the infamed passions of the peo-
pie, demanded 1t.
And SO men forgot the law of the
and the Governor and appealed to the
unwritten law, which ever calls upon
the soul Of man in such IN extremity
as existed In Mobile.
The negroes. Thompson and Robin
son, are dead. They were hanged
without recourse to the law; indeed, in
violation of the law.
Mobile Is a law abiding city and has
always yielded to the laws demands.
and yet when this afternoon the news
ran like fire through the streets Of
the city that the accused rapists had
been hanged today. the city heaved a
sigh. Not in thirty years has Mobile
been so stirred as during the week
tust closing Three decades ago the
citizens of the seaport lynched white
man for a similar offense. Since then
capital punishment has never been
visited upon a criminal without due
process Of law until today. but the
last Ave days have been days OF In
tense feeling in the Gulf city.
Crimes of Negroes.
A month ago Will Thompson was
arrested charged with rape. At the
preliminary hearing he admitted his
guilt. The mob sought him, but the
sheriff had spirited him away Last
Tuesday. eleven year old Ruth Sosso-
man was assaulted and Robinson was
Identified by her as the assailant,
AnRered DeyOnQ COntrOl tHe Ul'b
again rushed to the Jail. again to hH
foiled by the anticipation of the sher-
iff
Mob rule threw reason 20 the winds.
Roy Hoyle was killed. shot down
without resistance. 1t is claimed, but
the object of the mob's anger escaped.
Since then the fears of the good
people of Mobile have been ever pres
emit, Repressed feeling strove and
struggled to break loose Thoughts of
another Atlanta riot rose in the minds
of every one and Mobile slept uneasi-
~ over a magazine which needed only
the spark to set the city afiame. That
the good people of Mobile were more
than alarmed was plainly evident
From a sense Of lawfulness. the
leading people sought to hold impulse
ir check. Trial by law was averted.
hut in the hearts Of many law-abiding
citizens lay the hope the negroes
Thompson and Robinson would never
reach the confines Of the city for trial
The presence of the accused rapists
in Mobile, it was reasoned, meant Il
, return of the scenes OF last Tuesday
night. With the demon of vengeance
reused. they knew no trial would be
permitted.
Better lynch law without the citv
limits. reasoned many. than conflict
between authority and the mob In the
streets, and so, although realizing that
I. could not escape the strain which is
attached to a disregard for law. Mobile
tonight rests easier than 1t has since
Robinson's arrest and Notwithstanding
that action has been taken which. in
the ewes of the law, is equivalent to
murder, the city breathes easier and
the situation has been relieved.
Alive the rapists meant strife. con-
Nict and perhaps the loss of human
life. Dead. the city's pulse has sunk
N normal and quiet is again resumed
perhaps, never in its history. has there
been a mob like that today which put
an end to the lives of the two negroes.
Except for the legal status of the men
who carried through the hanging. the
word mob" would seem inapplicable.
Its leaders were men Of evident sta