The Sentinel=record., 1909-11-13

While the local authorities had pre-. yiously declared that the evidence against "Froggy" James was purely circumstantial, today they laid stress upon new evidence of his gnit The work of the blcodhounds which traced the negros movements had been cor. roborated by several witnesses, they declared They asserted the gag used on the girl had been identified as one of James handkerchiefs.
 The only ground for holding Alexan- der was declared fo be the alleged dying confession of James.
 The police searched for the missing money. handbag and bracelets of the murdered girl. They found nothing.
 Blame for the riot conditions is penersllv ascribed by the officials to an inadequate police force and the fact that many men accused of felon- fes have been acquitted on trial here. Idesnite seemingly strong evidence ag5irrt them.
 "A whole regiment of soldiers o7uld not have stopped the wrok of last nights mob" declared Mayor Parsons. and Sheriff Davis echoed this sentiment. adding:
 There would have been wholesale bloodshed had soldiers been here last night"
 The sheriff. after detailing his wan derings in the woods, told of leaving James with a deputy. while he went Q Knrnak to get food.
 "The postmaster at Karnak. also t.aaffrt,fyf1 D fs said Mr Davis, therefore, we made deiour about the town and walked east five miles to Belknap and struek through the woods. until the water drcve us fo the railroad track. We entered "a house to rest, but we were warned by citizen of Belknap that crowd had left Caiio to intercept us. So We took to the country again, walking against cornfelds for a cou. pie of miles and then sitting down upon log 10 await nightfall under cover of which we had hoped to reach Metropolis, twelve miles east.
 The whistling of the train warned us that the crowd had reached Bel- krap We lay down in some tall weeds to conceal ourselves, but in q few minutes, two scouting parties passed us. one of whom was the Kar- Hak postmaster. carrying a gun. The next party espied us
 T told men that James was in my official custody, but the man on the s mnip fired several shots in the air land the crowd began to gather. One 'cf the party was Nm Logan of Cairo. 1 .,s,,astaiad tc ,.,,, s,, coo sfat mn vio. lence was committed.
 fsFIe aSsmed me that all they asked was that James be taken back to Cairo ard given speedy trial [ promised them that this was to be done and they then stal,ed us toward the train.
 Someone had set fire to the vacant hruse in which we had taken refuge and as we passed it there were cries of burn him
 While waiting for the train south was asked to pick six men to ques. tion James. This committee received nc answer from James, except not guilty
 "In the train seated myself be- side the prisoner but as we approach ed Tenth street in Cairo some one threw rope around his neck. l at once took it off and was then struck several blows by members of the par. ty Others dragged James from the train, several members of the mob pushing nHe to one side. I heard no confession from James and nothing 10 indic9te he had implicated Alex ander in the tragedy"
 The entire Fourth regiment of the Illinois National Guard was on duty tonight Besides the two companies that accompanied Alexander north. there were nine commands in the city. Headquarters we're established in the armcrv, the companies erecting pup" tents in the court house yard.
 Local politics wgls generally blam. ed for failure of the courts to convict and in some instances there were o,- en charges that the reace officers had long been lax in their activities.
 Mayor Parsons rsserted that it had heen q strain on the city's finances to fmppcrt it's police force Of fourteen men and two officers end that the po- lice fad not received the support of the public opinion that thev deserved.
 He instanced a case in which po- licenan had been killed by man he was qt' enrtine to arrest. vet the slav- c- had se@aaned punishment He ae- lnowledeed that rolitics he'd played a part in many cases.