The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1908-08-22
LYNCHED At LINCOLN Home
Riot in the Capitol City of
Illinois
NEGROES flee FOR their LIVES
Raging Mob Whets Its Thirst For
Vengeance, Despite the Pres
ence of Twenty-Five Humid
red Soldiers. Chaos Reigns.

Springfield, Ill.-Two white men
were killed, one negro lynched, more
than half a hundred persons were
injured, and scores of houses, most
" occupied by negroes, were bIixned
Saturday and sunday as the GlxIf
sof IN attempt by \ nob ri lFiTr " T.
negroa HI had assa tek
man. he state troops were called
out by the governor and succeeded
In restoring semblance OF order,
and stopping the fire. twenty-five
hundred soldiers are on the streets.
The riot was precipitated by an as
sault committed by a negro upon
Mrs. Mabel Hallam, wife of street
railway conductor. While the woman
slept, alone in her home on a popu-
lous resident street, awaiting the re-
turn of her husband, the man broke
into her house, dragged her into her
rear yard and assaulted her. George
richardson, a young negro, was ar
rested by the sheriff's force, charged
with the crime. The victim partially
identified the prisoner Richardson
was spirited away to safety in an au-
tomobile, owned by Harry T. Loper,
restaurant keejer.
Along with Richardson was taken
Joe James, another negro prisoner
in the county JAIL who is accused of
killing Clergy Ballard, state mine
inspector, after attempting an as
sault upo nBallard's daughter. Bal
lard went to his daughters rescue
and was stabbed to death.
A rush was made upon Loper's
restaurant. The proprietor was warn
ed, but failing to appreciate the Sc
riousness of the situation, did not
attempt to escape until the mob was
upon the place. He was pushed by
employees of the place, together with
his wife, into basement room in
temporary safety.
The auto in which the rescue had
been effected had been left in front
of the place. 1t was quickly turned
upside down and fire was set to the
machine. While the machine blazed
hundreds poured into the cafe, tore
fixtures and decorations from their
places and piled them upon the blaze.
Even the sideboards and kitchen
were stripped and all the tableware
and dishes piled upon the blaze. The
restaurant was stripped clean by the
mob, which worked without hind
rance until its work was completed.
The leader of the mob which wreck
T cfon Mt
to have been woman. She was ar
rested and gave her name as Kate
Howard.
After burning many houses in the
negro quarters, the mob, finally graf
ified it's thirst for blood when Chas.
Hunter, negro, was lynched right
in the heart of the so-called Bad
Lands" Troops arrived at the scene
too late to prevent the lynching. At
ter riddling the body with bullets,
the mob commenced to dance around
the tree. At this point company OF
troops from Decatur arrived.
Many negroes being without suf-
ficient funds for the railroad trip,
went to the outskirts of the city by
trolley, and then, with their few be-
longings on their backs, started to
tramp across the country in search
of safety.
Others have the same story to tell
of the ashen faced ex-slayes, or de-
scendants of slaves, fleeing from the
city whose proudest boast is that it
was the home of the Great Eman-
cipator.
The scene of the race riot is with
in half a mile of the old homestead
Of Abraham Lincoln, the only res
ldence ever owned by the martyred
president. The house is the property
of the state. A monument here marSs
the grave of the emancipator, a stat
ue of him stands in the capitol.
Negro porters on trains bound for
points beyond Springfield are drop
ped off trains several miles north OF
the capital.