Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-08-14
Black Juries Hold Power Of Life or Death
Over White Men in British Colonies
Infic
Untithe stem

] judge living, by a jury drawn from the
\ lowest and most drunken; 4ruffians in
seven dials Zone of the toughest East
End districts of Dondon) than would
i submit to trial by negro jury The
English white man administers justice
with equity and even with beneVolenee
on white and black alike. "A thousand
Years OF civilization have incuicatcd
l!lthese qualities. With jury of blacks.
say what you will. there must ever
be- the temptation to give way to- a
4 dull, stnouldering, instructive hatred
1 against one of. a superior race
EXTRAORDINARY. CASE.
The case under notice first came be-.
| fore the public through the simple am
| nouncement that Herbert Gladstone
| the home secretary acting on behalf
| of Sir John P. Rodger, the governor of
| the Gold Coast colony, had ordered the
release of Vivian w. Denton. 1tais
| doubtful whether a more extraordinary,
case has ever been broughtEtos the at
lstention of the British authorities. III.
| certain aspects the story fTeadsS like a
chapter from one of Rider. ia guards
lironances. or from Seton 3,:A1erriman's
With Edged Tools rather than u
plain transcript from life. The facts.
maySb be briefly 'recapitulatedias fellows:
Denton, Albert wv. Watson and Leo
rold Leeder were three Englishmen
and Mining company on the British
Gold coast, west Africa, Denton being
the dredgemaster and Watson and
Leeder two of his winchmen. On Aug.
17slast a box of personal effects, a re-
volver and 5000 We're stolen from the
white, mems camp at the mines. the
theft being committed while the thres
men were at dinner less than 80 yards
away. sis
JOHNSON THE CULPRIT.
Suspicion fell on. William johnson. IA
black giant employed as farriers at the
camp. who was found to besGmissing
johnson was discovered but after con-
Tossing to the robbery. escaped from his
captors. swan a river and disappeared
in the bush. Johnson was pursued by
a party of negroes. recaptured, and it Is
alleged that he made fight for liberty
and was badly beaten. No white man
was present at the capture. When he
was brought in the negro - promised
I Watson from whom the money had been
stolen that he would lead the white
men the next morning TO the place
where, he said, he had cached" the
stolen booty. After he had taken them
a long distance from the, camp John
son halted suddenly and pointing to the
ground declared that if they would
dig there they would unearth all the,
booty. Eaborious digging. however
big bull-frog. johnson was taken
( to AKIN and tried by.Justice g. K. T.
Purcell. one of the puisne judges at the
Gold coast. Although it was proved
that johnson, in addition to having
committed the robbery complained Of
was an escaped convict he was let off.
with one days imprisonment.
WHITE MEN ARRESTED.
Immediately afterwards Denton. who
had been witness for the prosecution.
and Watson and Leeder, We're charged
with brutal assault on the negro.5s.The
warrant for his arrest found Leeder go
miles or more from Sekondi, Where the
trial was to take place. Lceder had
to be taken over 90 miles up the river
In an open canoe, with the rain coming
down in torrents all the time. When
he arrived at Sekondi prison, he was
lodged ina cell which had been vacated
by a Frenchman who had died OF