Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-21
Associated Pressl

CAIRO, ILL.,, Feb. 20.-Police officers
are searching the city tonight for a
negro suspected of purse snatching,
and another clash between authorities
and citizens is feared if the man is
captured.
Feeling is still running high against
the negroes and intensity was added
to the sentiment this afternoon when
negroes, it is charged, made insult
ing gestures at persons in the, funeral
procession which was following the
body of Alexander Halliday, killed
Thursday night in an attack on the
Jail.
Nearly 900 persons attended Halli-
days funeral and accompanied the
body to Mounds, ILL.,, in special
train. AS the train was passing
through the negro district of Cairo
negroes collected on the streets to
watch it's passage. At Thirty-first
street, members of the funeral party
say an insulting demonstration was
= made.
An effort was made to organize
party on the train on the return trip
to Cairo to wreak vengeance on the
negroes, but no disturbance resulted
An unidentified man created a dis
turbance at the cemetery by demand
ing permission to make a speech over
the grave, but he was hurried away.
He said he was a friend of Halliday
and that he had been run out of town
by the police
Lynching Is Imminent
The negro the police are after to-
night is believed to have been asso-
ciated with John Pratt, the negro who
escaped lynching when Sheriff Nellis
defended the jail If the negro is
pnnQhf effort ha tn 10 Ia
him from the police before the militia
has an opportunity to interfere.
The militia continued to patrol the
streets tonight. Several small crowds
were dispersed, but no demonstration
of Importance took place.
The bitterness of feeling against the
negro element is manifested in threats
of future demonstrations. Women are
generally carrying revolvers and urged
by their husbands and male relatives
to shoot to kill if attacked.
The special grand jury which has
been instructed to Investigate the riot
probably will be dissolved tomorrow
when it reconvenes. Judge William
Butler. who instructed the jury, con-
ferred with Sheriff Nellis today, and
later announced he would decide
whether a new jury is necessary.
There are four negroes on the jury
Sheriff's House Guarded
The home of Sheriff Nellis is guarded
by the militia, and he is given mill
tary escort when he leaves the court
house. Popular feeling is against him
for using negroes as deputies and all
lowing Halliday's body to lie in front
of the Jail for three hours.
Adjt Gen. Dickson, Governor De-
neen's personal representative, said
this afternoon that Sheriff Nellis was
not ordered by the governor to leave
Halliday's body lying on the ground
until the militia arrived.
Mrs. Nellis, wife of the sheriff, coll
lapsed this afternoon under the strain.
She is one of the women who are car
rying revolvers.
Preachers in their pulpits for the
most part today united in urging the
citizens to support the law. The Rev.
Frank Thompson of the First Chris
tian church said in part:
mo American whose heart is filled
with passion for the commonwealth
can approve mob law, yet things have
occurred in Cairo which, If they had
not moved Cairo's brave men to deeds
daring and desperate deeds-and
Cairos fair women to tears, would
have lowered them to the level of the
unfeeling OK which calmly feeds as
his comrades suffer or die"