The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-13

confusing the d%istraught widow.
Three men swore to an alibi. The
accused We're acquitted, amidst cheers.
The actual murderers, whoever
they are, nave never been punished.
The governor offered. a reward. The
Rurley Society of the county denied
any connection With the outrage.
Subsequently the s~torehouses and
barns of Henry Bennett were burned
by masked men, after they had beaten
agreed to DIN them. The farmers
and toushs next called at Benefits
home. Mrs. Bennett opened the
door to tell them that her husband
was not in. Three of her ~neighbOrs,
with masks. of old calico, roughly
seized her, whereupon Bennett him
self appeared. Remonstrances were
useless. While his wife was still held,
he vas dragged to some woods near
by, barred to the waist, and tied to 2
tree. Two men dashed him with
thorny branches until they were eX-
haussed. Then two more men car
=ried on h work. The bleeding
victim was finally left lying in an in
animate heap. Mrs. Bennett found
him. and in ten days she nursed~ him
back from death. Benne had been
warned by a communication signed
Mite Riders
In the Blue Grass region no one
who was not an Equity man seemed
to be exempt. Even the merchants
and bankers of the towns were black
mailed and threatened until they
Joined the movement. Tobacco buy
ers received particular attention. One
in F~lemingsburg was notified that he
must either agree not to buy except
from the Equity pool or be burned
out. Officials and prominent citizens
urged him to sign, lest the town be
rai6ad Tho man hired his own
guards to protect his warehouse. At
the end of the season he sold out and
went to Missouri. A buyer in Mays
vile was likewise warned, and urged
by the town officials to. leave town.
The man stayed, at his own risk.
Buyers everywhere We're met By
masked men. and the surrender Of
their contracts with growers was de-
manded, under penalty of death.
The American Tobacco Company
withdrew most of its buyers. q
pendent buyers generally did the same.
One buyer who held out was stabbed
while assisting a neighbor whose barn
had been fired.
Terror, pure and simple, spread over
1.-THE mt A newspaper summary
of the outrages in the State for three
| months filled four columns, set solid
in. small type. Most eloquent OF all
was q Woman's plea to the governor,
81 SAiAAA ~ $500
A portion follows:
Governor Wilson fer the poor
wimons and littel children sake fer
god sake help us a Mob a Mob Kind
friend%I hope you will helpe us.
Then it ran into incoherence-"a
Mob q Mob. The, tragic words were
repeated again.
! The pen of no writer has ever made
a sob OF agony SO real for me as those
two words. written with q shaking
hand, and repeated in that way.
Neither could any Word-painting Of a
| Saul in terror be mod Vivid than the
! picture Of this poor woman taking
| form and feature. and und.~a as l
! read her palsied ScraWl. No literature
could be more tragic than her litter
acy. In her letter h gave the names
/ of some in the mob. She lived in
Bracken county.
Everywhere the farmers, those try
ing to grow tobacco, organized as
we'll as they could for defense. Their
houses became They bCught
skyrockets and agreed On signals. The
old frontier days when settlers lived
in hourly dread of Indian massacre
seemed to haye returned. Now
listen:
On the night of March IS. three
hundred men surrounded the house Of
Mrs. Il. S. Montgomery near Mt.
J Oliyet, in Robertson county AT the
first alarm Mrs. Montgomery sprans
up and aroused her children. She
told them to- shoot the first man who
appeared at the door. She placed the
youngest child, with al apron full OF
cartridges, near her to keep her sup
piled. Then she called out to the
besiegers at the adoorInot Indians,
but +Kentuckians-that the first to
enter would die. None entered. In
stead they fiji ed with shotguns into
every window of the<house, narrowly
missing some Of the children. They
then raided on into less resistant
neighborhoods.
In Galloway county, during one